Thoughts of Arsenal’s summer activity from a Happy(ish) Gooner

Well…that could’ve been a bit better. Equally, it could’ve been much, much worse.

Now that the transfer window has slammed shut, its time to take stock and gather thoughts.

We were all expecting a marquee signing, probably in the shape of a midfielder. This never really materialised.

Mario Gotze was the one Arsene Wenger wanted. Word on the street is that he offered somewhere in the region of £30 million for the Dortmund playmaker. The other strong possibility was Yann M’Vila, but Rennes didn’t want to lose him and effectively priced him out of a move.

What we got instead was a last minute deal for Everton’s playmaker Mikel Arteta. We got him for a fraction of the price that the continental clubs were asking for. £10 million for a proven Premier League midfielder may well turn out to be an excellent piece of business.

Yossi Benayoun looks like an astute loan deal. He’s not going to start every game, even if he stays injury free. He is, however, vastly experienced and very capable.

Check this out:

If you had any doubts – Benayoun can do a job for us.

They were the two lastminute.com moments. Before these two midfielders signed up, Wenger was busy tying up deals for two defenders and a striker.

Per Mertesacker looks like a superb piece of business. Here is a player who is bordering on world class and he chose to come to us. I believe that he and TV5 can be a formidable centre-back pairing for us. His height gives us something new and he is vastly experienced – a great signing.

Andre Santos is Brazil’s first choice left-back – this tells you everything you need to know really. Ok defending, superb at marauding up the left flank. Effectively, we’ve swapped the third choice French left-back for the first choice Brazilian. I think this will work out well for all concerned.

Park Chu-Young should be a great signing. Let’s hope he doesn’t have to go back to South Korea to do his national service. He could turn out to be Wenger’s best piece of business. Time will tell.

Add to the mix the signings of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ryo Miyaichi, Joel Campbell, Carl Jenkinson and Gervinho and I think that we have improved the squad. Every team in the world would miss a player of Cesc Fabregas’ quality, but a change of formation should help fix that problem.

Samir Nasri has been replaced by Gervinho, Nicklas Bendtner has been replaced by Park Chu-Young, Gael Clichy has been replaced by Santos and our defence has been significantly improved by the acquisition of Mertesaker. Benayoun and, more importantly, Arteta, have added some much needed maturity to our midfield. Throw in some outstanding prospects and, as far as I’m concerned, we’re back in business.

Bring on Swansea.

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