Squad Analysis 2012/2013

Still feel we're a bit short at FB. Apart from Sagna none of 'em are actually great at defending.

--------------Giroud
Gervinho Sahin Cazorla
----------Song Arteta
Gibbs Vermaelen Koscielny Sagna
--------------Szczesny

And you would have players like Santos, Mertesacker, Wilshere, Diaby, Walcott, Ox, Podolski and maybe even RVP on the bench.

Pretty nice if you ask me. Surely too good to be true.

somethign of tiny interest

player profiles of players in new kits have been put up on arse.com. i know sometimes they dont bother taking new photos of the dead certs to leave. Only Park and Vela havent got new photos, along with ramsey (olympics) i'm not sure either of them came back to training.


robin/arshavin/chamakh/bendtner/squillaci have all turned up for the new photograph.

doesnt mean much other than nothing has been set in stone and agreed with their futures yet.

My issue with the options of Song & Diaby as B2B in our current shape & roles is perhaps more evident when you compare them to the 2 most prominent exponents of the same system (of a B2B ball winner between 2 playmakers), - City & Real & it should be noted that both won their respective domestic leagues.

We hold our own re the playmaker capability,
but the major difference being the comparisson of Song/Diaby v Yaya & Khedira,
moreso when the deep playmaker lacks the physical capability of either Barry or Alonso,
and neither Song nor Diaby have the discipline, or the defensive coverage of Yaya or Khedira.
As such IMO the B2B role is our weakest link in our current midfield roles and patterns,
and by the same token neither Song nor Diaby are good enough to play either of the playmaker roles as starting players.

Javi Martinez would be my 1st choice on current capability,
but I'm also curious re the potential of Moussa Sissoko in that role,
whilst Seydou Keita would be a quality role model.

My issue with the options of Song & Diaby as B2B in our current shape & roles is perhaps more evident when you compare them to the 2 most prominent exponents of the same system (of a B2B ball winner between 2 playmakers), - City & Real & it should be noted that both won their respective domestic leagues.

We hold our own re the playmaker capability,
but the major difference being the comparisson of Song/Diaby v Yaya & Khedira,
moreso when the deep playmaker lacks the physical capability of either Barry or Alonso,
and neither Song nor Diaby have the discipline, or the defensive coverage of Yaya or Khedira.
As such IMO the B2B role is our weakest link in our current midfield roles and patterns,
and by the same token neither Song nor Diaby are good enough to play either of the playmaker roles as starting players.

Javi Martinez would be my 1st choice on current capability,
but I'm also curious re the potential of Moussa Sissoko in that role,
whilst Seydou Keita would be a quality role model.

If I read you correctly then the its the blend of Arteta & Song/Diaby that is not working due to weaknesses in:

(a) Arteta not having the physical capability of say an Alonso or Barry, and

(b) Song/Diaby not being disciplined enough in that B2B role


Personally I think Song & Diaby have the ability to play that B2B role and play it very well. I most certainly agree that their defensive discipline needs to improve but that can be said of the entire team.

I would say that both Barry & Alonso are more mobile than Arteta and thus better able to provide defensive coverage.

Furthermore, Mourinho & Mancini are more defensively minded coaches than Arsène and as such their teams although scoring lots of goals are built from the back to front with a real accent on defense and counter attacking football, whereas Arsène's teams are built to attack and retain ball possession.


I wouldn't say no to Javi Martinez in our team but I think it's the system that needs fixing more than the players need changing.

--------------Giroud
Gervinho Sahin Cazorla
----------Song Arteta
Gibbs Vermaelen Koscielny Sagna
--------------Szczesny

And you would have players like Santos, Mertesacker, Wilshere, Diaby, Walcott, Ox, Podolski and maybe even RVP on the bench.

Pretty nice if you ask me. Surely too good to be true.

You benching RVP because he's been such *****?........

[quote="redanddread"][quote="Bossa"]--------------Giroud
Gervinho Sahin Cazorla
----------Song Arteta
Gibbs Vermaelen Koscielny Sagna
--------------Szczesny

And you would have players like Santos, Mertesacker, Wilshere, Diaby, Walcott, Ox, Podolski and maybe even RVP on the bench.

