Season Preview

Every big team blog did a season preview yesterday and the Arsenal ones are commenting on Wenger's interview to the Times today, which is very interesting, as well as discussing the new injury news, which I admit is not good. We'll be doing our season preview today with an Everton preview tomorrow. It's a big game no doubt and we'll tackle all the issues.

So here we go, as ever, we'll start at the back. Almunia will again hold his spot at number 1. I always liked him as under study to Jens but haven't been all that pleased with him as our first choice. He's had some very good performances, excellent performances in fact, but they are too few and far between. There are a lot of keepers better than him in our own league and those great performances aside, he's not been all that impressive. He's 31 now and will improve with age I'm sure and I really hope he has a good season, but mistakes like the ones he made against Chelsea the season before last seem to go overlooked and if he continues like that, as opposed to the way he played against Man U in the first semi last season, we won't have much of a chance of winning trophies, no matter how the other boys do.

His understudy is Fabianski, who I do like for a number of reasons, but am worried about for some others. He commands his box well and comes for crosses like a madman, he's brave and strong that way. He sweeps up behind the defense, as he plays a high line and with a defense that plays a not always successful offsides trap, this could be a match winning trait. His shot stopping, however, leaves much to be desired. In the Carling Cup semi against Spurs he let in at least 2 of their goals and we know about that goal he let in the FA Cup against Chelsea. The second goal he let in in that game proves that even his sweeper style needs improvement. He's got a ways to go but when he gets there I think he'll be something, but only if his shot stopping improves enormously.

With the current keeper structure it seems that Almunia will be number 1 until Fabianski can step up, which may take a long time, unless of course Fabianski gets tired of waiting and goes to Wolfsburg or something like that. And so it seems that we're stuck with Almunia until we're unstuck, which means that if you don't like him, (like me), tough titties. Now, I don't mean to put the guy down, I think he's a top class professional and does very well to lead the team, he seems a nice guy, a good guy, a good pro, and he is of course our best keeper, he's just not the class of keeper I'd like to see at our club.

Now, ordinarily I don't think I'd spend much time on the 3rd and 4th choices between the sticks but due to Fabiasnki's 2 month injury, should anything happen to Almunia, who I hope will be locked in a padded cell between games, we'll have to field either Mannone or Sjrktpz09tyu, the 19 year old Pole. Mannone wasn't very impressive at all and I haven't seen Svbcdk76tyulpq play but he's 19 and can't possibly be ready to face Rooney or Drogba or Torres. This may prompt Wenger to make a Mart Poom type of signing, some 50 year old keeper who can deputize for 3 games if need be.

In defense we have some great full backs in Clichy, Sagna and Eboue and some good pushers at left back with Traore and Gibbs. I've said before and I maintain that Eboue will regain his spot at right back at some point this season because of his superiority going forward. Sagna is awesome too and the two are set to have an epic battle for starting right back. Clichy had a poor season last year and still wasn't all that bad. He made some mistakes that were costly and wasn't the force going forward, defending high in the midfield, making timely interceptions and turning defense to attack quicker than anyone in the league, but he was still one of the best in the prem in his position. If Clichy can get back to his best and if he, Sagna and Eboue can get some goals from fullback they'll be the best 1-2 punch fullback combo in England.

Center half seems to be a major weak spot of ours and I think we're all glad to see that Wenger has said he'll be looking for a defender should Senderos leave, which seems to be held up by the transfer, or non transfer, of Jolean Lescott. Should we keep Senderos we may not need to address our worries at center back but if he goes, and I do think he will, we'll hopefully bring someone in and push Silvestre to 5th choice so his games will be limited.

Having said all that, our first choice pair looks like Gallas and Vermaelen. Wenger likes to ease in his new boys and it looked like Djourou would stand in until it was Vermaelen's time but now that he'll be out for 4 weeks Wenger will have to choose between Vermaelen, Silvestre and pulling Song out of midfield. With an injury to Diaby, pulling Song out of midfield doesn't seem an option, so it's a recently injured, brand new Vermaelen or the disaster that is Silvestre. I hope very much it's the former, but something tells me it'll be the fish man. This is exactly the dilemma that has Wenger in the market for a replacement for Senderos.

