Have The Gunners Finally Stopped Misfiring?

Article by Rowan Simmons

As a Gunner myself I can tell you it’s good to be a Gooner at the moment, from the off we enjoyed a promising pre-season, including a 3-1 victory over Man City. Then came a disappointing home defeat to Aston Villa, a game in which Villa played superbly whereas Arsenal looked unorganised and in my opinion complacent.

However a Champion’s League qualification and a £40m marquee signing later and it has been onwards and upwards for Arsene Wenger’s men. Arsenal have notched up ten straight wins since their opening day defeat including a recent dazzling performance against Napoli and a derby win against Tottenham.

As a fan I may have a slight bias when discussing the quality of the Arsenal squad, there is no doubting Ӧzil’s ability and that his signing has brought a big morale boost as well as a lot of quality to The Emirates. Looking at the rest of the squad I believe them to have title winning potential, possibly this season.

Giroud is a player I’ve been a huge fan of since his arrival, his movement off the ball is superb and after having a reasonably productive first season he’s really coming in to his own and playing with confidence. Flamini, for a free signing has proved to be a great piece of business, he’s improved a great deal since he departed for AC Milan in 2008 and with Arteta now returning Arsenal have two fantastic and experienced holding midfielders, a role that Arsenal have lacked efficiency in over the years.

A back four which over the last few seasons has come under serious criticism now looks very solid, the centre back pairing of Koscielny and Mertesacker has grown in strength as a partnership and now the combination is proving to be a great success. The two full backs Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna look reliable and competent in their roles; Gibbs has managed to stay fit which is a big plus for Arsene Wenger.

Szczensy is improving every season but is still a very raw talent, a lot of confidence for his age which can give him problems at times but he always returns a stronger professional. Then we come to the current golden boy in north London, Aaron Ramsey has had one of the most difficult starts to a young footballer’s career, a broken leg followed by a series of difficult season that resulted in a high level of abuse from a portion of Arsenal fans. Arsene Wenger still backed him week in week out and his judgement proved to be right as he is now in outstanding form, with 4 goals and 2 assists already to his name. What seems to have changed for him this year is not only regular starts in his more familiar midfield position rather than on the wing, and huge amounts of determination resulting in fantastic performances. Jack Wilshere also continues a promising return from injury; he has yet to reach top form but still puts in a shift and is gradually coming back to his best.

Arsenal have title ambitions for all competitions this season and criticism still comes in the form of “they haven’t played a top team”, last season Tottenham were title contenders, and there are many who predicted them to finish higher than us, people who’s opinion’s come from talksport and pure media rubbish but opinion’s all the same, the point is we beat them, Manchester United are our next big test but they’re playing very averagely if not badly, I predict a struggle for a top four place for them, so who are the big teams this season?

Chelsea will be an exciting and tough game, Liverpool look strong, Man City, for me, are yet to gel as a team and we stand a good chance of beating them on their current form. So it could be a successful year for the Gunners, something all Arsenal fans will be hoping for and beginning to believe in.

© e-Football 2013 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football