This situation also demonstrates another measure of our progression as a team--coming in as an expensive (for us), non-youth transfer like Podolski/Gervinho is no longer a guarantee of a starting position (add Giroud to this if RVP stays). Until the ACN happens, at least, I'm looking forward to some real competition on the left wing. Of course, with RVP leaving this could perhaps be mitigated. And our new record transfer Cazorla (fingers still crossed) is a surefire starter, which gives the lie to this view, but I'm hoping that this proves a harbinger of things to come, since over the next few years our revenue situation should steadily improve.

With the personnel available (and the soon to be announced signing/s), good luck on trying to figure the 1st eleven line-up for this season.

We're spoilt for choices, and its quite a weird feeling to have. It could be that, except for the back 5, squad rotation is going to be the order of the day.

Any way, I'm gonna give it a go (assuming we get Cazorla and Sahin in, Wilshere still unavailable and RVP leaves):-


----------Chesney-------

-Sagna----Kos--TV-Gibbs-
(Coquelin)


----------Song----------

---Arteta -- Cazorla----


--Walcott-----Podolski--

---------Giroud-------


Bench (rotation) :- Mertesacker (CB), Santos (LB), Coquelin (RB), Diaby (DM), Sahin (CM), Rosicky & Ramsey (AM), Gervinho (LW), AOC (RW/AM), Chamakh (CF), although I'd prefer to put Podolski as Giroud's back-up and play Gervinho at LW.

That looks more than decent to me, but it would be one hell of a squad with Wilshere back and RVP doing a U-turn and committing himself long term to Arsenal.

@ redanddread

Agreed re the system / roles / formation - would much prefer Song as an Anchor role & Diaby as B2B & both in an inverted midfield 3.
But in this configuration the B2B role is primarily THE defensive role & is a ball winner to press high & then cover back,
and IMO neither Song nor Diaby are ideally suited.

Song lacks the physical agility & acceleration to be able to press quickly and as a result often gets caught in no man's land & then we see him committing soft fouls as a result. This lack of acceleration also hampers his ability to get back in defence as opposed to following behind the play.

Diaby lacks the discipline required to provide primary defensive cover & he wants a dedicated defender beside or behind him to cover him. I recall Rice & AW yelling themselves red in the face at Diaby in a Home game 2 seasons ago, as he was always drifting forward to join the attack
(and that was when we were still looking to interchange roles during a game as opposed to dedicated roles we see now).
Again Diaby lacks the determination to get back to defend rather than follow behind the play.

A perfect example being H v CFC 2 seasons ago with Song & Diaby partnering as CMs. Song went forward in attack ahead of the ball which was intercepted in the 1-2 he initiated outside their area. Diaby was also forward at the time & had been so before Song joined the attack.

CFC broke on the counter & neither Song nor Diaby reacted immediately to the threat. Song had initially reacted to the loss of possession before he started to run back in cover, but he lacked the acceleration to keep up with the play let alone get ahead of the ball.
Diaby didn't react until after the ball had gone past him & only then when Lampard went in support of the ball behind the play.

As the play neared our area Lampard slowed down to remain central and a passing option in support of the ball carrier rther than to join the attack directly, but Diaby also slowed whilst still behind Lampard without ever closing him down. The ball came back to Lampard (and Diaby then looked to get closer to him), who provided the assist to Drogba to score.

IIRC something similar also happened about the same time A v ManU resulting in Shrek scoring???
In both instances we lost turned over possession looking to force a pass through traffic around the area to a player running into space ahead of the ball, but that player was also a CM rather than one of the front 4.
We then got caught out of position behind the ball on the counter & our cover never got back to even cover the opposition support players, let alone the initial attackers.

Same thing still happened last season at both QPR & Norwich.
Whilst a change in roles & patterns/formation would help,
ultimately if we are NOT going to drill the players re providing cover etc, then we need to get better players who already know & show they can & will do so without the need to be taught or shown what to do.

