Lucky Number Eight: What REALLY Needs To Arrive at Arsenal Next Season

It’s over. Again. For the second time in three seasons, Arsenal have come agonizingly close to winning the Premiership title, only for their season to be cruelly undone by largely external forces such as refereeing decisions and injuries, as well as the internal force of managerial stubbornness.

Many pundits are blaming the usual lack of experience, depth, and "star" players, while, as ever, fans who worshipped Arsene Wenger one week are now calling for someone new to be brought in.

However, in Arsenal’s starting 11 of Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Fabregas, Diaby, Nasri, van Persie and Arshavin, you have four players 27 or above, four players who have won an European league title, and seven who have won their domestic cups.

Therefore, I doubt lack of experience is an issue. Even though Arsenal may not boast Chelsea and Man Utd’s pedigree, I believe that the players above, as well as Sol Campbell, Mikael Silvestre and Tomas Rosicky, boast enough experience to carry a team.

Meanwhile, this team has a reserve consisting of Walcott, Rosicky, Campbell, Bendtner, Denilson, Eboue, Silvestre, Fabianski, Gibbs, Mannone, Djourou, Traore, Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela and Eduardo. Although some of these players have their critics, namely Bendtner, Denilson, Silvestre, and Fabianski, you only need to look at their counterparts of Sturridge, Berbatov, Ferreira, Wes Brown, and Hilario to realize that Arsenal’s strength in depth is more than respectable.

Indeed, going into last nights match Arsenal were missing Gallas, Vermaelen, Song, Diaby, van Persie and Arshavin for the majority— if not all— of the match, yet still managed to dominate possession against a team that often uses attacking flair themselves.

In the end, Arsenal was undone by a wonder-goal and a defensive lapse (hardly surprising considering their best defenders were out).

In context, defeat last night was devastating; had the game carried less weight, however, many Arsenal fans could be more level-headed in addressing the situation.

So, what needs to arrive at Arsenal next season? Here I will evaluate various forces which, at the Emirates next season, will surely carry Arsenal to glory.

1)      A New Physio

For those of you who don’t know, Arsenal’s chief physio throughout the Wenger era until 2008 was Gary Lewin. He is widely regarded as the best physio in the country and was often seen helping opposition players when their own physios lacked the expertise; he is credited as saving John Terry’s life during a match against Arsenal in 2007.

He now works exclusively with England’s national team. During his time at Arsenal, the squad was almost never stretched with injury problems, and even the "Invinclibles" had a fairly poor bench compared to the one they have now.

His last season was 2007-08, when basically none of Arsenal’s starting 11 were ever injured, except for van Persie, but his injury was picked up on international duty. Since then, under Gary’s nephew, Colin, these last two seasons have been catastrophic in terms of injuries, with basically every player in the team having to spend some kind of time on the sidelines.

Indeed, if you check for yourself, you will see that EVERY player in Arsenal’s starting 11, as well as a few on the bench, have spent at least one month sidelined this season.

Meanwhile, players like Lampard, Rooney, Drogba, Fletcher and Terry have been fully fit pretty much all season. Can you imagine if Chelsea had come up against Tottenham without Terry, Carvalho, Mikel, Lampard, Malouda and Drogba (as I believe these to be the counterparts to Arsenal’s missing players).

Heck, Man Utd is looking like a Europa League team just without Rooney! There are a few injuries that Colin Lewin could do little about, such as the fractured legs of Ramsey and Nasri, but surely he should have known not to play Fabregas and Gallas against Barcelona, or not to keep giving Walcott the "all-clear" when all is not clear, clearly.

This was also the man who supported van Persie’s ridiculous decision to rub horse placenta into a torn ligament, which only succeeded in turning a six-week injury into a five-month injury. The list goes on but you get the point.

I would recommend bringing in Birmingham City’s physio, who is responsible for helping the team break records for most consecutive games with an unchanged starting 11.

2)      More Long-Shots

I believe that the main difference between Arsenal and its title rivals this season has been that Arsenal need to deserve to win games to get a result, whilst Chelsea and Man Utd have not. This is NOT a dig at either of those two teams, as often the sign of a good team is undeservedly winning.

They say that you can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket, so clearly Arsenal’s frugality extends beyond the transfer window. I would love to see Arsenal attempting more long shots, such as Rose’s last night, or speculative efforts such as Drogba’s against Hull.

