On 15th May 2004 after seeing off Leicester City with a 2-1 victory Arsenal were crowned champions of the English Premier League. History had been made as they became the first team since Preston North End to go an entire season without defeat. With the likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires, Arsenal played a brand of football that at times was truly breathtaking.
Since that time seven seasons have passed with the Gunners finishing in the top two on only one occasion. So with key individuals looking for moves away from the Emirates this summer and rival clubs in Manchester investing heavily in their playing squads, is challenging for the title a realistic aim for Arsenal?
Many Arsenal fans might point to key incidents during recent seasons as major turning points in their team’s effort to regain the Premiership title. A last minute James Mcfadden penalty gave Birmingham City an infamous 2-2 draw against Arsenal during the 2007/2008 season. At that time the Gunners were top of the table but a disappointing five wins from their last eleven games saw them finish in 3rd, four points behind champions Manchester United.
Flash-forward three seasons and the same opponents caused one of the shocks of recent times winning 2-1 in the Carling Cup final at Wembley. In a game that many only saw one outcome Birmingham City defied the odds grabbing a last minute winner courtesy of Obafemi Martins. The repercussions of this defeat on the team were clear to all as the Gunners league campaign again fizzled out this time finishing 4th, twelve points behind the again champions Manchester United.
So after seven consecutive seasons without a league title and a sixth without silverware it’s fair to say Arsenal fans were expecting a busy summer. With the assumption that a substantial transfer budget was available an experienced goalkeeper, centre half and centre midfielder were high on the fans wish list. But with the exception of adding Ivorian striker Gervinho to the ranks the club has instead found themselves struggling to hang on to its prize assets.
Following Gael Clichy’s £7m move to Manchester City and what seems the inevitable transfer of club captain Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona, Arsenal will be losing the last two members of ‘the invincibles’ squad. With manager Arsene Wenger recently stating on the clubs website he is only targeting “one or two more additions” he will undoubtedly be looking to the likes of Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs and Aaron Ramsey to establish themselves in the first team.
Not resting on their success of last season Manchester United have been extremely active in this transfer window welcoming three new additions to their squad. David De Gea, Ashley Young and Phil Jones have all made to move to Old Trafford with Sir Alex Ferguson also rumoured to be chasing a creative midfield player. Close rivals Manchester City whilst on the verge of losing Carlos Tèvez look to have a ready made replacement with Sergio Aguero expected to join the club from Atlètico Madrid. To go with the aforementioned Gael Clichy and the highly promising Stefan Savic a strong title challenge can again be expected from Manchester next season.
So with minimal transfer activity at the club thus far in terms of additions, both Manchester teams bolstering their respective squads and a new manager at Chelsea expected to bring fresh impetus and new ideas to Stamford Bridge. Can Arsenal realistically mount a strong title challenge next season? Or is Champions League qualification a more realistic goal?
Click HERE to see the original article. This article was first published on ThisIsFutbol
Written by Jamie Young
No… we are not same with ManU, ManC, Chelsea and even Liverpool…
Let just forget both the league an F.A but could be patially lucky about carlin cup.of course we are usually a champions league participant but never be the winner and will never be with this squard we are parading…we need a sharp stricker that can put us back up even when we are 1 or 2 goals down,like it was during the days of Thiery Henry and Denis Beckamps. John “GUNNERS 4 LIFE”
Well, it would be good to mention that United have also lost Scholes and Van Der Sar of their main lineup and also sold OShea and Wes Brown who where their main defensive reserves. That is a direct weakening and had to be replaced. They also know Giggs can’t play as much anymore and will probably be gone next season. So no wonder they needed to buy new players, a goalkeeper, a defensive reserve, a good offensive player (Not sure if it is Gibson or someone else they replace or just a general reinforcement). So United is somewhat weaker this year then last.
Arsenal has so far lost:
Denilson (no real loss),
Chlichy (Made alot of errors the last seasons).
If, and I do state it is a BIG IF, we loose Fab we will need to replace him, but I doubt that Barca will pay 40-45 mill euro and so it will never happen. If not we have no more need for a offensive central midfielder with Wilshere, Ramasy and Fabregas allready there. As reserves we have Diaby and Rosicky (Who should not really play anymore, makes tons of mistakes and fouls). Nasri I consider lost and I expect Mata is tapped up as a direct replacement for him and will be bought the second Nasri leaves.
I feel the only place we really need more cover is a central defender and there we are currently bidding as you well now so that seems it will get sorted. We don’t need 2, we allready have two very good CB’s and 4 is a luxury that no other team, including United can afford.
I would prefer another experienced top class striker and maybe a LB, but that is it.
In my personal view United is weakened, so is Chelsea, City is however stronger and so it will be a close race between the top 4 teams with Tottenham and Liverpool playing catch up. We got an good(15-20%) chance of winning, and that is as much as it will ever be.
Of course we can challenge for silverware this year. I’m as concerned as anyone about our lack of movement in the transfer market, but we are still good enough to challenge. We may not be the odds on favorites, but we are still in there.
Of course we are title challengers.
NO, UNLESS WENGER IS FIRED AND A NEW COACH COMES IN, GETS RID OF WENGER’S DEADWOOD AND IMPLEMENTS A DEFENSIVE STRATEGY. ARSENAL WILL BE BATTLING WITH VILLA FOR SEVENTH PLACE NEXT SEASON. THE BOARD AND MANAGER HAVE LOST THE PLOT AND THE OWNER IS HIDING SOMEWHERE IN A BUNKER WAITING TO GET A HEFT DIVIDEND FROM THE SWEAT OF MILLIONS OF ARSENAL FANS WITHOUT GIVING THEM A DECENT TEAM IN RETURN.THIS IS CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR AND IS UNACCEPTABLE.
the thing is, when our first team play ie. verm and kos centre backs, gerv, rvp, wilsh, sagna, shezza etc. we look good. rarely conceding goals and playing with edge, but with players such as squid, chamakh, vela, we look average at best. however, we are by far better than liverpool and we will be challenging, make no mistake… however, unless we sort out fab and the fat ponce soon, and buying mata and preferably vertonghen or samba or even jagielka, then we will really struggle… this is make or break and if wenger doesnt pull out the ‘war chest’ he sneakily hides under his bed shouting ‘non’ if anyone gets near it, we will be struggling…
biggest positives for me… having verminator back, gervinho looking a real handful, rvp being magnifique constantly, wilshere’s genius and ramsey getting game time
negatives… left back still a problem, neither gibbs nor traore are good enough defensively, squad depth at centre back as squid is shite and jd20 looks out of it after looking so good last year and still attempting to pass the ball into the net… atm we are probably still a 3rd or 4th place team… WE NEED TO IMPROVE
If arsenal fail to reinforce, they may not even smell the first four next season not to talk of trophy. From Emirate cup performance, we could see that our dear club is not just prepared for new season. Manchester defeated Red bull by 4 goals. Arsenal is gradually causing most of us headache . Wenger is a good coach but adamant. let him be mandated to buy or be shown the exit door. Unfortunately the whites are not like the blacks. Bring arsenal to Africa and see how wenger will be stoned and the fans will stop watching for arsen and the bored to enjoy alone. I’m sick and tired of all these disgrace from other fans of Chelsea and man u.
didnt beat red bulls, beat the best of the us league, a team that would have never played together before, so dont look into that too much
Looks like Wenger has left it too late to establish a competitive unit before the start of the season….no one will be surprised at that.
Arsenal ( I used to say `we`)are still carrying 2nd grade players or ones that are not suited.
Will Arsenal win the title? What a stupid question. Unless Wenger brings in two defenders and Mata this week it will all be over by Christmas.