Arsenal faces an even bigger challenge next season

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
06 May	4:00 PM	P	Chelsea (H)	1	1	Draw

After nearly beating Arsenal with 10 men, José Mourinho went on some weird pride parade at the Emirates. His post-match comments were designed to show pride, guts and courage.

The second half at the Emirates gave Mourinho a way out that he didn't expect – he jumped on it. It gave him an opportunity to show himself not as a loser but a proud, courageous winner who only just lost the title because he was down to 10 men but still fought bravely against all odds. Most journalists bought it but the real truth is that the title was lost at Bolton not at the Emirates.

I never believed the title was in any doubt after the Bolton v Chelsea game and Mourinho knew it. He came to the Emirates already beaten. When the referee sent off Boulharouz, I turned to my brother who was sitting next to me and said, "The game is ruined. Chelsea could even beat Arsenal now."

The reason was because 10 man teams get beaten by running them round and tiring them and then picking them off in a counter-attack. Chelsea are stronger and fitter than Arsenal so Arsenal were never going to wear them down.

Arsenal had Julio Baptista and Adebayor who are not scary at all in a counter-attack. And besides, the Arsenal counter-attack is way too slow these days.

But probably the biggest thing was that at half time, Mourinho had the perfect situation to say to his players, "You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just go for it and don't stop. Go get your pride and make a statement as you go down."

Michael Essien is a player one cannot help but admire. He is strong, skilful, purposeful and relentless. I am also convinced that he will end some other players' career with a tackle before he retires. How far can a team go without a player like him or Vieira or Gattusso?

Well, Manchester United nearly went all the way but as Fergie said, you have to score a lot of goals to make the difference.

"Where I think we excelled over Chelsea was the squad made goals," Ferguson told MUTV. "We may not be as disciplined defensively - as they are really good at that - but in normal terms we score goals which is a great asset to have."

If you have weakness in one area, you really have to over-compensate on the other. Arsenal must use Francesc Fabregas (who is not as strong as Essien) and if we have to play Gilberto or Abou Diaby then we must either buy a player like Essien or overcompensate by having a deadly attack and a mean defence.

I really have no idea how much the Arsenal team is going to improve by having Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie back with a team that is one year more experienced – Gaël Clichy, Fabregas, Diaby, Emmanuel Eboué would be more experienced and Kolo Touré and William Gallas would have had some time together.

I have no idea how much better the team would be next season with the same squad. I have to admit Manchester United took me a little by surprise. I didn't really fancy their midfield but they compensated well in defence and attack and nobody anticipated that Cristiano Ronaldo would be putting in match-winning performances.

Sir Alex Ferguson is looking to improve his team next season. He has already said he will sign 3 players. Chelsea don't really need to improve their team.

Chelsea have players in the 24-28 bracket who are at their prime in key parts of the team so they are alright for another 2 years but I'm sure they will improve anyway. So the teams that finished nearly 20 points above us are looking to get even stronger.

Liverpool are also looking to improve – Rafa Benitez has said that the Champions League final spot will help him attract the players he wants next season so he must be looking to attract very good players.

A really good player in the class of Samuel Eto'o or David Villa would cost around £20 million and then even the class of Franck Ribery and Tevez is about £15 million or more.

Even Steve Sidwell from Reading would cost that much. When you look at the sums, it becomes clear why Wenger prefers to buy young and grow them because two players could wipe out a transfer budget of £40m which is what is available for United. Can Arsenal really compete financially?

There is also an issue of value. A player like Eto'o in the right team can deliver enormous value – more value than they cost many times over if they are the right age. Eto'o is 26 so he still has 3 years of good value in him. Anyway, I am not suggesting that Eto'o is the player to buy or even that he is available. His agent has obviously done well to keep everyone talking about him.

In summary, I have no idea what Arsenal would be like with van Persie and Henry back. I don't know if that would be good enough. I don't even know if we really need more players or just a change of system to better use our resources.

What I know is that we have to do a lot of work in the summer to keep up with our rivals. It is even more difficult since our rivals keep moving forward and the competition is tough not only at home but in Europe. I was looking forward to next season to start with a clean slate again after it all went wrong but now I am beginning to realise that the challenge next season would be even bigger.

