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The controversial bit, three at the back. With the discipline of M'Vila and Arteta in front of the CB's, as well as the defensive ability of the wide men I really feel we could pull this off. We are blessed with quick defenders, Koscielny and Vermaelen really do have pace and that's exactly what they would need sweeping up balls at the back with Song biting at attackers, breaking up play much like a DM but deeper. Song gets a hard time sometimes from fans but without the burden

The former can be solved in a somewhat straightforward manner. Prune the squad of underperforming and overpaid members (you know who they are) and replace them with genuine quality that can be relied upon to step up. Oh, and keep RvP. I personally have taken great heart in the acquisition of Lukas Podolski and am equally excited by the rumours surrounding Yann M'Vila. I sense a shift in the Club's recruitment policy over the past twelve-months and I hope my instinct doesn't prove to be a mirage. Signings of the calibre and experience of Arteta, Mertesacker and Podolski give me optimism that change is afoot. A couple more arrivals in this bracket plus

Some might say that M’Vila isn’t necessarily the answer with questions regarding his quality and temperament still in doubt. I haven’t seen much and the most I have seen of him are youtube videos. But the stats do back up the fact that defensively he is more solid than Song. The margin isn’t much but football is a game that is decided by the smallest of margins. With 3.1 tackles a game and with 2.5 interceptions, M’Vila’s stats are better than those of Song who has managed

Our current squad do have some quality, and a lot of depth - some in the form of deadweight & ghost workers. I reckon if we could just bring in another 2 or 3 more fine players like Podolski, while keeping hold on our current key players, we could really, truly, finally challenge at the highest level with sufficient quality depth. Many fans are yearning for new quality names at the back of their jerseys, and others waiting to jump on the bandwagon when Arsenal go out to show more

Benayoun's early goal was not going to be the only similarity to the Norwich game. Andre Santos had dashed inside to close down a passing option, Vermaelen was goal side of Shane Long but decided to push out and catch the forward in an offside position which to be fair, he was exactly that. The assistant referee did not give the call and Long raced clear to side foot past Szczesny. At that stage of the game with the Norwich errors in mind, the sensible option may have been to

I'll talk about the players we WON'T sign this summer, the players I think we should and could buy, and finally what I think will actually happen. So to get one thing straight, we will not buy any player that other clubs of similar or bigger stature to us are interested in buying, we won't go into a bidding war with the likes of City, Utd, chelsea ...etc. so Hazard won't be coming, the likes of Falcao, Cavani, Gotze won't be coming and I don't think Yan M'villa will be as well. I know there has

I must say the fact that Alex Song only has one more year on his contract and now that we have purchased M'Vila makes me worry a little. I worry that Arsene has made an early move because he knows something that we do not about our current number 17. I bloody well hope not and I hope Alex signs a new deal along with Theo and Robin very soon. It

Watching the game on Saturday reminded me of our game against QPR away, particularly Dikhate’s goal, in other words, the absence of our midfield. In football, defending isn’t only carried out by the defenders, rather it should be done by every man on the field, from the strikers pressuring the opposition’s defenders to the goalkeeper sweeping up any balls that drop behind the defence. Saturday’s game highlighted how important it is for the midfielders in particular to carry out their defensive duties, many a time in Saturday’s game the middle of the park was vacant only for the opposition to attack, which they did, leaving us embarrassingly exposed. For the first goal, Benayoun allowed Norwich’s full back to make that

Jack Wilshere came into the team the following year and played a duel role with Alex Song. Both players having the licensee to join Cesc Fabregas in a bid to create chances, especially against more defensively minded opposition. This season Mikel Arteta has made the Wilshere position his own albeit in a different way. Arteta who has played as a defensive

We have not played two direct attacking wide forwards in the same game since we beat Aston Villa at home in early March, that day Gervinho and Walcott terrorised Villa. I would love for us to be that direct today and really go at Norwich from the start. That would mean Oxlade-Chamberlain starting on the right and Gervinho on the left of Robin van Persie. I suspect Yossi Benayoun will retain his