Madeinepal's Arsenal Talk: The Season Ahead

With the rains finally falling down on a trophy drought-hit north London, and with an exodus of freshly brewed talent coming in to replace an equal mass of lost souls, the Arsenal faithful can perhaps, for the first time in years, look forward to a real competitive season. And with a very good reason.

Season after season of financial constraints, uncharacteristic we-cant-seem-to-sign-him complexities and no trophies had nearly put Wenger and his group of what he called top, top talent at the edge of a cliff only to wait for that imminent push on the back.

The push, however, never came. Ozil’s surprise visit invigorated the gunners and instead, they crawled their way back into safer plateaus beneath to bathe in all the FA cup glory.

But the story doesn't end here.

Arsenal’s new financial deals with Puma and Emirates changed the landscape in their favor bringing in a summer where Arsene was conspicuously seen flashing out his credit card on players and not just milk, eggs, pasta and 2 kilos of beef for Monday morning breakfast. Convincing Alexis (he likes to be called him that way) to skip the bikini clanged beaches of Catalonia and make his trip north across the sea was perhaps the best piece of deal anyone could have asked for. Whether the trip takes a sour turn is anybody’s guess right now but given of what the 25 something has accomplished both at club and country level, all vectors seem to be pointing towards a basketball equivalent of a grand slam.

What was surprising though, was Barca wasn’t just done there. Their reluctance to keep Cesc *sigh* meant that Arsenal had the chance to bring captain fantastic back. With Ozil now the center with Ramsey, Carzola, Rosicky and Wilshire all but capable to play in the same position, Arsene found it hard to spend hard cash on a prodigy that he had so architected. Having now witnessed how he has seamlessly slotted into the system that Jose has in place this season, Arsene might be having second thoughts with the decision. It’s blindingly obvious that there’s always space for class.

He might have mentioned to Cesc that Ozil took his place, but this blogger feels that’s really not the case. Aron Ramsey’s becoming of a player that Arsene envisaged him to become must have certainly skewed his decision to go pick up his credit card from the Lost and Found section of Wal-Mart. The welsh jesus was in such rich vein of form last season that when his legs decided to go all Diaby on him post-midseason, Arsenal just could not go that extra to keep the lead.

What a shame.

Which only means that keeping him up and running will be as important as keeping Ozil fresh. The German, having won the World Cup along with Per and Prince Poldi, should have his confidence at peak when he does start in Goodison Park this weekend. The googly eyed Turkish decent still has a flurry of critics to answer but looking at what he brought to the team last season, it’s hard to fathom why those critics are being critics in the first place. Ozil’s signing not only brought a quality player on pitch but also raised the overall standard of the players around him. Playing against him in training, learning from his technique and getting to know how he thinks and plays must have done a world of good to all the squad involved. The categorical rise of Ramsey after of Ozil’s arrival cannot, thus, be ignored.

The only real trouble now though, seems to be in the defense department. Sagnas departure meant Debuchy took over, however, Captain Sharp Eyed switch to Barca meant that a signing is needed. And urgently.

Young Chambers has been key in the opening games but this blogger still thinks that it’s too early to tag him as a defensive solution. He has the capability to play DM, RB and CD which prompted Wenger to splash cash on him but he seems to be more of a guy who the boss will entrust serious defensive duties in the future; and not now.

Noting that the fact that we did sign Ozil just before the window shut down for good, there’s still a very good chance that we will bring someone, but let’s just hope that someone will bring some solid rigidity in front of a total Master-Glove Finale between now first choice Szczesny and WC hero Ospina.

A very, very interesting season ahead indeed.