Morning all,
we should kick off with our Champions League draw, made yesterday evening although it felt like it took decades to complete. I can’t be alone in not wanting to hear Peter Schmeichel whispering things to the lady while UEFA wank themselves off over some former Barcelona player who is playing with their balls.
Eventually though, we discovered that we were in Group F, facing Bayern Munich, Olympiakos and Dynamo Zagreb. If it all feels a bit familiar, well that’s because it is. We’ve played Bayern fairly regularly in recent seasons, and Olympiakos have been opponents three times since the 2009/10 season. Interestingly, we’ve never beaten them out there, but as folks pointed out to me on Twitter, those games are usually dead rubbers and we play kids and assorted janitorial staff.
You can find a full run down of our previous games against our group stage opponents right here. In terms of the group itself, it’s one that we’ll probably find hard to win given the quality of Bayern, but you never know. I’m all for making the Champions League more about playing the best teams more often, and at least it will add some variety to the knock-out stages should we make it through. We’ve had a few good results against Bayern recently too, so who knows? It’ll be fun trying and I hope we make Pep lose his temper because that’s one of the best things when it happens. He gets so crotchety.
Away from that the manager had his press conference yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s game against Newcastle, and the main news is that we’re likely to be without Per Mertesacker, who has a chest infection, while Laurent Koscielny was to have a fitness test yesterday for his back problem. Of the two Per is rated least likely to make it, but if his erstwhile partner doesn’t make it either, the manager has to decide if the Chambers/Gabriel partnership is the way to go.
Having stuck with it for the duration of the Liverpool game, I suspect he’d probably do likewise tomorrow. The alternatives, using either Nacho Monreal or Mathieu Debuchy, are not entirely convincing, and I think if you’re going to declare a young player one of your central defenders for the season, you should play him when the need arises. Anyway, a bit more on that tomorrow.
As ever, Wenger was asked about transfers and the possibility of further arrivals before the window closes on Tuesday evening. On the one hand he was hopeful:
I am always confident that a last-minute situation or solution is available, because the transfer market is especially moving in the last four or five days. We have specific targets but sometimes you get an idea from somebody because you didn’t know that the player you like was available and if you get an opportunity you do it. We work very hard, you know I have a team around me who work day and night to find good solutions.
On the other hand though:
But at the moment we are not close to signing anyone.
As I said during this week or last, there’s literally no end of players we could buy, simply because we have more money and more stature than most clubs out there. Even if we’re not at the top level of European giants, we’re still an attractive place to be. We have a pretty good squad with some pretty good players, but like most squads at most clubs it can be improved. I would very much like us to sign a striker who would make us better, I think the fact the manager is looking for more goals from his team this season suggests that he’s aware this is an area of the team that could be upgraded.
But as much as I’d like us to do that, I’m not sure we need another striker at the same level as the ones we already have. Does bringing in a player like signal genuine ambition or would it be a signing to placate those who shout loudly for them (and we know Arsenal are never going to make that kind of purchase anyway)? If you already have a Giroud and a Welbeck, do you need another one or something better?
In the absence of that kind of striker, maybe the ‘solution’ (an interesting choice of word from Wenger when you think about it), is to find a different kind of player who can make an impact. Again, I come back to investment in someone who can contribute now and develop well into the future. While it’s tough to draw parallels with Man City simply because of their deep, deep pockets, if they bring in Kevin de Bruyne from Wolfsburg, they’ll have forked out over £100m in transfer fees alone for him and Raheem Sterling – aged 24 and 20 respectively (you down with FFP, yeah you know me).
United have invested in 21 year old Memphis, Liverpool in 23 year old Firmino. The top shelf strikers aren’t there, so you have to look at other ways to improve your team both now and as these players develop. Maybe not all of them will do what the clubs want, there’s no guarantee of a sure thing in this area the transfer market, but it’s been a while since Arsene uncovered a hidden gem and we could probably use one right now.
I’m very much of the opinion that we’ve done good business in the last two years, the quality of the player we bring in is much improved, and while I can see how certain players can contribute more this season, it still feels as if we’re missing what it takes to really have a go at the title. Whether we find that between now and Tuesday at 6pm remains to be seen.
For more on transfers, Tim Stillman’s column this week is well worth a read.
Right then, onto this weeks Arsecast, and on this week’s show I struggle, much like Arsenal, to get things going but eventually manage to kick things off. I’m joined by @eastlower to discuss the Champions League draw, our lack of goalscoring, what we might do in the transfer market and everything else that’s going on this week. We have a look ahead to the Newcastle game tomorrow, there’s a dramatic reading, and we run into a new character called Ned Spend.
You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download the Arsecast directly, use the link below the player, and if you are a regular listener via iTunes, if you would be so kind as to leave a review/rating that would be greatly appreciated.
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And that’s just about that. We’ll have news throughout the day on Arseblog News, and just a reminder that all t-shirts and hoodies in the store are available at a 15% discount if you use the code ‘ARSEBLOG 15‘ – click here to check out what’s on offer.
Till tomorrow.