@ redanddread

Agreed re the system / roles / formation - would much prefer Song as an Anchor role & Diaby as B2B & both in an inverted midfield 3.
But in this configuration the B2B role is primarily THE defensive role & is a ball winner to press high & then cover back,
and IMO neither Song nor Diaby are ideally suited.

Song lacks the physical agility & acceleration to be able to press quickly and as a result often gets caught in no man's land & then we see him committing soft fouls as a result. This lack of acceleration also hampers his ability to get back in defence as opposed to following behind the play.

Diaby lacks the discipline required to provide primary defensive cover & he wants a dedicated defender beside or behind him to cover him. I recall Rice & AW yelling themselves red in the face at Diaby in a Home game 2 seasons ago, as he was always drifting forward to join the attack
(and that was when we were still looking to interchange roles during a game as opposed to dedicated roles we see now).
Again Diaby lacks the determination to get back to defend rather than follow behind the play.

A perfect example being H v CFC 2 seasons ago with Song & Diaby partnering as CMs. Song went forward in attack ahead of the ball which was intercepted in the 1-2 he initiated outside their area. Diaby was also forward at the time & had been so before Song joined the attack.

CFC broke on the counter & neither Song nor Diaby reacted immediately to the threat. Song had initially reacted to the loss of possession before he started to run back in cover, but he lacked the acceleration to keep up with the play let alone get ahead of the ball.
Diaby didn't react until after the ball had gone past him & only then when Lampard went in support of the ball behind the play.

As the play neared our area Lampard slowed down to remain central and a passing option in support of the ball carrier rther than to join the attack directly, but Diaby also slowed whilst still behind Lampard without ever closing him down. The ball came back to Lampard (and Diaby then looked to get closer to him), who provided the assist to Drogba to score.

IIRC something similar also happened about the same time A v ManU resulting in Shrek scoring???
In both instances we lost turned over possession looking to force a pass through traffic around the area to a player running into space ahead of the ball, but that player was also a CM rather than one of the front 4.
We then got caught out of position behind the ball on the counter & our cover never got back to even cover the opposition support players, let alone the initial attackers.

Same thing still happened last season at both QPR & Norwich.
Whilst a change in roles & patterns/formation would help,
ultimately if we are NOT going to drill the players re providing cover etc, then we need to get better players who already know & show they can & will do so without the need to be taught or shown what to do.

You're not an easy man to respond to. Will have to get back to you in the morning when I am fresh(er)!...

You're not an easy man to respond to. Will have to get back to you in the morning when I am fresh(er)!...

All good mate - just realised we have got a couple of lengthy discussions going in a couple of threads - lol.

We conceded 14 goals in our first 5 league matches (to be precise we conceded all 14 against 3 teams, 2 vs Pool, 8 vs Man U and 4 vs Blackburn). That's 28% of our total goals against for the whole season. We actually defended well for most of the season, but we were mentally fragile when we took the lead, had a crazy start to the season and an unfortunate injury-plagued month at the turn of the year. Our problems seeing out games when we took the lead was more of an issue than our defensive organisation IMO.

Looking at the whole season we had three periods in the season when our defense was truly poor and inflated our goals against column. First 5 matches, in January when we had 7-8 fullback options injured at the same time along with Arteta and at the end of the season against Wigan onwards when we lost Arteta for the remainder of the season.

In January when we had our most difficult period of the whole season in terms of injuries we conceded 2 against Fulham, 3 against Swansea, and 2 against Man U at home. That's a further 7 goals in 3 matches. So 21 of the goals conceded all season came in 8 matches.

The last 5 matches without Arteta ended with a 2-1 loss to Wigan, a goalless draw against a reserve Chelsea side at home and a good point against Stoke which ended 1-1. In the last two fixtures of the season without Arteta we conceded a further 6 goals. 4 against Norwich at home and 2 in the last game against West Brom.

To conclude, we conceded 27 goals in only 12 matches. That's 55% of our total for the season! With a stable side we conceded 22 in 26.

The importance of Arteta cannot be understated. He was the hub of the side. Apart from his debut against Blackburn he was absent from each of the matches where we conceded more than 2 goals in the league. We need to reinforce our midfield/Diaby remain fit and in form.

