The Armoury

I love Sagna. He blanked van Persie last week as well.

Five. Two.

Racially motivated for sure.

I'm not sure if he should come back again in January, but damn it was nice to see him there.

Oh and Arteta has Twitter: @m8arteta

Well if he can contribute in some way then bring him back.

I've not really watched much MLS at all, not sure how he's getting on.

I don't think we need him back, really. We've got enough attacking options. Wouldn't complain if he did come though.

He could just come back and play a motivational/inspirational role. Doesn't really have to make more than a few substitute appearances, unless there's an injury crisis or a major loss of form in a few of your strikers.

True, but he fulfilled that purpose last year. His comeback was a huge success and I'd hate for that to be tarnished if he came back again and didn't perform. I'm happy either way, really, but would rather we focus on making a couple of permanent deals in January.

Our squad is actually looking pretty strong with the returns of Gibbs and Gervinho. We've also got Diaby and Rosicky to come back. Once everyone's fit, I think our strongest side would look pretty solid and our bench is pretty healthy as well.


That's without Coquelin and Arshavin as well, both of who can do decent jobs when called upon. If we can stay injury-free we might be able to pick up some momentum over Christmas and continue to make up ground on Chelsea.

I was just about to post that.

It pleases me greatly that to earn tens of thousands of pounds a week they have to humiliate themselves routinely as part of club policy.

Great to have him back.

I think the only problem is a lot of the players that Arsenal have can blow hot and cold at the same time. So when you're hot you'd trouble any team in world football, but then when cold everyone just seems to woefully underperform.

Yeah, I'd probably agree with that. Just look at our performances against Milan last year for examples of that.

I think the win against Tottenham will be huge for us, and qualifying tonight. We seem to be a side low on confidence at times and obviously that transfers over to performances on the pitch. Now we've won a couple of important games and have our strongest eleven available (Gibbs has come back) we should hopefully be able to gather some consistency over the Christmas period.

We'll be announcing a new kit deal tomorrow with Adidas, going to be a base of £20m per season and some sort of profit-sharing bonus scheme that will take the total up to around £25m per season. As much as I prefer Nike, they are only paying us £8m a season so this will be great.

Maybe you'll get another kit like this

Used to have that one.

We might as well call him up. Rosicky has been "back in two weeks" for the past three months. I reckon he's dead.

Says everything when even the players accept 4th place as a success.

In other news.

I know it's been posted before but this is a really beautiful feature/ interview with Ian Wright.

Jack Wilshere is a cunt, Olson should've decked him

So my biggest issue as an Arsenal fan is that we actually now have a markedly lower calibre of player than Chelsea, United and City. In seasons past I've always thought we were just a couple of players short, but now it's not just the balance of the team, but the players themselves. The question I've got is are we using the players we have to the best of their abilities and I don't think we're doing that either. I could cope with a season of mediocrity if there was a sign the tactics were in place.

All of the sides I've mentioned have noticeable shortcomings so all isn't lost, but the 2 strengths that they all have is a flexibility of systems, either due to the flexibility of the players themselves (Chelsea, Man City) or just due to squad options (Man United). The second strength is all have a solid spine to the team, the one exception to the rule being the United GK position.

So, what's the point of all this? For me it's a chance to look at how Arsenal stack up as a team and where the consistent thread is. I'll start with the formation, like all of the above Arsenal tend to favour the 4-5-1 formation, but unlike the earlier Wenger reign this system just isn't fluid anymore, it's rigid and predictable. Where the others all have the options to either change the formation or the approach, Arsenal lack the players or willingness to do this. The front 3 consist of a main striker and 2 winger forwards, Gervinho and Podolski tend to fill the wider roles and whilst both have their upside, the main downsides are unlike all of the above, neither player has the composure to play the final ball.
Giroud has potential and offers Arsenal a man they can hit, something they've lacked since Adebayor, but with no Mata, No Silva and no Young you have nobody to hit him. Gervinho has the pace and the raw skill to cause problems, but he suffers from a complete lack of a footballing brain, Podolski on the other hand is adept at playing as a wide forward as is the criminally underused Theo Walcott, but what bugs me is that both men (Podolski and Walcott) lack the winger mentality of driving for the line and going for the cross or the attacking midfield mentality of floating inside and looking for the through ball. Both to me look more comfortable centrally, Podolski has the ability to be the 2nd striker and float out into the channels as does Walcott, but in my mind playing one of them off of Giroud would be far more dangerous than the 3 man wide attack.

Most of Arsenals critics look at the defence and how shaky it gets and that's true, but when I look back on that individual basis, I don't get concerned. Mertesacker and Vermaelen are good defenders and one offers power and height whilst the other offers the pace and footballing quality, they're not perfect, but I don't see this area as a massive issue and despite struggling a bit for form Szczesny is a good goalkeeper with a great career in front of him. Sagna is a very good right back, though at left-back Arsenal look weak. Typically an area where Wenger moulds an attacking pacy winger into a full-back, he's getting progressively worse at it, from the world-class Ashley Cole to perennial France understudy Clichy to Keiran Gibbs. To me he's just not first-team material, but when faced with the prospect of André Santos what can you do?

Finally what I consider to be Arsenal's biggest downfall, midfield. This is not an area Arsenal lack quality and indeed it's probably the strongest area individually that Arsenal have, but as a unit this is where it all goes wrong. First it was Nasri and Cesc, although I don't see this as a concern at the moment as I think Cazorla is more than a match for Nasri and a fit again Jack Wilshere whilst not of the same quality as Cesc, is still a potentially world class midfielder and between them, that is where the creativity of the Arsenal team lies, but who's the third man in the middle? With Chelsea and Man City there's balance, both teams play with 2 more rounded midfielders usually, something Arsenal just don't have. Arteta is a capable and determined player, but despite his awful positional sense, Alex Song was simply better for the job of providing a physical, energetic presence and he added a range of passing to his play that had been missing since Cesc, to me he's the biggest loss we've suffered. Aaron Ramsay is not the player he promised to be, a quality player on his day, but that's been too few and far between since his injury and it's time to cut the cord and Rosicky as much as I love him is just not a worker, if anything he can back-up Cazorla, but suicidal if partnered with him.

My conclusion, I think Wenger should go 4-3-1-2 and try out Podolski or Walcott off of Giroud. The best delivery in the team comes from Sagna from wide, but both Wilshere and Cazorla can thread passes, there's just no pace with Giroud to break the line, something Podolski or Walcott can add. As far as priority buys, it has to be a midfielder or 2. Suggestions would be Moussa Sissoko, Mohamed Diamé, Marouane Fellaini and Yann M'Villa.

My suggestions aren't revolutionary, but surely Wenger has to see it soon. I'm sorry, but as much as I believe in Diaby's potential, it will never be fulfilled and Gervinho is an impact sub at best, never, never a striker.

When Diaby comes back - and he will - we'll win the league. Just sit back and relax, and have a little patience.