I've said before that all I've seen of Vermaelen are videos of him scoring goals from corners and winning headers at the back. Knowing Wenger he'll be technically sound and so I do think he'll be good for us, but having to be played straight away may hurt his progress, as if he's not immediately successful the fans and the media will be all over him and Wenger. You have to feel for Djourou, he looks good and this should be the season where he steps in and steps up to become first choice for next season as surely Gallas won't sign a new contract. I do feel that both Djourou and Vermaelen will come through, but if it'll be in time for them to make an impact and help us to success we'll have to wait and see. One thing that is looking good as far as those two go is that we shouldn't be beaten straight down the middle with long balls all that easily any more. Should these guys do what we're all hoping and should big Phil stay or be replaced, I think we'll look strong in our weakest spot.

Speaking of weak spots, central midfield was an obvious problem last season, perhaps our greatest and with 3 candidates, we still look shaky. Song is our obvious first choice and with his progress last year he looks quite good, but is quite good good enough? His tackling is quite good, his passing is OK, his heading alright (stellar considering he's 5'4") and he's not much of a dribbler. If he has continued to progress at the same rate as he did last season I think come the end of this season he'll be very close to being able to compete as one of the leagues best, but again, is that good enough? Behind him are Diaby and Denilson.

It seems that Diaby will be playing along side him in a more advanced role, but he'll be called upon to be a destructive force in there at some point in the season I'm sure. There's no doubt he's capable, he can be a classy player with good skill and pace and good aerial ability, he can tackle too. His passing can be absolutely inexcusable at times and it seems that's his major downfall and at times the downfall of the team. Of course his record with injuries isn't good either with a broken leg followed by a series of niggling injuries never allowing him to have a run in the side. He has a chance this season to play in his preferred position and should he perform he'll be able to keep his place and maybe turn into the player Wenger signed him to be. Should he not do it this season then I don't see a future for him at the club.

Denilson is the interception master, making more of them than anyone else in the premiership last season. He is an efficient passer and rarely gives away possession, his inventive passing isn't bad either, but you do get the sense that he's too cautious that way at times. His tackling is subtle but decent and he can be a fantastic dribbler, despite his lack of pace. Where he falls short (get it) is that he's a tiny, little man. He can't be much taller than 5'5" and hardly ever wins a header and while he surely doesn't way much more than a bag of flour he can get thrown about. I very much like Denilson and his stats are good, we win more with him on the pitch and as I said before his passing accuracy and interception rate are second to none. He'll be very good coming off the bench this season and should progress well, Wenger needs to solidify his role in the midfield a bit better, as he's something between a Gilberto and a Cesc, perhaps with their combine intelligent as he's clearly a very clever player.

Cesc doesn't need much talking about as he's Cesc Fabregas, our main man, our captain, our world class heart beat. Cesc wasn't in great form last season before his injury but going into that spell he had played around 300 games between us and Spain and at 21 that's a whole lot to take on. His spell on the sidelines, a small summer holiday and some very entertaining games in the Confederations Cup and a fine pre season should put him back on track and we should expect a good season from him I'd say.

Cesc's stand in will probably be Ramsey until Nasri and Rosicky recover and at that point there'll probably be some rotation in the middle three. Ramsey looked good at times last season when he was played wide, his good dribbling and willingness to go at defenses was very promising, but he was unfortunately not so good looking in the middle. With two others around him for support and another year under his belt he should be better suited. Nasri and Rosicky will be in there too when their fit and we should look for some good work from them, Nasri at least, this season may be a ginger one for Rosicky who may by the end of the season be playing regularly, or may not. Nasri, before he came here, was just about the most promising young player in France with some terrific performances, he was an outrageous dribbler trying on all the tricks and scoring some great goals too. We've seen that he's capable of scoring goals and is a good physical presence despite his size, this could be his season if he comes back from injury to good effect and displaces Diaby in the middle.

