I would say our strongest midfield would be Song,Arteta and Wilshere, it’s a decent midfield but would I expect that midfield to take control against bigger opposition? Not so sure. For backup/rotation we have Coquelin,Diaby,Rosicky and Ramsey, the problem is apart from Rosicky in my view, the others just…Average. Coquelin looks to be a promising young talent, but isn’t at the level we require just yet, Ramsey has been poor in my view, looks like he hasn’t recovered from that horrible injury he suffered, and we at the moment can’t afford to play him over Rosicky. Diaby is just, well injury plagued. What worries me more is the fact that being a team that plays through

Where to start? Arsenal football club, a club with amazing tradition and history and a club that plays football the way it should be played. That said, what persists in my head is the thought that our club embraces the new motto “Foward”, have we really?

I remember the years of Highbury, with a burning hot Thierry Henry, a driven Patrick Viera and a hearty Tony Adams, not to forget to mention the others. My point? At that point in time, winning trophies and reaching finals were to the Gooner a norm, every game at the Highbury was expected to be won not only by the fans but by the players too, but as time progressed, we notice we are in a time where we aren’t able to finish off the most average of teams, even at home, we are in a time where the club is satisfied with achieving 4th place and qualifying to play in Europe. Let me point out that never finishing below 4th place in all those years is a remarkable feat, but we are Arsenal Football Club, and in reality we should be aiming higher. Standards have not only dropped in terms of our ambition, but the quality and depth of our team as well.

I start by reviewing the team, and understandably different people have different views but here I go. In goal we have W.Szczesny, whom I’m a very big fan of but what concerns me is our back up keepers, Fabianski and Mannone who haven’t been all that convincing. Defence I’m proud to say if we field our first line of Santos Vermaelen Koscielny Sagna, it looks and sounds pretty solid to me, with Gibbs,Mertasacker, Djourou and Jenkinson for back up, our defence looks decent to me.

Now, I would say our strongest midfield would be Song,Arteta and Wilshere, it’s a decent midfield but would I expect that midfield to take control against bigger opposition? Not so sure. For backup/rotation we have Coquelin,Diaby,Rosicky and Ramsey, the problem is apart from Rosicky in my view, the others just…Average. Coquelin looks to be a promising young talent, but isn’t at the level we require just yet, Ramsey has been poor in my view, looks like he hasn’t recovered from that horrible injury he suffered, and we at the moment can’t afford to play him over Rosicky. Diaby is just, well injury plagued. What worries me more is the fact that being a team that plays through the middle, we haven’t really got a playmaker in the middle or a “Cesc Fabregas” in other words. Out of our CM’s, Alex Song has the most assists and he is our DM, that in itself speaks volumes, also too RVP has created the most chances in our team and he’s our main striker, what’s going on! Another factor which I believe is crucial is we lack that burst from midfield, that surging run, we lack that now and we make up for it with that boring, slow and predictable side to side passing, before we had Nasri, Fabregas and Wilshere who could all do so, now we have?

Up top, I really think we should play the three of Gervinho,Rvp,AOC. Simple. Walcott isn’t a player who should play for Arsenal, he can’t cross,dribble,pass,header,control, take on his man and finish with composure. Andrei Arshavin is a player I really like but unfortunately we can’t afford to keep on to a player who produces such performances week in week out, we need consistency. Chamakh and Park quite simply need to be sold. Up front is the weakest part of our squad which needs fixing urgently, if RVP suffers an injury (God forbid) then we are in trouble.

This summer is crucial for us to show we want to move “Forward”, Emmanuel Petit mentioned of Arsenal needing to sign five or six players, I agree but also feel we need to offload that much as well, Chamakh,Park,Squillaci,Walcott,Denilson,Bendtner,Vela all need to go and that would free up some cash to invest in new players, I also would add Ramsey to that list, to me it seems as though he’s suffering the same problem as Eduardo, just can’t recover from that injury. If we want to move “Forward”, we need a very productive summer in which we act fast this time, and not on deadline day. There are players out there for us to buy, we just need to act fast and do whatever we can to get them, Hazard for example knows Vermaelen from the Belgium national team, same with Podolski, he knows Mertasacker from the German national team. I have faith in Wenger, and am sure he will do us all right this summer.

No matter what anyone thinks, we DO have the right manager in charge, and he WILL get us out of this mess.

Keep the faith.

Mean Lean’s Response

I think what is clear is that Arsene has yet to reshape this new Arsenal squad. He wanted players in the summer but for whatever reason he was not able to obtain those players.

It has hurt Arsene Wenger that his previous team was not able to win trophies and it doesn’t always take one transfer window to get the exact team that you want. Hence loan signings like Yossi Benayoun and a low price purchase like Park.

Tomas Rosicky and Andrey Arshavin are heading towards the end of their Arsenal careers due to age or form so I expect the squad to keep evolving or as you put it, keep moving forward.

We have several players on loan like Bendtner that will more than likely be moved on. We have out of favour players like Squillaci and Almunia who will move on so as long as Robin van Persie stays with the club then I will enjoy the rebuilding of this squad as long as Arsene is given the money he needs to strengthen. If there is one thing in Wenger I trust to get right more often than not is the eye for a good player in the transfer market.

I must say, I am very surprised by this wave of criticism on the shoulders of Aaron Ramsey. The waves of negativity are increasing and getting larger and that is a real shame.

This is his first full season as an Arsenal player, he is still only 21 years of age and talk of selling him because he is not yet at the level we wish is hugely premature. He has all the tools needed to become a top player, what he is having problems doing is putting all those tools together consistently.

I am more than convinced that by 23-24 Ramsey will be hitting the back of the net regularly and dominating midfields up and down the country and in fact out of the country for Wales. He is the captain of Wales at 21 and you don’t captain your country if you do not have something about you.

I am sure he will change many an opinion and it won’t be long. He gives everything for the club, every time he steps onto the pitch and isn’t the cliche that if a player gives everything then he will be fully supported? He has been abused by Arsenal fans and mocked (not by yourself I want to add) and I find it beyond sad.

Personally I wanted to see a quality creative player come in over the summer to play in that role and I think judging from reports, that was the position that Arsene tried to fill with late bids for Mario Götze and Eden Hazard according to the German and French press at the time.

I hope that powder ‘was kept dry’ for a reason and the strengthening of this squad will improve dramatically this summer.