All Talk, No Actions Leading Up To Arsenal's Season

It's been a long holiday for club football. But I must confess that World Cup years are the best years of my life! There is never a dull moment!

The season ends in the middle of May and then the internationals kick in first with friendlies and then the World Cup proper for a whole month, after which we have preseason friendlies, and before you know it, the season is in your face again.

Well this season is just a little over sixty hours away and lovers of football are rubbing their hands more in expectancy than in excitement.

I wrote a piece close to the end of last season when Arsenal were scraping wins in the dying minutes of games and the manager came out to say there was belief in the squad that could land them the league. In the piece I asked a question; can this belief win the league? Well the answer is not far fetched as Arsenal imploded (as they have always done) with a few games to go. It is also worthy to note that at different times when all they needed to do was to keep a lead, no disrespect to Wigan and Blackburn, they slipped up and lost to teams that they really didn't even need a first team to beat.

So when the gaffer comes up with another story of belief in the eve of a new season, you are left wondering what he is really all about.

What really cost Arsenal the title last season and four seasons before then? Lack of strength in depth! The coach always comes out at the end of the season and talks about bringing in new faces to add strength to the team, but all he does is bring in one or two players and promotes some academy kids. Sometimes I really wonder what he means when he goes on about belief.

Wenger has himself lamented the month of November as his worst in recent seasons. At some stage last season, Arsenal had nine senior players out to injury or some form of ailment. Arsenal players are more prone to injuries than any other team in the league because of their style of play, which attracts hard tackles to get the ball from them. That requires a coach to always have at least four extra established players because they will always get game time.

Wenger had at the end of last season, identified the defence as the cause of worry, and we all expected him to have concluded the business of dealing with that problem, but all he has done is get a player who was playing in the second division of the French league two seasons ago. The goal keepers cost the team at least 12 points between them last season and that for me is major cause of worry. If Arsenal had better keepers last season, they would have had the league with games to spare. Wenger has not done anything to address that department yet. All we see is press talk which he neither denies nor confirms.

Well we shall give him the benefit of doubt and wait until the last minute of the transfer window before we can judge.

The way it is, getting a strong center back and decent goal keeper is what will give the team the needed belief. Without that, Wenger himself knows that the present team cannot last the pace.

The Emirates Cup has come and gone and Arsenal has won it for the third time in four years. But it was typical Arsenal once again. The way both games went, exemplifies Arsenal seasons in the last five years. In the game against AC Milan, we had the game in our hands and were leading by a lone goal, only to let in them back in the game in the end. Also the game against Celtic was no different. i know it was a preseason game and there were players absent, but we could have done better. It also shows that we need more depth in the team.

On a sweet note, we are keeping Cesc Fabregas for another year and we have Jack Wilshere and Frimpong coming through and they will be fighting for places in the first team this season. Let's hope they will be able to add to the depth we really need.

Finally, talking about belief has not helped and will not help this season. Wenger needs to fix the problems and add depth to the squad. Then the team will be able to carry the momentum from the beginning of the season until the end.

See you at Anfield on Sunday.