No case for Arsene's Defence

OK; let's make this clear from the very start of this piece. Plenty of people are moaning that it's 'only' Danny Welbeck, but in my view he's a very good player who hasn't been given enough opportunities at his previous club in the past year or so - he got a reasonable amount of game time under Ferguson, after all - and he's a good addition to the squad who, judging by the way he plays, will fit the Arsenal system very well. He has pace, from what I can recall he makes intelligent runs, and he'll be almost straight into the side and with 4 months to establish himself as Arsenal's Number One Centre Forward. I've got no issues with the signing on that count.

However, plenty of questions still need to be answered about this Transfer Window from the Arsenal perspective (plus ca change!). Let's ask them:

1. Perfectly understandable that we wouldn't be in for Falcao. He is very expensive and coming back from serious injury - simply not Wenger's idea of fun - but did Arsenal get Welbeck purely on the back of the Falcao to United deal? Almost certainly. And if that's the case if looks - like the Ozil deal - to be a happy accident and not the result of any planning. Will he ever learn?

2. Quite a few strikers have moved in this Window. There is a case for saying that Arsenal were light on real class up top BEFORE the Giroud injury, so why has he again waited until past the 11th hour, only to have Welbeck fall fortuitously into his lap? Can he not see what we can see, and if not why not? 

3. This deal pushes Podolski and Campbell even further down the pecking order. So Arsenal are ridiculously top-heavy in attack with players who probably won't even make the bench once Walcott is back. Lack of planning, wouldn't you agree?

4. Other critical areas of the side have not been addressed fully. A team that let in 6 away at City and Chelsea, 5 at Liverpool, and three without reply at Everton last year is shorter in numbers in defence than it was last season, and still lacking the Matic-type figure that might just stop the lightning raids that exposed the defence last season. In defensive midfield, Arteta is a year older - and injured - and Flamini... well, recently-promoted Leicester exposed him on Sunday! Faffing about over Carvalho with all that money in the bank is surely self-defeating, and whilst Chelsea have much more money than Arsenal it's not as if we're paupers - they made everything they wanted to happen, happen, yet we haggled and then missed out. Explanation, please?

5. As for the defence... well, I have little problem with the quality of the individual parts (nobody's perfect), but there simply not enough of them. Despite the following criticism: Debuchy is still bedding in but is not, in my opinion, an upgrade on Sagna; Chambers is a callow youth, if extremely promising - we are an injury or suspension away from having him in central defence through lack of any other choice; Mertesacker, for all his excellent positioning, is very slow and can look incredibly clumsy; Koscielny is still prone to huge gaffes; Gibbs is injured almost 50% of the time; Monreal, whilst seemingly improved, is not great when people take him on. But even saying all that I can live with all their foibles... except that's it - 6 players (one often injured) for 4 places in 50+ high intensity matches. If that's the basis for challenging on every front, then I'm Louis van Gaal (a Dutchman - get it?!?).  Unless there's some free agent somewhere who he can draft in as cover (Titus Bramble is available, I understand...)?

And this final point is where I take real issue with Wenger. Too many in midfield and up front, but insufficient cover at the back. And that's no basis for a title challenge, no matter how anyone may try to dress it up. Last year he just about got away with it, but this was supposed to be the year that we were able to compete with the super-rich elite, and I just can't see it happening. The post-Wolrd Cup optimism has somewhat evaporated now.

Despite winning a trophy last season and signing a new contract on the back of that, I can see that Wenger's future will boil down to a) the decision not to re-sign Fabregas and b) trusting to luck with defensive injuries and suspensions. And the alternative is a new Manager for 2015-16, because AW may well be in the act of squandering the opportunity for which he has worked so hard for so long. I hope that I am wrong.