Arsene Wenger Be Warned, Arsenal Must Not Board the Hype Train

Yesterday, Arsenal dismantled Blackpool at the Emirates Stadium in emphatic fashion, and the Gunners are finally starting to look like a beast for the first time this season.

However, as impressive as it may be, the Arsenal players, along with the Arsenal consortium, must not get carried away, and for many good reasons as well.

If history has taught Arsenal fans anything over the past few years, it's that as the clichéd saying goes, "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." Arsenal are infamous for their egregious late-season collapse that occurs at the end of each EPL season.

Last season, Arsenal were in the thick of things throughout the majority of the campaign, They were genuine title contenders from the start of the campaign until March, where all hell broke loss due to a lack of quality backup players. With the likes of Silvestre and Fabianski filling for the injured players, Arsenal looked fallible for the entirety of the final stretch of the campaign.

After the Gunners thrashed the Tangerines with a scoreline of six goals with no response from Blackpool, the fans and some of the critics and the media started to state how Arsenal look more dangerous this season than the previous one.

However, people must not forget how Arsenal started the 2009-10 EPL season. After starting the campaign with a goal-fest against Everton at Goodison Park, the Gunners looked like a beast. This was followed by victories that were accompanied by no less than an average of three goals per game. The Gunners were cruising.

Sadly though, Fabianski, Silvestre, and the rest of the backup players cost Arsenal dearly with their  mortifying performance and deplorable displays. Losing to the likes of Tottenham, Wigan, and Blackburn, all teams that were thrashed by Arsenal during the beginning of the season, Arsenal lost three out of their last five games in the EPL alone.

The red and white army has been found lacking at the final stretch of each season, and every single time it occurred mainly because of two main reasons.

Injuries and lack of quality players.

During the last three transfer windows, the Arsenal fans have seen more players walk out than come in the Emirates Stadium.

During the 2008-09 transfer season, Hleb, Flamini, and Gilberto Silva left the team, with Lassana Diarra leaving first in the January transfer window. Wenger responded to this by signing two inexperienced yet talented players in the shape of Nasri and Ramsey, and an annoying Mikael Silvestre—who resembles a potato—and later on bought Andrey Arshavin during January 2009.

During the 2009-10 transfer season, Wenger sold Toure and Adebayor to Manchester City, while buying Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax, and as the season went on Arsenal were lacking attackers, midfielders, defenders, and even had their goalkeeper injured. Fabianski was like a pierrot against Porto and Wigan, failing to do the very basics of goalkeeping, such as catching a cross.

Now, we are nearing the end of the 2010-11 transfer season. Gallas, Campbell, Silvestre, Senderos, Eduardo, and a few others are out, while Chamakh and Koscielny are in.

Seeing how Chamakh was a free agent, and Arsenal supposedly had money, Wenger has frustrated the Arsenal faithful yet again thus far for the lack of spending, with the only players the Gunners are being linked with being Schwarzer, who is desperately needed at N5, and Squllaci, who is yet another French defender Arsene Wenger wants to a team that is starting to look like the 21st team in Ligue 1, rather than the 20th team in the EPL.

News on Schwarzer joining the Gunners have been hackneyed as of late, while the Squillaci rumors appeared out of the blue. But it appears that Wenger has riled the Fulham manager, Mark Hughes.  Hughes is accusing the Arsenal manager of unsettling the Australian goalkeeper.

Also, if rumors are to be believed, then Manchester City will refuse to sell Shay Given despite the player no longer being the first choice for the Citizens.

Even if Arsenal do sign both players (Schwarzer and Squillaci), Arsenal are still missing major defensive cover. This was evident in the game against Blackpool as Song was deployed as a defender, while Diaby was filling the defensive midfielder role. Arsenal are lacking in numbers as usual.

The prudent Arsenal manager has less than 10 days to sign the required number of players to fill in the gaps, and that means no less than two defenders and a goalkeeper. And to make things more frustrating, Wenger has always been the deadline day kind of man, making a bid a couple of hours before the transfer window closes.

Despite the bright start against Blackpool, the Arsenal fans must remember that they beat a Blackpool side that just made it to the EPL, and is likely to sink back to the Championship soon enough.

Arsenal might be on the right track, but if Wenger doesn't act quickly, it's going to be deja vu all over again, with the same usual routine: a bright start, a breakthrough for one or two players, followed by injuries and the usual breakdown at the end of each season, and endless rumors of Arsenal players leaving the club.

Arsenal must not board the hype train and take things for what they really are, they've drawn one game and won the other against one of the weakest teams in the EPL, and they are lacking quality in the goalkeeping post and are short on defenders.

The Gunners must face the fact that Arsenal are short in numbers, and must not delude themselves every time they beat the teams in the lower half of the table.

Only if Wenger starts to fix the team's shortcomings, will Arsenal have a chance in winning the EPL this season.