Denilson scored against Everton (twice), Standard Liege, Stoke and West Ham with long-range efforts, whilst his effort against Hull contributed greatly to Bendtner’s winner. There are far better strikers of the ball than Denilson at Arsenal, so why not utilize this weapon.

One of Man Utd’s top scorers this season is the own-goal, which usually results from a player rifling the ball from outside the box into a crowded area and hoping for a deflection. Arsenal simply CANNOT work the ball into the box against everyone, so a different route is needed. Even Barcelona take the odd long-ranger via Messi or Keita.

3)      More Movement Inside the Box

Sometimes Arsenal’s movement is breathtaking as they sweep teams apart, examples include AZ Alkmaar, Blackburn, Everton and Porto this season. However, far too often they are static in the box.

Arsenal work the ball in and around the area and then too many players stand still. Indeed, I believe that calling Walcott’s crossing "poor" is really harsh, seeing as his balls often fly across the six-yard box with no one taking a gamble and getting on the end of them.

When we played Spurs in October, all three goals came from simply running quickly (needless to say, both of our scores that day were absent when we fell behind yesterday). Almost all of Rooney’s goals this season have come from "Wazza" making darting runs in the box. When we beat Man Utd last season, I was shocked at how the best defence in Europe at the time was undone by Walcott making an easy decoy run, whereby Ferdinand and Vidic chased him, leaving Nasri clear space to shoot.

4)      People Who Enjoy Defending

By all accounts, Thomas Vermaelen has been a revelation this season. However, too often Arsenal have been caught short at the back due to both Gallas and the Vermenator attacking.

Top teams like Barcelona, Man Utd and Chelsea can, will, and DID exploit this when we played them. Is it so much to ask for a no-nonsense defender who simply stays back, heads, and hoofs balls clear?

Sol Campbell has looked an astute signing for these reasons, and he’s not even one of the best available. I would like Arsenal to buy a true defending defender to partner Vermaelen, as him and Gallas are simply too similar. This is not exactly hard, given that Aston Villa and Birmingham’s defenses have only been assembled in the last few seasons and they are already some of the best in the league.

5)      Better Luck with Referees

Football is excruciatingly difficult to enjoy at this stage of the season, as the officiating seems to deteriorate beyond belief. All of the recent big games have had some sort of terrible decision, such as Rafael’s sending off, Terry only getting a yellow for his tackle on Milner, Aston Villa not getting a penalty against Chelsea with the scores at 0-0, Bolton being denied two clear penalties against Chelsea, Drogba not being called offside against Man Utd, Valencia’s penalty against Liverpool, and, I’ll admit it, Henry’s sending off at the Emirates (to name a few).

However, it seems Arsenal have been hit worse than most. All fans agree that Arsenal play most of the game in the opposition’s box, yet we have had fewer penalties than almost every team this season— including Burnley!

Meanwhile, fewer players have been sent off against Arsenal than man Utd or Chelsea. In Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with West Ham, the Hammers got their goals from a set-piece and a penalty, neither of which resulted from fouls. The same happened in the return at the Emirates, where the referee pointed to the spot, even though Vermaelen committed a foul outside the box. A carbon-copy was Graham Alexander’s penalty in our 1-1 draw with Burnley.

As for at the other end of the pitch, we must look no further than Darren Fletcher’s horrid tackle on Arshavin, which didn’t result in a penalty, to see that sometimes decisions are truly scandalous.

P.S: I know Chelsea was hard done by against Barcelona but I’m referring to this season alone.

6)      A Proper Right-Winger

I still have my doubts about Theo Walcott, in that he seems to completely go missing whenever he is a little tired or the left-back stays back. In fact, I actually see him as more of a defensive player to have, in that his presence prevents opposition defenders from joining the attack.

As for Samir Nasri, he is adequate on the right but his best games have come from the centre of midfield, such as his virtuoso performance against Porto. I would have loved for Adam Johnson to come to the Emirates, as he is an orthodox tricky winger who can also cut inside and shoot, but I doubt he’ll be switching from Etihad to Emirates any time soon.

Arsenal could pick up Shaun Wright-Phillips, who I think would add some zest to the right side and is struggling to get games thanks to the aforementioned Johnson.

7)      A New Goalkeeper

We all saw it coming. Against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, I kept thinking to myself "We’d be winning if the teams swapped keepers."