Wilshere may also see some time in the middle, but I see him as part of the front 3 when he comes on. Now, if we can get 30 goals from midfield between the 5 regulars who are likely to be there, it should go a long way to getting us some much needed points and an even more needed trophy. Diaby can score when he's playing, we've seen some great goals from him. Nasri can score too and perhaps with a more central role he'll be able to add to his tally. We'll need Cesc to recapture the form and style that saw him score 10 goals the season before last. Song will have to put in a couple, as will Rosicky and Ramsey. We no longer have wingers regularly scoring 12 goals and up so it's all on these guys.

Up front we're stocked to the ceiling. Our starting 3 looks like Bendtner, RvP and Arshavin. RvP spent less time on the bench last season than ever before and scored a decent 20 goals, I think we all hope for a similar season from him, maybe one with a few more goals. Wenger has called on him to be more head strong and lead the team and with a leading role at the club we may see van Persie transform into Super van Persie. Let's hope.

Bendtner had a good season last year, proving the boo boys wrong with some well timed goals and decent performances. He scored 15 goals last season and was joint second top scorer. This says a few things to me. One is that we need to score more goals and we need more goals from our forwards, our second top scorer should be getting more goals than 15 out of 59 appearances and with the missed chances Bendtner had last season I think we can expect it. He'll be played wide, which I don't think is a position that'll suit him and maybe this'll hamper his goal getting.

Arshavin, we've seen is world class and can score with both feet from anywhere. He can bring the ball forward from midfield and really dribble. He'll always work for a goal and I think he may be our top scorer should he stay fit.

Speaking of top scorer, Eduardo could do the job if he can get regular games and fully recover from his injury and follow up injuries. He's a fine finisher, we've all seen that, you give him 2 chances he's liable to score 3 goals and let's hope we'll see that form. He's got pace and can play across the front 3 and will be used as utility front man. Let's hope we can get the best out of him this season and he'll chip in with 20 plus goals.

Theo Walcott will play a big part this season too and his pace and dribbling will serve us well and with a World Cup coming up he should be eager to impress. We've seen that his finishing can be excellent and he's a great set up man, with his ability to hit teams on the break by speeding past all 10 players and passing it across the 6 yard line to a thankful forward. This type of play will help us kill games that other teams are chasing should we be under pressure.

Waiting in the wings will be Vela and Wilshere. We've all seen their class and they should be able to come on to good effect when needed. Wilshere of course will be used cautiously in order to help the boy develop. Vela wasn't involved much in pre season, but he had a fine showing at the Gold Cup in America where he was Mexico's best player in the tournament and I really hope he can climb the pecking order and get some more games in as I really feel he has the potential to be something world class given the chance. Van Persie and Eduardo are ahead of him in the general order but he's also behind in the tricky left footer department. I hope he can get in and get some goals and prove himself.

We've got games thick and fast right from the offset and we need to get through the early part of the season in a good position with the Champions' League qualifiers and stiff opposition in the prem. At the moment we have 6 injuries, two of which are miniscule and will be a matter of days, Diaby may even play tomorrow. 3 are lengthy and 2 not too bad. That's a nice spread and the season hasn't even begun. Let's hope for swift recoveries and no new injuries.

We'll need to take points from games this season where we dropped them last season. Fulham, Stoke, Spurs, Villa, Hull, etc. It'd be nice to carry on our record against the big boys but we can't necessarily expect to, although Liverpool and Man U look do weaker opposition. I've heard that this season is about points and trophies for us, that we need results, even a cab driver I had a few days ago told me that he swapped Arsenal for Chelsea because Chelsea seemed more ambitious, "It's about scoring the goal (Nigerian accent), you score when you can, you score with your hand! It's not about the football, about the style, it's about the goal!" Fuck that and fuck him! For me, what we need are the performances, the goals and results will come. Last season not only did we not win enough games, we didn't play well enough.

Having said all of this, I'm very optimistic about this season and with a couple more signings I think we'll be the part. In Arsene we trust, we love you Arsenal we do, come on you Arsenal!!!
I can't wait until tomorrow, Arsenal, I love you.

Highbury86