We always have injuries and it shows our lack of quality depth, but it's not as if we are unable to defend. Hopefully we can strengthen our cm options and it will help us prevent a repeat this coming campaign.

At least it's a different take on our defensive shortcomings based on results and the state of the team at critical points of the season.

Interesting the number of left footers Wenger is bringing in to the squad.

Last season, for the first time in years, we were not always technically superior to the opposition. That's going to change.

Interesting the number of left footers Wenger is bringing in to the squad.

Last season, for the first time in years, we were not always technically superior to the opposition. That's going to change.

Interesting, but only logical when you think about it. Last season, Van Persie was the only left-footed forward in the squad. Wilshere was the only left-footed midfielder. Poor balance. Quite strange to start a season without a left-footed winger imo. We bought Park, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gervinho. The Ox is able to cross and shoot with his left foot, but it still doesn't look very well thought-out to me.

This attack would roll most prem teams

Podolski---RVP---Walcott
-------------Cazorla
-------Sahin-----------Arteta

somethign of tiny interest

player profiles of players in new kits have been put up on arse.com. i know sometimes they dont bother taking new photos of the dead certs to leave. Only Park and Vela havent got new photos, along with ramsey (olympics) i'm not sure either of them came back to training.


robin/arshavin/chamakh/bendtner/squillaci have all turned up for the new photograph.

doesnt mean much other than nothing has been set in stone and agreed with their futures yet.

Park is at the Olympics too, and Vela plays for Real Sociedad now.

We conceded 14 goals in our first 5 league matches (to be precise we conceded all 14 against 3 teams, 2 vs Pool, 8 vs Man U and 4 vs Blackburn). That's 28% of our total goals against for the whole season. We actually defended well for most of the season, but we were mentally fragile when we took the lead, had a crazy start to the season and an unfortunate injury-plagued month at the turn of the year. Our problems seeing out games when we took the lead was more of an issue than our defensive organisation IMO.

Looking at the whole season we had three periods in the season when our defense was truly poor and inflated our goals against column. First 5 matches, in January when we had 7-8 fullback options injured at the same time along with Arteta and at the end of the season against Wigan onwards when we lost Arteta for the remainder of the season.

In January when we had our most difficult period of the whole season in terms of injuries we conceded 2 against Fulham, 3 against Swansea, and 2 against Man U at home. That's a further 7 goals in 3 matches. So 21 of the goals conceded all season came in 8 matches.

The last 5 matches without Arteta ended with a 2-1 loss to Wigan, a goalless draw against a reserve Chelsea side at home and a good point against Stoke which ended 1-1. In the last two fixtures of the season without Arteta we conceded a further 6 goals. 4 against Norwich at home and 2 in the last game against West Brom.

To conclude, we conceded 27 goals in only 12 matches. That's 55% of our total for the season! With a stable side we conceded 22 in 26.

The importance of Arteta cannot be understated. He was the hub of the side. Apart from his debut against Blackburn he was absent from each of the matches where we conceded more than 2 goals in the league. We need to reinforce our midfield/Diaby remain fit and in form.

We always have injuries and it shows our lack of quality depth, but it's not as if we are unable to defend. Hopefully we can strengthen our cm options and it will help us prevent a repeat this coming campaign.

At least it's a different take on our defensive shortcomings based on results and the state of the team at critical points of the season.

good post, many seem unable to put stuff into perspective..

We conceded 14 goals in our first 5 league matches (to be precise we conceded all 14 against 3 teams, 2 vs Pool, 8 vs Man U and 4 vs Blackburn). That's 28% of our total goals against for the whole season. We actually defended well for most of the season, but we were mentally fragile when we took the lead, had a crazy start to the season and an unfortunate injury-plagued month at the turn of the year. Our problems seeing out games when we took the lead was more of an issue than our defensive organisation IMO.

Looking at the whole season we had three periods in the season when our defense was truly poor and inflated our goals against column. First 5 matches, in January when we had 7-8 fullback options injured at the same time along with Arteta and at the end of the season against Wigan onwards when we lost Arteta for the remainder of the season.

