Arsenal: Crucial Season For The Gunners

After the Invincibles season of 2003-04, Arsenal have been a shadow of themselves. It has been a difficult three seasons for Arsenal fans as we've had to endure watching our team lose (with a considerable amount of bad luck) in the Champions League final, lose in a Carling Cup final and last season was well, the biggest heart break of them all.

But this is the season where Arsene Wenger and Arsenal will have to win something—be it the Carling Cup, the FA Cup, or more preferably the Champions League or the Premier League.

After losing Alexander Hleb, Gilberto Silva, and Mathieu Flamini, many would be asking—can Arsenal sustain a title challenge?

I think the answer to that is Arsenal can. The only thing that nobody can predict is when injuries will arrive, when the players would get suspended, and so on. Arsenal, over the past couple of seasons have had pretty awful luck with injuries to key players coming at inopportune times.

It can be argued that Arsenal don't have the squad depth of Chelsea, but Manchester United didn't have the "deepest" of squads and were able to do a double last year. It's about keeping your cool when the going gets tough. That's where Arsenal faltered last season.

Like any other season, this year's success or failure will be determined by the start that Arsenal have. Arsenal cannot afford to lose the first six to seven games in the Premier League and such a start will provide the confidence and the momentum to carry forward throughout the season. The start to a season cannot be underestimated in any way, especially with the quality of the top-four improving year-on-year.

Arsenal have signed Samir Nasri and Aaron Ramsey but many people forget that Carlos Vela has also bolstered the squad. Theo Walcott has a lot to prove and with Arsene Wenger having indicated a more prominent role for the 19-year-old, we can expect better performances from him.

Nasri will provide goals from midfield, something that Hleb could never do. If Arsenal get Tomas Rosicky back relatively quickly, and more importantly, keep him fit, he can also contribute towards the goals from midfield.

Wenger has also suggested that he will bring in an experienced midfielder to partner Cesc Fabregas, so one can expect the likes of Abou Diaby and Denilson Neves to be squad players yet again this season.

Ramsey will most probably be used in the Carling Cup games. His lack of experience at the top-flight might be a deterrent for Wenger to pick him from the start but as the season progresses, we can see him getting more involved.

Arsenal will have a difficult season without a doubt, but everybody wrote us off at the beginning of last season and it's not as if anybody expects anything great from us this season either.

The pressure of expectation will always be there at Arsenal, but I think that this team will cope with it better than last season due to the disappointments experienced on all fronts in the last campaign.

Realistically, I see Arsenal challenging for the title but the question still remains whether we can last the marathon—and that is something which nobody can definitively answer.

With respect to the Carling Cup and F.A. Cup, I think that Arsenal will fare very well - the F.A. Cup represents a fabulous opportunity for winning a trophy. As far as the Champions League is concerned, all I can say is that getting to the knock-out stages is imperative but beyond that, making any predictions as of now, is impossible.

All in all, I feel that winning some silverware this season will be imperative and can be perceived as success because today, winning is everything.

And it is now time for Arsenal to win some trophies.