The summer is typically a lonely place as a club football
fan. Yet it’s 13 weeks exactly since the day that we beat West Brom 3-2 in the
final match of the 2011-12 Premier League season, and that time hasn’t
disappeared quite as slowly as it has in previous years gone.
Largely because of the welcomed distractions of both the
European Championships in Ukraine and Poland, as well as the soon to be
finished Olympic Games, of which the latter has certainly enhanced all kinds of
national pride, in addition to proving that maybe there’s more to the wide
world of sport than getting worked up about 11 blokes running around every
Saturday afternoon earning all kinds of ridiculous money that the likes of you
and I could only dream of having. London 2012 has certainly been a fantastic
spectacle though, and I for one have loved every minute of it.
While this has been happening and with our attention
slightly skewed, the business of Arsenal Football Club has continued to work
and it certainly hasn’t been a quiet summer (if there is such a thing for the
club) down at the Grove.
As it stands, I think we’ve had a fantastic summer in the
transfer market. We’ve signed three proven International footballers in the
form of Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, and most recently Santi Cazorla, who
all add quality, depth and variation to our attacking unit. And on paper, as it
stands, it’s an attacking unit that in my opinion is only bettered by that of
Manchester City, by a margin that is now a lot smaller than it was in May.
But there are three telling words that I used twice in the
previous paragraph that have the potential to nullify our good work to date in
the market, and change it into “another one of those summers” for Arsenal.
Because ‘as it stands’ is not a closed statement. It’s very much liable to
change, much like the state of our squad before the window closes at the end of
the month. And there are clouds still circling above the heads of Messrs’ van
Persie, Song and Walcott surrounding their futures at the club.
Every cloud has a silver lining, though. All three were in
action today as Arsenal completed their pre-season in style with a prolific 4-0
win away at Cologne and I’m taking that as a positive. Walcott played the first
half and looked sharp, linking up well with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Cazorla
whilst finding plenty of space on the right flank. Song came on at half time,
and was hit and miss as we’ve seen so often in the past. And van Persie? Well,
he played. Which is more than some people expected.
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| Should I stay or should I go? |
I can’t pretend to know what’s going on with any of them,
and whether or not their inclusions today have any real substance to them. Obviously
Arsene Wenger wants all of his players (of which they remain for now at least)
prepared, fit and able to contribute in our first League match of the new
campaign next Saturday against Sunderland. If I were a betting man, I’d say I
think Walcott and Song will stay. With the former signing a new deal (why
wouldn’t he?) and the latter giving us at least another year, before he
inevitably decides he’d rather polish Fabregas’ boots in Catalonia.
The grey area (and I’m not just talking about his hair)
is mainly around van Persie, and the widely reported interest of Manchester
United. I can understand players wanting to return home to Barcelona, or being
lured to Citeh due to their mega bucks. But I cannot accept any kind of
suggestion of selling our club captain and best player to United, given our
great rivalry, history and mainly the fact that they are totally beatable this
season. We’ve taken a lot of shit in recent years about how we’ve lost so many
key players to other leading European clubs. Some of it deserved, some not. But
to deliver van Persie to Old Trafford would essentially be waiving a great big
white flag to that city as a whole, and surrender any true claims we might have
that we can compete with them at the top of the League this season. Which at
present, I believe we can.
When his statement first came out, I was all for selling
him as quickly as possible. But as it’s gone on and on, and now that they
appear to be the only club seriously in the running for him, my tone has
changed. Let’s hold him to his contract, then if he wants to go after that then
so be it. Even if United are willing to cough up £25m for him, let’s still
reject the pricks. Another year of RVP in this progressing side could be
invaluable if we have a trophy to celebrate at the end of it.
Either way, the new season is now almost upon us and I
couldn’t be more excited. The new signings have genuinely heightened
expectations amongst most supporters from what I’ve seen, and we’re all raring
to go against Sunderland next Saturday.
If today’s fixture against Cologne showed us anything,
it’s that Wenger has got plenty of options available to him. Ok, let’s not kid
ourselves. Cologne was relegated from the Bundesliga last season, and certainly
don’t pose the same threat that you’d get from any Premier League side. But
it’s still enjoyable to see us run riot, and it’ll no doubt be a big confidence
boost for the squad.
We looked assured going forward, with Cazorla running the
show in the first half from the advanced central midfield role. Podolski,
Giroud and Walcott worked well as the front trio, and the German will be
boosted particularly after grabbing two goals in the game. Giroud had chances
of his own that he failed to convert, but certainly showed enough with his
movement and awareness to prove that he too will score goals this season. The
Ox worked hard in a deeper role, and in the second half there were promising
passages of play from both Gervinho and Andrei Arshavin, neither of whom should
be overlooked.
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| Cazorla made an instant impression in Arsenal's 4-0 win over Cologne. |
Abou Diaby impressed me most out of the more holding type
midfielders, with Song often lethargic and Francis Coquelin exposed on a couple
of occasions. Defensively there was little to be worried about, but I’m
beginning to prefer Andre Santos to Kieran Gibbs in the left back role. And I
don’t envy Wenger’s centre back dilemma, with Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker
and Laurent Koscielny all pitching decent arguments for a starting birth
against Sunderland, who are sure to ask more questions of our back four than
Cologne did today.
Pre-season expectation is a dangerous state of mind, but I
see no reason to be anything other than confident and excited ahead of the new
Premier League campaign. There’s business still to be done, but right now we’re
looking good.
Roll on August 18th, and all the highs and lows
that are set to follow.
Follow me on twitter: @mattlittlechild
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