Arsenal’s 9-year trophy drought came to and end last season as they won the FA Cup and even clinched the Community Shield against Manchester City a few days ago. The fans will have high hopes for the upcoming season as the Gunners have strengthened and have a psychological merit after having ended such a long spell without a trophy.
The Transfer Window:
Arsene Wenger has had a productive transfer window so far as the Frenchman has managed to remove deadwood and add quality players. The biggest loss was Bacary Sagna who refused to sign a contract extension and moved to the blue half of Manchester. Wenger replaced the fullback with Mathieu Debuchy who has performed admirably for Newcastle and France in the last few years.
Thomas Vermaelen, who was edging for a move since the end of last season was sold to Barcelona a few days ago. Wenger seems to have done his homework as 19-year old Calum Chambers was signed before the sale of Vermaelen. As it turns out, the teenager can play as a fullback or as a center back as he showed in the Community Shield tie.
Out of all the players signed, Wenger’s biggest acquisition will definitely be Chilean attacker Alexis Sanchez. The former Barcelona man was signed for a speculated fee of around £35m. He too is a flexible player who can play either on the wings or as a striker.
Pre-season results:
ARSENAL 2-0 BOREHAM WOOD
ARSENAL 0-1 NEW YORK RED BULLS
ARSENAL 5-1 BENFICA
ARSENAL 0-1 AS MONACO
MANCHESTER CITY 0-3 ARSENAL
Tactics and probable line-up:
Arsene Wenger usually employed a 4-2-3-1 formation but it was a pretty broken one, more like a 4-3-3 with Mikel Arteta sitting in front of the defense. Mathieu Flamini/ Wilshere played alongside him as the Spanish isn’t the fastest. Since Mesut Ozil, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker will not feature until the end of the month, the Frenchman might go with a similar lineup like the one against Manchester City. Cazorla can drift inside and act as a play maker in case he has to and Sanchez can play alongside Olivier Giroud, making the formation look like a 4-3-1-2. Wenger has the added options of Theo Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Tomas Rosicky. The midfielder will be very compact to suit the neat passing football that Arsenal play and Giroud’s role once again will be to hold the ball and make space for others to run around him. Aaron Ramsey will play a key box-to-box role that the Gunners sorely missed at the start of this year after his injury.
In defense, Mathieu Debuchy is a straight replacement for Bacary Sagna and the addition of Calum Chambers will allow a degree of versatility to the team. Arsene Wenger might want to strengthen at the back and Daniel Agger is being looked at. David Ospina’s arrival will provide competition to Wojciech Szczesny.
Prediction:
| Game changer: Mesut Ozil | The WILD CARD: Alexis Sanchez |
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FOOTSIE’s Prediction League: 3rd UCL: Last 16 |
