Good evening.
I've been away a bit longer than I expected and quite a few things happened in my absence. Starting with:
Transfers
Before you get overly excited, there's only one player we've bought and it's not someone in the Scnheiderlin's or Hummels's mould: it's a 17-year-old Krystian Bielik from Legia Warsaw. He's tall (6'2 feet), he's young and he's completely unknown. A perfect Wenger signing, though I'm reserving any judgement on the player until I've seen him in red-and-white. It would be overly unfair to criticise someone until you've seen him play. I'm not sure how much time will elapse until it happens, however, cause the Pole himself admitted he's not yet ready for first team football.
Elsewhere, we have two players in the "out" category. First is Yaya Sanogo, who's left on a loan deal till the end of the season. He'll be joining Crystal Palace, who are fighting the relegation battle under the management of Alan Pardew and I think it's a good move for all parties concerned. Sanogo will get his chances, he may get regular playing time in the Premier League and Palace's fight to stay up should toughen the Frenchman psychologically. Maybe Hull would have been a better destination, that with Hernandez and Jelavic out injured, but I don't know whether they were actually interested in Yaya's services. Case closed.
The other player to leave us (permanently, this time) is Benik Afobe. He's joined forces with Wolves after having a stormer of a season at MK Dons (19 goals in 30 appearances) and, while this transfer is a bit surprising, it's not entirely unreasonable. The man will soon turn 22 and he is very far behind in the pecking order for first team football at Arsenal. Both Sanogo and Akpom have leapfrogged Afobe, but it's not like these two have regular practice, isn't it? So all the best for Benik, I'll remember him as a guy who made a brace against United. Not too shabby.
The injures
The sun rises every day, Samsung's phones get bigger and bigger displays and Arsenal suffers one injury after another. It's the norm, the usual course of events and I think we won't see an injury-free Arsenal anytime soon.
After receiving horrendous news about Debuchy (the Frenchman had surgery on a dislocated shoulder and will spend another three months sidelined), it has now become known Mikel Arteta also was operated on. The Spaniard will spend further six weeks out of the game.
On Debuchy Arsene said:
"He is destroyed because he is such a keen player, so professional, so willing. It is his first year here and of course he is embarrassed. But it is not his fault. He was pushed. The push was not needed."
Wenger stopped just short of saying that Arnautovic is the most disgusting piece of meat to have ever walked this earth. Everyone knows there are more violent and less violent teams in the PL and the fact that the former suffer because of the latter is, frankly, embarrassing. On the FA, who hide behind rules, and on the referees, who are having the worst season in my memory (yes, collectively!). Fans are always willing to jump to the defense of their team and blame everything on external factors, but I honestly haven't seen such a poor level of refereeing ever before. If several years ago there were only selective games where referees were bad, this year they've all hit an all-time low.
Arteta, meanwhile, is the player we've missed most this season. Both Flamini and Coquelin cannot replicate what our captain brings to the team and this makes me wish we've signed Cabaye last summer. He was up for grabs for a reasonable sum of money and could have come in handy. However, Arsene is still looking at the defensive department, rather than at our midfield (can't he look at both?):
"He (Ilkay Gundogan, ladies and gentlemen) is not a defender. At the moment we are more looking for the defensive department."
Is Arsene just playing the cards close to his chest? Or is he waiting to snatch an ideal player in the summer, someone like Morgan Schneiderlin? I don't know, though sometimes I really crave to understand the manager thinking process.
However, I'm not particularly worried we haven't brought any senior player in yet. We all know the market is more mobile in the last couple of days of the window and I expect this one to be no different.
Though I do expect us to sign some players this time.
That's it for now. Back tomorrow with a preview of the City clash.
Until then
Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)
I've been away a bit longer than I expected and quite a few things happened in my absence. Starting with:
Transfers
Before you get overly excited, there's only one player we've bought and it's not someone in the Scnheiderlin's or Hummels's mould: it's a 17-year-old Krystian Bielik from Legia Warsaw. He's tall (6'2 feet), he's young and he's completely unknown. A perfect Wenger signing, though I'm reserving any judgement on the player until I've seen him in red-and-white. It would be overly unfair to criticise someone until you've seen him play. I'm not sure how much time will elapse until it happens, however, cause the Pole himself admitted he's not yet ready for first team football.
Elsewhere, we have two players in the "out" category. First is Yaya Sanogo, who's left on a loan deal till the end of the season. He'll be joining Crystal Palace, who are fighting the relegation battle under the management of Alan Pardew and I think it's a good move for all parties concerned. Sanogo will get his chances, he may get regular playing time in the Premier League and Palace's fight to stay up should toughen the Frenchman psychologically. Maybe Hull would have been a better destination, that with Hernandez and Jelavic out injured, but I don't know whether they were actually interested in Yaya's services. Case closed.
The other player to leave us (permanently, this time) is Benik Afobe. He's joined forces with Wolves after having a stormer of a season at MK Dons (19 goals in 30 appearances) and, while this transfer is a bit surprising, it's not entirely unreasonable. The man will soon turn 22 and he is very far behind in the pecking order for first team football at Arsenal. Both Sanogo and Akpom have leapfrogged Afobe, but it's not like these two have regular practice, isn't it? So all the best for Benik, I'll remember him as a guy who made a brace against United. Not too shabby.
The injures
The sun rises every day, Samsung's phones get bigger and bigger displays and Arsenal suffers one injury after another. It's the norm, the usual course of events and I think we won't see an injury-free Arsenal anytime soon.
After receiving horrendous news about Debuchy (the Frenchman had surgery on a dislocated shoulder and will spend another three months sidelined), it has now become known Mikel Arteta also was operated on. The Spaniard will spend further six weeks out of the game.
On Debuchy Arsene said:
"He is destroyed because he is such a keen player, so professional, so willing. It is his first year here and of course he is embarrassed. But it is not his fault. He was pushed. The push was not needed."
Wenger stopped just short of saying that Arnautovic is the most disgusting piece of meat to have ever walked this earth. Everyone knows there are more violent and less violent teams in the PL and the fact that the former suffer because of the latter is, frankly, embarrassing. On the FA, who hide behind rules, and on the referees, who are having the worst season in my memory (yes, collectively!). Fans are always willing to jump to the defense of their team and blame everything on external factors, but I honestly haven't seen such a poor level of refereeing ever before. If several years ago there were only selective games where referees were bad, this year they've all hit an all-time low.
Arteta, meanwhile, is the player we've missed most this season. Both Flamini and Coquelin cannot replicate what our captain brings to the team and this makes me wish we've signed Cabaye last summer. He was up for grabs for a reasonable sum of money and could have come in handy. However, Arsene is still looking at the defensive department, rather than at our midfield (can't he look at both?):
"He (Ilkay Gundogan, ladies and gentlemen) is not a defender. At the moment we are more looking for the defensive department."
Is Arsene just playing the cards close to his chest? Or is he waiting to snatch an ideal player in the summer, someone like Morgan Schneiderlin? I don't know, though sometimes I really crave to understand the manager thinking process.
However, I'm not particularly worried we haven't brought any senior player in yet. We all know the market is more mobile in the last couple of days of the window and I expect this one to be no different.
Though I do expect us to sign some players this time.
That's it for now. Back tomorrow with a preview of the City clash.
Until then
Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)