Arsenal’s latest win over London rivals Chelsea has kept The Gunners in the hunt for a top four finish. They are currently in fifth spot and are just three points behind The Blues in the Premier League table.

Yet if the club don’t go out and bring in more talent during this transfer window, then they’ll give manager Unai Emery an uphill task to stay in that particular race.

The Spaniard has done a great job to freshen things up at the Emirates, since replacing long-term legendary boss Arsene Wenger last summer.

The Gunners look stronger in midfield. New signing Lucas Torreira has given the team bite and backbone again in the engine room. The Uruguayan’s presence has also seen an upturn in fortune of  Swiss star Granit Xhaka, who wasn’t consistent enough before this season. Youngster Matteo Guendouzi looks like he could be a future Gunners legend, he’s enthusiastic and gives the club everything he has.

Bernd Leno has finally won the number one jersey off of veteran goalkeeper Petr Cech. The german looks more comfortable with the ball at his feet and thus more used to Emery’s style of playing from the back.

The Spaniard has noticed that his attack is better when Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are deployed in the same team. Between them the duo have now scored twenty-two gaols between them this term.

Emery is also getting more from Alex Iwobi and giving young talent like Ainsley Maitland-Miles and opportunity to shine.

The Arsenal tema are the fourth best in the terms of keeping possession and have the fourth highest scorers in the league too.

The team does still have issues though.

The defence is still a bit of a weak-link and has been ravaged by injuries this term. Ideally I believe Arsenal would be much stronger if they got a central defender that possess good pace and that can pass the ball.

They also lack a consistent top talent that can work on the right wing. Unai has used various players on that flank and no one has done a good enough job to be considered a regular for that position.

Ideally the club’s hierarchy would look at the job Emery’s done so far and then back him in the transfer market to give the Spanish coach the best possible chance of reaching and finishing in the Champions League places.

Yet Unai Emery told The Guardian this month stating his side will only have the funds available to bring new recruits on loan deals:

“We cannot sign permanently,”

“We can only loan players. I know the club is working on possibilities of which players can help us with big performances like we need now. I cannot say more.”

Now it’s very hard for top clubs to get quality in the loan market, especially not players that will get you up the league table. Most teams that loan out players want permanent clauses inserted into those contracts, can Arsenal afford to do that?

A lot of those good new signings came on the say so of head of recruitment Sven Mislintat. The issue is that the BBC have reported that the German will be leaving the club in February.  It means more upheaval for the North London giants.

Then you’ve got Mesut Ozil.

The former German internationalist is no doubt a phenomenal talent but the attacking midfielder doesn’t work enough on his defending duties and he seems to go missing during the important fixtures. Emery has dropped the midfield maestro for recent games and that suggests that the Spaniard doesn’t fully trust Ozil.

The problem is that the twenty-nine year old is on a longterm contract and according to Sky Sports it’s worth £350k a week. Chances are that Arsenal won’t be able to get rid of Mesut as no team will be willing to match that luxurious wage, unless The Gunners significantly stump up a huge part of the cost.

It seems crazy that Arsenal would continually get caught out when trying to tie star players down. They’ve had to sell Alexis Sanchez, Alexis Oxlade-Chamberlain and Robin van Persie because they couldn’t agree new terms. Aaron Ramsey has just signed a pre-contract agreement to join Juventus on a free transfer in the summer.

Yet instead of doing deals with these players, they threw all their money at Mesut Ozil who always struggled in the big games.

Arsenal told us for years that they got good cash reserves in the bank and that the new stadium would make them lots of money.

Yet when the club need to invest, they turn around and say there’s no funds available.

The Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke needs to invest or. sell his shares.

Look at what Liverpool have done in recent transfer windows. Jurgen Klopp has spotted weaknesses in his squad and brought in top-class replacements.

Now maybe Arsenal can’t plug every gap in their pool but the club should give their boss  at least one new signing to give him the best chance of finishing in the top four.

At the moment it seems that the Gunners are asking Unai Emery to work with one arm behind his back and that doesn’t bode well for their season, in my opinion. Plus it won’t keep Emery at the Emirates if he gets a decent offer from another European powerhouse.

Posted on January 23rd, 2019 by scott
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