The One and Only Arsenal Blog (except for the other 150!)
A lot of Arsenal fans and people in the football media, such as our old striker Ian Wright who is both, have been a little disappointed so far this season in how much we have seen from the big summer signing Granit Xhaka.
The Swiss international has started the two Premier League games against Leicester City and Watford and I think he did pretty well. Apart from that, however, Wenger has started with Xhaka on the bench and he did not feature at all against Southampton last weekend.
Unless Stan Kroenke and the Arsenal board have a major turnaround in the next few weeks then it looks like Arsenal fans will be stuck with Arsene Wenger as the manager for one more year at least, for better or worse. But why are the Gunners willing to keep putting faith in a manager who has consistently failed to challenge for the title in over a decade of disappointment?
I have seen various theories, ranging from the old favourite about Kroenke knowing he is on a good thing as we keep getting into the Champions League without spending money to the suggestion that Arsenal cannot find the right man to replace him and are worried about us hitting the skids like Man United did with David Moyes.
After seeing Arsenal slip up once again this season, with just a point away to West Ham when all three were required and looked in the bag when we were 2-0 up and just minutes away from the halftime break, most Arsenal fans have accepted what we already suspected strongly, that the Gunners would not be crowned EPL champions this season.
But Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal players are defiant and insist that it is not all over yet, although the crowd may be on the pitch. The attitude in the Arsenal dressing room was summed up by our Egypt international star Mohamed Elneny, with post match comments reported by Arsenal.com.
Arsene Wenger must have luiked what he saw from the young Gunner Alex Iwobi whern he started ahead of more experienced Arsenal forwards like Theo Walcott and Joel Campbell against Barcelona on Wednesday night, because today the boss has handed the talented youngstrer his first ever start in the Premier League.
Perhaps Wenger is hoping that the exuberance and fearlessness of youth is better than the pressure that the older stars seem to be struggling to cope with. We certainly need to get at the home team and get them on the back foot, because if we don’t I can see Arsenal struggling, especially in the latter stages of the match when the players start to feel the effects of two games in the previous six days.
There were always going to be some changes made to the Arsenal starting line up for this FA cup 5th round match against Hull City. Arsene Wenger has always used these cup games top rotate his squad and give sime valuable first team experience and game time to some of the lesser used members of the squad.
And with our opponents today having bigger fish to fry with their battle for promotion to the Premier League and a busy fixture list, the boss has a great chance to make changes and still have a great chance to win the match and qualify.
With Arsenal really needing to take all three points from the Premier League home game against Chelsea this afternoon, Arsene Wenger will have been hugely relieved to see two of the club’s best and most important players back in training this week.
And barring any last minute setback, both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil will be fit to feature at the Emirates Stadium today. If that is the case you do not need me to tell you that the boss will put them straight back into the first team.
A lot of Arsenal fans will already be thinking, perhaps with some real concern, that Arsene Wenger has already finished with his dealing in the transfer market during the winter window. We have yet to see the new signing in action but it does appear that just like last year when the Frenchman signed the Brazilian centre back Gabriel in January, Wenger has identified the part of the pitch where Arsenal are most in need of strengthening and done something about it.
I am really not too sure about the Arsenal transfer rumour to be honest, especially if the talk about the young French midfielder Francis Coquelin being back in training and close to an Arsenal return are true.
But Metro are reporting that Arsene Wenger has not finished strengthening the Gunners in midfield this month and is planning to make the Southampton and Kenya star Victor Wanyama the second Arsenal signing of the January transfer window.
If the latest Arsenal transfer rumours doing the rounds are not just hot air, then it could be that the current Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta could soon be leaving the club and going to join his former team mates Alex Song and the on loan right back Carl Jenkinson, as Metro is reporting that our Premier League rivals West Ham are keen to take the Spaniard during the January transfer window.
Don´t you just love transfer windows, Arsenal fans? No? What’s the matter don´t you like seeing all Arsenal’s Premier League rivals spending money like it is going out of fashion only to be told by Arsene Wenger when the window has closed and we have no new players that there was just no one out there?