User Comments

Aussie Fan

Posted on 11 May, 2007 at 05:47 AM - Reply

Just to answer your burning q?How Good can the Arsenal be with VP And Henry? We seem to forget that a Half Fit Henry and a Injury Plagued VP got us with in 11pts of Man U at the turn of the Season. I Can tell you a Half fir VP AND Henry is better than all the fully fir Premiership strikers barring Drogba and Rooney. You ask any Manager in the Prem if they would take a Half fit VP and Henry they would jump at the Chance.
When both played, we went on a unbeaten 9 matches or so, we scored the important goals, and when at least One Played we were always in the Games.
Such is the threat of both Players, if both stayed Fit for 90% of the Campaign next year, we are as good as Gold and should have it wrapped up with 7-8 games to go.
We seem to suffer from memory Lapse, our chances were only taken away a whole 1 and half month ago. Up until then we were still in 3 Competitions. So I believe this is just a case of Over Reacting. Yes we need a more prolific Striker, better than the Crop outside of VP and Henry. I Can dare say, I would have scored twice the goals Adebayor had this year, he had a conversion rate of probably 1 in every 20 clear cut Chances.
Rocisky is better for the year he spent the EPL. Hleb seemed Flat, but what a player we have in him. He tries to much and keeps the ball a little longer than a Prem player should do, but get that out of his Game and Bam, we have a creative Winger, aided with some silky smooth skills and is in the top 3 of ball control players in the EPL.
My opinion is, we still have Fran Merida and Vela to come, Fran looks set for a big induction next year and that will cover our ATTACKING MIDFIELD Options. What we need is a Genuine Winger, and also A Defensive Midfielder. Djourou and Senderos should be Kept, although we need another solid Defender, Prem. Quality would be great!!

osagie

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 10:29 PM - Reply

I agree with you a 100 percent but i dont think we need a massive overhaul to be competitive. What we need is 2-3 more world class players to be competitive. We all saw it this season that even when we had all our players fit we lacked penetration. I think what we need most is an impact player on the wing, someone that would give us the cutting edge. I really dont worry about Chelsea, ManU just showed that you really dont need to win against chelsea to win the league. The teams we need to improve our record against are the teams at the bottom of the table not the top teams. We lost twice to westham, once to Fulham, Man city, Borough, shefeild. Thats 18 points already, not to talk of all the draws to Newcastle, middlesborough, aston villa, everton, portsmouth and tottenham which is another 12 points blown away at the emirates. I think we can correct those mistakes and also improve our team by signing one or two players.

Kash

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 10:25 PM - Reply

We're going to win the title. Do you know why? Baptista will have gone back by then.

We hae a great youthful side, but i think what we need is one more great player who is already the finished product, not someone who needs to play for a couple of years before he reaches his prime.

psycho

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 06:58 PM - Reply

you are a depressing dude...but some valid points.

gooner bob

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 04:41 PM - Reply

What good is having a great house but having crap furniture in it.In 2001 Wenger bought 7 players.not all were great buys but at the end of the season we won the double.There is £30 million coming in from the Sky t.v money we have to spent it because Man Utd Chelsea and Liverpool will

Jon

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 12:46 PM - Reply

I think Chelsea will buy a right back (maybe Alves) and a centre back (most likely Alex). If they do, and Man U strengthen their squad yet further I really can't see anyone challenging the top two in the Premiership.

baggeh

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 12:16 PM - Reply

Arsenal are the fittest team in the prem, fitter than chelsea,jsut to correct you there.

ben

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 11:57 AM - Reply

man you have no faith in the gunners! they will kick ass next season! you are always so unrealistic! i swear you are a spurs or a chelsea fan!

Tom

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 11:56 AM - Reply

Wengers needs to buy at least 3 new players if we are to even challenge next season.Cant he see that the one think we lack is experience instead of buying you players who may be good in 3 tears time.

Arselona

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 11:27 AM - Reply

The talent is already there, the team just does not show grit,they just seem to implode under pressure,like they almost did against chelsea.The other thing i noticed they are missing, which they had in past seasons; was an incisiveness and a tremendous stamina coupled with speed.This season most of the team seemed tired in long spells in the season.So i have a feeling that its also got to do with fitness.

Rain Dance

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 11:09 AM - Reply

Perfect assesment, great article

ben

Posted on 10 May, 2007 at 10:22 AM - Reply

Cheer up, mate! The Arsenal will overcome. I am about 95% sure that Arsenal will win the Premiership and the Champions' League next season. Stop being so intellectual about it - we've got Wenger for that! Get some blind faith!

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