In January when we had our most difficult period of the whole season in terms of injuries we conceded 2 against Fulham, 3 against Swansea, and 2 against Man U at home. That's a further 7 goals in 3 matches. So 21 of the goals conceded all season came in 8 matches.

The last 5 matches without Arteta ended with a 2-1 loss to Wigan, a goalless draw against a reserve Chelsea side at home and a good point against Stoke which ended 1-1. In the last two fixtures of the season without Arteta we conceded a further 6 goals. 4 against Norwich at home and 2 in the last game against West Brom.

To conclude, we conceded 27 goals in only 12 matches. That's 55% of our total for the season! With a stable side we conceded 22 in 26.

The importance of Arteta cannot be understated. He was the hub of the side. Apart from his debut against Blackburn he was absent from each of the matches where we conceded more than 2 goals in the league. We need to reinforce our midfield/Diaby remain fit and in form.

We always have injuries and it shows our lack of quality depth, but it's not as if we are unable to defend. Hopefully we can strengthen our cm options and it will help us prevent a repeat this coming campaign.

At least it's a different take on our defensive shortcomings based on results and the state of the team at critical points of the season.

good post, many seem unable to put stuff into perspective..

Whilst those goals conceeded figures may give some cause for encouragement when we get it right (22 in 26 games),
it ALSO indicates that we were in trouble for basically 1/3 of the season (12 games). Not only did this occur on 3 seperate occaisions (and looked to derail our season on each occaision),
but the middle period of crisis overlapped to our eventual exit from the 3 Cups.
Having saif that I'll be the first to say that the exits from the CL & FA Cup probably 'saved' our season by preventing an earlier burn out of players seen in our last PL fixtures.

I'd like to see Anzac the optimist this season.

We conceded 14 goals in our first 5 league matches (to be precise we conceded all 14 against 3 teams, 2 vs Pool, 8 vs Man U and 4 vs Blackburn). That's 28% of our total goals against for the whole season. We actually defended well for most of the season, but we were mentally fragile when we took the lead, had a crazy start to the season and an unfortunate injury-plagued month at the turn of the year. Our problems seeing out games when we took the lead was more of an issue than our defensive organisation IMO.

Looking at the whole season we had three periods in the season when our defense was truly poor and inflated our goals against column. First 5 matches, in January when we had 7-8 fullback options injured at the same time along with Arteta and at the end of the season against Wigan onwards when we lost Arteta for the remainder of the season.

In January when we had our most difficult period of the whole season in terms of injuries we conceded 2 against Fulham, 3 against Swansea, and 2 against Man U at home. That's a further 7 goals in 3 matches. So 21 of the goals conceded all season came in 8 matches.

The last 5 matches without Arteta ended with a 2-1 loss to Wigan, a goalless draw against a reserve Chelsea side at home and a good point against Stoke which ended 1-1. In the last two fixtures of the season without Arteta we conceded a further 6 goals. 4 against Norwich at home and 2 in the last game against West Brom.

To conclude, we conceded 27 goals in only 12 matches. That's 55% of our total for the season! With a stable side we conceded 22 in 26.

The importance of Arteta cannot be understated. He was the hub of the side. Apart from his debut against Blackburn he was absent from each of the matches where we conceded more than 2 goals in the league. We need to reinforce our midfield/Diaby remain fit and in form.

We always have injuries and it shows our lack of quality depth, but it's not as if we are unable to defend. Hopefully we can strengthen our cm options and it will help us prevent a repeat this coming campaign.

At least it's a different take on our defensive shortcomings based on results and the state of the team at critical points of the season.

good post, many seem unable to put stuff into perspective..

Whilst those goals conceeded figures may give some cause for encouragement when we get it right (22 in 26 games),
it ALSO indicates that we were in trouble for basically 1/3 of the season (12 games). Not only did this occur on 3 seperate occaisions (and looked to derail our season on each occaision),
but the middle period of crisis overlapped to our eventual exit from the 3 Cups.
Having saif that I'll be the first to say that the exits from the CL & FA Cup probably 'saved' our season by preventing an earlier burn out of players seen in our last PL fixtures.

