It's Good News Week!

It has been a decent few days for Arsenal, culminating in a comfortable 4-0 win over a doomed Norwich City. There are a few things to take from the game, but for me the most important piece of news of the week was Bukayo Saka's new contract. 

This young lad is Arsenal's most exciting Academy product since Jack Wilshere. He is robust, strong, skilful and capable of playing in multiple positions; and it is a measure of his importance to Mikel Arteta that he was rested from the Norwich game in order to keep him fresh for the tougher tasks to follow over the next couple of weeks. Alongside the likes of Martinelli, Nelson, Nketiah and Willock, Arsenal look to have the nucleus of a promising, evolving side that can hopefully start to propel them back towards where they were a mere generation ago. Chuck Kieran Tierney into that mix, along with the imminent arrival of William Saliba, and things just might be looking up. What it does need is the right blend of experience (and good role models) around them.

Of course, it's easy to be optimistic on the back of three successive victories, but then all one has to do is look back at the Brighton defeat to see how easy it is to become derailed. And the approaching fixtures are going to really test Arsenal. Wolves are extremely difficult to beat, and whilst Leicester's season has gone to pot they are still clinging on to third place in the table. Follow those two up with Tottenham and Liverpool, and cap it with an unbelievably difficult FA Cup semi-final, and things might not look quite so rosy after all.

So to the Norwich game. And once more an Arsenal forward took advantage of an error by a  goalkeeper with the ball at his feet, as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 'mugged' Tim Krul and slotted into an empty net for his 50th Premier League goal. He has achieved that faster than even Thierry Henry (although to be fair he scored in his first Premier League game and it took Thierry 9 games to get off the mark), and later on took advantage of yet another defensive error to clinically score his second, and Arsenal's third.  He is now just one goal away from scoring 20+ goals in 5 successive seasons, for Dortmund and Arsenal - quite a record. 

This is a nice graphic:

Norwich barely posed a threat, apart from a couple of long-range efforts and a brisk start to the second half, to which Arteta responded by shoring up the numbers in midfield. Otherwise, it was plain sailing and we saw Granit Xhaka's first goal of the season, rounding off a nice move, and then the introduction of Cedric Soares who got off the mark with a long range effort of his own (cruel on Krul) after just 4 minutes on the pitch. Easy, but there again Norwich are really not very good.

Just to cover the relegation battle quickly: Norwich are all but mathematically gone, but as to who is going to join them it's difficult to say. Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Watford are all in woeful form, and West Ham's somewhat surprising - and of course amusing - victory over Chelsea has made a huge difference to their hopes of staying up. Of the 'two out of three' candidates, Watford look to have the easiest set of fixtures, but it's imperative for them that they beat Norwich next week.

Back to more important matters: I believe that what the Arsenal transfer team have to do in the summer is becoming clearer now, and today I feel like I'm in a position to do my own Keep/Sell list. For all that the dressing room has some bad eggs in it and is apparently divided into cliques, I'm sure that Arteta will be looking to do something drastic about that over the summer. Key, of course, is Aubameyang. If he wants to stay and lead the Arteta project and perhaps become an Arsenal legend himself, then we'll all be delighted - although on the other hand there'll be no shortage of suitors if he wants to head off to a Champions League club. Yesterday he was non-commital in his post-game interview, and we can but hope that he stays. London has plenty of attractions for him; the expensive cars and designer clothes, and luxury Hampstead apartment.

As for other key players, I feel that whilst a number of this group are welcome to go there is the nucleus of a competitive squad already at the club. Of those not yet mentioned, Pepe was given the day off for similar reasons to Saka; he will surely only be better next season. Dani Ceballos looked decent for the second successive game, but whether he has the consistency for this league I'm really not sure. 

And now a special word for Granit Xhaka. His rehabilitation has been almost miraculous. From looking like he was on his way out of the club after the Crystal Palace match in November to where he is now reflects well not just on him, but also on Mikel Arteta. The latter has devised a formation that suits Xhaka, and he is thriving in it, helping oil the Arsenal machine as he rotates deep left to find the room to play those raking long balls that are his trademark. His response to his new coach and new responsibilities has been a pleasure to witness, and he remains a leader in the dressing room.

So here's my Keep/Sell list (in squad number order) with bullet point reasoning:

Leno            Number one keeper - KEEP

Bellerin       Still recovering from ACL injury - KEEP

Tierney        Absolutely KEEP

Elneny         On loan - SELL

Sokratis       Slipped down the pecking order now - SELL   

Mkhitaryan  On loan - get wages off the payroll and SELL

Ceballos       Jury out - depending on other midfield targets, on balance LET GO

Lacazette      On the wane - SELL

Ozil              Do anything possible to get him out of the club - SELL

Torreira       Wants to leave, apparently. Depending on suitable replacement - SELL

Aubameyang KEEP under any circumstances

Maitland-Niles Squad backup - KEEP

Holding       KEEP

Soares         KEEP (just signed long term contract)

Pepe            KEEP

Mustafi        Has improved under Arteta - KEEP(!)

Chambers    Long-term injured – no choice but to KEEP

Mari            KEEP (just signed long term contract)

Luiz            KEEP (one year option now taken up...)

Nelson         KEEP

Martinez      KEEP

Willock        KEEP

Guendouzi   Difficult - on balance, if Arsenal can get a decent fee, then SELL

Nketiah        KEEP

Kolasinac     On balance - SELL

Macey          Third choice keeper - KEEP?

Xhaka          KEEP!

Martinelli    KEEP

Saka            KEEP

Smith Rowe KEEP

Mavropanos Too far down the pecking order now - SELL

Saliba          Quite obviously KEEP

Rumours abound that Thomas Partey is on his way from Athletico Madrid, and he'd be an excellent addition in the key defensive midfield role that Arsenal haven't dealt with properly since Gilberto Silva left. Additionally, the clubs that may go down have some fine young players who I can see doing well at Arsenal. Jack Grealish for one, and Norwich have three or 4 exciting young players who I'd like to see targetted. Arsenal's midfield needs shoring up, no matter how you look at it.

And so to Molineux. A difficult place to go, and a far different challenge to recent ones. I'd take a draw, and a win would be most encouraging (not to say surprising). In order to have any hope of a Champions League spot, Arsenal will need a minimum of 9 points from these next 4 games, and then to finish with two more wins. Highly unlikely, although Europa League is looking more promising now. We're above Spurs now (for 24 hours) so we shall see.