Of all the top teams in the Premiership (let alone Europe) Arsenal have by far the worst goalkeeper in Manuel Almunia, a man who was brought in as cover to Jens Lehmann (who wasn’t exactly the world’s best himself).

Almunia is an excellent backup, as he rarely commits howlers and is decent at saving penalties. However, the poor lad just ain’t got the talent to pull off match winning saves, meaning that if there is a defensive lapse Arsenal are sure to concede a goal, whereas Reina, Cech, van Der Saar, Given, and even Gomes are capable of bailing their teams out half the time.

I believe that a good goalkeeper would add about 10 points onto Arsenal’s tally. The obvious choice would be Lloris, as he is a talented player who is also a Francophone. However, money may be better spent on someone like Sebastien Frey, as he has more experience and will also retire sooner, giving Mannone and Scznezy (spelt wrong, I know) a chance to play, too.

8)      Quicker Reactions from Arsene Wenger

When Chelsea lost the Champions League Final in 2008, largely due to makeshift right-back Michael Essien not defending against Cristiano Ronaldo for the opening goal, they immediately spent £16.5m on Bosingwa, and a few weeks later, £8m on Deco.

When Man Utd lost Tevez and Ronaldo, they immediately brought in Owen and Valencia, as they had done with Ronaldo after Beckham’s departure.

When Liverpool lost Alonso and Aurelio, Aquilani and Johnson were at the club before the formers could pack their suitcases for Madrid.

Arsene Wenger, however, seems to wait far too long to find the exact right player at the lowest possible price, which allegedly cost him Tevez in 2007, Kaka in 2003 and Ronaldo that same year (the latter he admitted himself). These are just the ones that the papers got hold of, but it would not surprise me if Wenger also balked at the price of Wayne Rooney in 2004 and, given that he was scouting Barcelona in 2003 when Fabregas arrived, I’m sure he was aware of one 15-year-old Lionel Messi.

Even last season, when Arsenal were crying out for creativity after Fabregas’s injury, he spent so long haggling with Zenit St. Petersburg that by the time Arshavin came, Arsenal’s season was at its low point.

Recently, we saw how he could have signed Marouane Chamakh last summer for just £10m, yet only offered £8m and has now had to wait until this summer to get his man. Had Chamakh been purchased, who knows how many extra points we may have gotten whilst Arshavin had to play up front alone.

This lack of affirmative action does not just apply to transfers, but also to substitutions. Last season, Arsenal were clinging on by a thread in the FA cup semi-final against Chelsea, with the score at 1-1. Wenger inexplicably rested Arshavin even though fourth place was secure and he was cup-tied for the upcoming Champions League matches. It was only with 10 minutes to go when Arsenal fell 2-1 behind that he brought on the Russian.

In those 10 minutes Arshavin forced a fine stop from Petr Cech and also forced Alex to clear off the line, which was as much as Arsenal could muster up in 80 minutes without him.

Let's not forget how Mourinho would fall a goal behind, bring on an attacking player immediately, and then re-sub him when the match was under control; or Ferguson, who would rest his star players against "lesser" teams, but not hesitate to bring them on unless Man Utd had a two-goal lead with 20 minutes to go.

You only have to look as far as 24 hours ago to see how good van Persie was when he came on, and you would know that most other managers would have made that substitution a lot sooner.

So There You Have It…

I actually believe that Arsenal have their best team in years at the moment. When you consider that we have had to carry ourselves through the season injury-stricken and still be in with a shout after 34 games, it is something to be proud of.

Also, when you consider that we lost both our games to Chelsea and man Utd, you realize that the way we set up against the rest of the Premiership is better than either of them, as it is only our head-to-head that let us down.

There is no point arguing about it, as there is no right answer, but I think that if we had had the same amount of injuries as Chelsea and Man Utd (or they had had our injuries), I think the league would have been a different story— especially if van Persie had been fit.

I am NOT being biased in favour of Arsenal, as I remember in the 2006-2007 season I actually thought that Chelsea were the best team in the league but for injury problems (I remember watching them having to play Liverpool at Anfield with an Essien-Ferreira centre-back partnership!). With the addition of Marouane Chamakh, plus the arrival of at least some of these eight things, for the first time since 2005 I have genuine belief in Arsenal’s title credentials.

I look forward to your comments.