Interesting that you disregard the exceptional circumstances behind our poor start and dreadful January results. I'd like to see Anzac the optimist this season. Let's hope the team can make us proud.

If any team had the amount of injuries we had in defense last season it would show. We do suffer more do to our style of play, but make no mistake, any club having to go through what we did in August (the club is to blame) would be thrilled to end up 3rd.

I agree we need to fine-tune our midfield, and we needed Arteta to use all of his experience to improve our defensive record, but with him in the side, our defensive shape was decent to good.

Well its going to be very hard not to be optimistic if we add Cazorla and Sahin. Finally Wenger will have a team capable of playing football his way and that will make the difference this time round. Beatutiful trophy winning football is coming back to us and its about time.

GK: Szczesny, Fabianski

LB: Gibbs, Santos

RB: Sagna, Jenkinson

CB: Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Bartley

CM: Arteta, Song, Sahin, Diaby, Coquelin, Wilshere

AM: Cazorla, Rosicky, Ramsey, Chamberlain

RWF: Walcott, Gervinho, Chamberlain

ST: Van Persie, Podolski, Giroud

LWF: Podolski, Gervinho, Chamberlain


That is a squad I'd be comfortable with being able to challenge on several fronts. There's actually some strength in depth there, and for once - touch wood - injuries wouldn't completely drag our quality down.

Obviously we're yet to see what will happen with Van Persie, Walcott, Song and Sahin, but if we managed to go into September with this squad. Wow.

Well its going to be very hard not to be optimistic if we add Cazorla and Sahin. Finally Wenger will have a team capable of playing football his way and that will make the difference this time round. Beatutiful trophy winning football is coming back to us and its about time.

Men as opposed to boys still learning.
Said this often enough about his squads from The Highbury Years & the need for mature experienced intelligent players.

Interesting that you disregard the exceptional circumstances behind our poor start and dreadful January results. I'd like to see Anzac the optimist this season. Let's hope the team can make us proud.

If any team had the amount of injuries we had in defense last season it would show. We do suffer more do to our style of play, but make no mistake, any club having to go through what we did in August (the club is to blame) would be thrilled to end up 3rd.

I agree we need to fine-tune our midfield, and we needed Arteta to use all of his experience to improve our defensive record, but with him in the side, our defensive shape was decent to good.

I don't disregard them, just feel that they (Aug & Jan) were primarily of our own doing OFF the pitch,
whilst the end of season burn out was as a result of too many players playing too many games.
IIRC we had the highest number of players with around 30 games or higher of any of the top4,
whilst we also had about 9 players on the 25 man squad who contributed less than double figures combined.

I'd like to see Anzac the optimist this season.

I think there's still too much work required for me to become an optimist re our title chances this season,
but there is perhaps cause & room for encouragement?

As well as the need to sign top class players in depth,
there is also the matter of our training, patterns & in game approach to tactics etc.
As we've seen in the past top players can paper over the cracks,
but your lack of depth will expose those faults against good opposition.

Interesting that you disregard the exceptional circumstances behind our poor start and dreadful January results. I'd like to see Anzac the optimist this season. Let's hope the team can make us proud.

If any team had the amount of injuries we had in defense last season it would show. We do suffer more do to our style of play, but make no mistake, any club having to go through what we did in August (the club is to blame) would be thrilled to end up 3rd.

I agree we need to fine-tune our midfield, and we needed Arteta to use all of his experience to improve our defensive record, but with him in the side, our defensive shape was decent to good.

I don't disregard them, just feel that they (Aug & Jan) were primarily of our own doing OFF the pitch,
whilst the end of season burn out was as a result of too many players playing too many games.
IIRC we had the highest number of players with around 30 games or higher of any of the top4,
whilst we also had about 9 players on the 25 man squad who contributed less than double figures combined.

Agreed. We were made to pay for our (as you often say) reactive tendencies. Still, it isn't a valid criticism when discussing the merits of our defence ON the pitch this season. What happened off the pitch last season has no bearing on our defence on it now.

Agreed. We were made to pay for our (as you often say) reactive tendencies. Still, it isn't a valid criticism when discussing the merits of our defence ON the pitch this season. What happened off the pitch last season has no bearing on our defence on it now.

