Arsenal 2008-2009 Preview

Its surprising to read many articles on the experts views of the upcoming season for the Gunners. These so called "experts" are predicting a dropout of the top four again.

Don't they know that any Arsene Wenger team will compete, where have they been for the past ten years, right in the thick of it with a mainly inexperienced squad.

The only difference between the Championship winning teams and the current squad is the inexperience. But as Arsenal fans know Arsene Wenger is rarely wrong and hardly ever delivers a squad that isn't competitive.

Enough arguments and theories I wanted to preview the Gunners squad this year and take a look at what might be the starting eleven in a few situations.

Many fans want to see the likes of Wilshere and Ramsey involved from the beginning but like with Walcott, Wenger is likely to wait it out with both of them even though they have both impressed this pre season.

Then people discuss the departures of Hleb and Flamini, although they may have been important players to the squad Wenger must know that they don't mean everything to the team or else he would have tried harder to keep them.

Hleb has been replaced with Nasri or perhaps the new(er) signing Bischoff while Flamini could be replaced with either Diaby, Ramsey, Song or even Bischoff.

It also appears that Arsene Wenger is done with transfers saying that Bischoff would be the last. It has appeared that the midfield will become even stronger with all the additions to it.

The attack will be strong again with Robin Van Persie and Adebayor who is most likely to stay now. With Walcott, Vela, Bendtner and Eduardo who will be coming back in mid to late September, their is plenty of depth in that area of the side.

Then comes arguably the biggest question mark in the squad, the defence. Potentially this defence could be one of the strongest back fours since the famous back four of Adams, Winterburn, Bould and Dixon. The wing backs Clichy and Sagna have proved their worth and it will be interesting to see how Toure and Gallas mold this campaign after a rough second half of the season defensively.

Another key factor are the injury situations. Eduardo and Rosicky are the two lone players unable to perform at the moment yet last season many more injuries played a toll on the depth of the squad.

Now that the players have gained more experience it is possible for a player to get injured and have someone replace him.

Now we look ahead to what we might see on the field for the upcoming Champions League qualifying as well as the start of the Premier League.

GK:Almunia (Fabianski)

RB:Sagna (Hoyte) CB:Toure (Senderos) CB:Gallas[C] (Djourou) LB:Gaël Clichy (Traore)

RM:Eboue (Walcott) M:Diaby (Denilson) M:Fabregas (Ramsey) LM:Nasri (Vela)

ST:Robin Van Persie (Bendtner) ST:Adebayor (Walcott)

Subs:Walcott, Bendtner, Senderos, Denilson, Vela, Ramsey, Fabianski

And since Wenger can use Walcott as a winger or up front striker he can give him another spot on the bench especially now that the subs allowed has been upped from five to seven.

Look for the squad to get much more competitive once Rosicky, Song and Eduardo return. Also once Rosicky returns look for Wenger to experiment with Tomas and Nasri in a more central role alongside Fabregas, and also look for a possible sale of Adebayor in January if Eduardo takes his place when he returns to 100% goalscoring form.

Whatever is in stake for Arsenal this year look for them come May and also for them to continue their attacking and free flowing gameplay. And one last thing, expect more goals from all across the field.