Why Danny Welbeck Is the Arsenal Player with Most to Prove in Pre-Season

It’s the time of year when football supporters are mentally constructing their ideal XIs for the season ahead, with new signings, exciting youngsters and established stars all being discussed and shuffled around into various formations.

Where Arsenal are concerned, there might be some fans who are considering an XI that includes a new goalkeeper, perhaps an addition in defence or a new face up front, but barely any of them will write the name of Danny Welbeck on their teamsheet.

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Almost a year on from his move south from Manchester United, is Welbeck any closer to becoming the established centre-forward that he craves to be?

Strangely, the answer is probably yes on the international stage.

Up until a late three-goal burst from Poland’s Robert Lewandowski in last Saturday’s 4-0 win over Georgia, England’s Welbeck was the top scorer in Euro 2016 qualification—as he made the most of his nation’s fairly simple group and the frequent injury absences of Daniel Sturridge to score six goals.

But as the likes of Tottenham’s Andros Townsend have proved, you don’t need to be in good club form to impress for England these days. When Roy Hodgson and his team’s final match of the season came around—last Sunday’s 3-2 win over Slovenia—Welbeck was conspicuous by his absence anyway, as he was for Arsenal’s FA Cup final win two weeks earlier and for far too much of his debut season as a Gunners player.

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The injury-monitoring website PhysioRoom.com calculates that Welbeck had seven different injury absences during his first campaign at the Emirates Stadium, while Soccerbase.com can tell you he last completed 90 minutes for the Gunners in the Premier League in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield shortly before Christmas.

It all seems a far cry from his optimism-fuelled early days in north London, when he spoke of his joy at being at the club and his hopes of making the most of the chances that would be afforded to him by Arsenal’s extremely talented midfield.

There were some high points, of course, such as the Champions League hat-trick—his first as a professional—at home to Galatasaray and the winning goal in the FA Cup quarter-final on his first return to Old Trafford after leaving Manchester United.

That is his only Gunners strike of 2015, though, and as the season ticked to a close, there was very much a feeling of “out of sight, out of mind” about Welbeck, who was poor on his last start for the club in the FA Cup semi-final win over Reading and eventually replaced by Olivier Giroud in the 72nd minute.

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It will pain him more than any injury, but Welbeck doesn’t really seem to be part of the conversation when Arsenal fans discuss their striking options for the new season—namely Giroud, Theo Walcott or an unnamed but costly addition—and there is a real sense that he is falling back into the status that saw him overlooked and underused at United.

With that in mind, Welbeck simply has to get in shape for the 2015/16 season and impress Arsene Wenger from day one of pre-season training.

There is undoubtedly talent in the 24-year-old’s boots, but he is now entering a period of his career when that talent has to flourish or it risks being lost forever.

Perhaps Welbeck is always destined to be a small fish in a big pond as he was at United and as he is among the likes of Giroud, Walcott, Alexis Sanchez and more at Arsenal, but hopefully he doesn’t fade away into the darkness—or the mid-table wilderness on loan—without a fight.

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The forward’s style of play inspires a kind of warmth and well-wishing that means many want him to succeed, but that won’t be enough if he doesn’t take his chances and doesn’t get out on to the pitch more often than not.

Start pre-season well, impress Wenger, score a few goals and, most importantly, stay fit, and there is every reason to believe there is a way back into those ideal XIs for Welbeck, who might just be about to enter the most important season of his football career.