Nice theory IF we learn from the past mistakes,
which too often we don't seem to do.

Not having a dig at you but too many seem too content to put the immediate past behind them & say we start with a clean slate - we don't unless we make changes otherwise we end up repeating the same issues.

Agreed. We were made to pay for our (as you often say) reactive tendencies. Still, it isn't a valid criticism when discussing the merits of our defence ON the pitch this season. What happened off the pitch last season has no bearing on our defence on it now.

Nice theory IF we learn from the past mistakes,
which too often we don't seem to do.

Not having a dig at you but too many seem too content to put the immediate past behind them & say we start with a clean slate - we don't unless we make changes otherwise we end up repeating the same issues.

You misinterpret what I mean by that. The fact we had an unsettled side definitely coincided with the high amount of goals we conceded at the start of last season. That had to do with the poor way we handled the sales of Cesc and Nasri without first replacing them.

We have a settled squad now and that should improve our defensive record. If it will be good enough depends on if we improve our central midfield. That is our Achilles-heel IMO. We need to protect the back-four better and to do that we need players like Arteta, who instinctively knows how to position himself, reads the game well and adapted to the role we needed him to play. If we get Sahin that may be rectified but as things stand atm, we look an injury away from a very suspect midfield.

Interesting that you disregard the exceptional circumstances behind our poor start and dreadful January results. I'd like to see Anzac the optimist this season. Let's hope the team can make us proud.

If any team had the amount of injuries we had in defense last season it would show. We do suffer more do to our style of play, but make no mistake, any club having to go through what we did in August (the club is to blame) would be thrilled to end up 3rd.

I agree we need to fine-tune our midfield, and we needed Arteta to use all of his experience to improve our defensive record, but with him in the side, our defensive shape was decent to good.

I don't disregard them, just feel that they (Aug & Jan) were primarily of our own doing OFF the pitch,
whilst the end of season burn out was as a result of too many players playing too many games.
IIRC we had the highest number of players with around 30 games or higher of any of the top4,
whilst we also had about 9 players on the 25 man squad who contributed less than double figures combined.

Agreed. We were made to pay for our (as you often say) reactive tendencies. Still, it isn't a valid criticism when discussing the merits of our defence ON the pitch this season. What happened off the pitch last season has no bearing on our defence on it now.

We still have a distinct lack of depth and cover in defence, just like last season, especially at the full back positions. If we get unlucky with injuries, and we usually do, we could easily end up in a similar situation to last year.

Case in point, right now it looks like we'll have either Jenkinson or Coq as our starting fullback going into the season untill sagna comes back, and who know when he comes back, or if he gets some complications or a new injury.

From the midfield and up we are looking pretty good, but we really need to strenghten our defence imo. If not, we have to get really lucky regarding injuries.

We still have a distinct lack of depth and cover in defence, just like last season, especially at the full back positions. If we get unlucky with injuries, and we usually do, we could easily end up in a similar situation to last year.

Case in point, right now it looks like we'll have either Jenkinson or Coq as our starting fullback going into the season untill sagna comes back, and who know when he comes back, or if he gets some complications or a new injury.

From the midfield and up we are looking pretty good, but we really need to strenghten our defence imo. If not, we have to get really lucky regarding injuries.

I think your overdoing this to be honest. Lets examine our defensive options.

Left back = Gibbs and Santos. They are both "decent" options. Not top class but generally offer a decent performance.

Centre back = Kos, Verms, Merte, DJ, Miquel. 5 centre back options! For me the first 3 of those are top level. DJ and Miquel are great 4th and 5th options with the latter possibly having the quality to become top level.

Add to that, Verms and Miquel can in emergency draft to the left leaving Kos/Merte centre. Or DJ and Kos can draft to the right leaving Verms/Merte in the middle.

Right back = Sagna is our only top level right back. DJ/Coq/Jenkinson are likely to share the burden of covering for him.

I agree a solid alternative to Sagna would be nice whilst the other three develop there game but to say we have a distinct lack of depth is overkill imo.

Debuchy would be on my shopping list as that man if i was Wenger