Can the signing of this man end our trophy drought?

Ok, right off the bat, I’m going to make this well known – I do not for one second believe we will win the Premier League next year.

This year has been a sort of rodeo, where the bull is the top four. Next year in the league for us should be a consolidation season, cementing our place as a comfortable top four team.

This seems counter productive, and some people will say ‘ we’re Arsenal, we shouldn’t just settle for top four,’ to this my response would be – get with the times.

As it stands, we are not good enough to win the league, and we don’t have a god given right to challenge just because of our history. With a fully fit Jack Wilshere and a season where we actually have the luxury of full-backs, I believe we can have a fairly successful league season next year, especially since I truly believe Robin van Persie will sign a new contract.

However, in a sense, I do agree that we need something. Some small victory to restore faith in our abilities. We’ve come close several times in the last few years, reaching finals and semi-finals, to be undone, mostly by our own shortcomings. However, the signing of Lukas Podolski can be the catalyst for some cup success next year.

Here’s why:

One of the main reasons for our lack of success was because of our lack of depth in the squad. We simply didn’t have enough quality to compete in four competitions at any given time and this led to injuries which, because we didn’t have the depth in the squad, led to us losing those various semi-finals and finals. Think back to Birmingham last year, we lost Van Persie during the match, and were missing Fabregas, Vermaelen and Walcott from previous injuries. This meant that four of our best players were missing, and for cover, we had an out-of-form trio of Bendtner, Rosicky and Arshavin and the inexperienced Djourou. We don’t need to recount what happened next.

However, imagine ourselves in the position next season. Van Persie gets injured, and we have a capable replacement in Podolski. If Walcott gets injured, we again have Podolski or Chamberlain to call upon. Vermaelen injured? Mertesacker steps in. If the signing of Yann M’Vila goes through, this means we essentially have enough cover to replace our entire midfield. We already have enough cover for every defensive position (Vermaelen/Mertesacker, Koscielny/Djourou, Sagna/Jenkinson and Gibbs/Santos) and if the signing of Podolski goes through and we don’t loan Miyaichi out, then we have the same depth up front. And the cover is of good quality. This essentially means that we could field an entirely different side in cup matches as we do in league and European matches. Although, due to the inevitable injuries, it never works out this way.

So injuries permitting and dependant on form, our first choice XI could look a little like this:

Szczesny

Sagna          Koscielny          Vermaelen          Gibbs

Song          Arteta

Wilshere

Walcott                                       Gervinho/Podolski

Van Persie

That is the team (apart from Jack) which has managed to recover from its abysmal start to the season to being right in there in the battle for the top four. So with Jack back, and Podolski joining and hopefully not starting a season like that ever again, we should be able to do the same next season.

In the cups however, we have a chance to rest our ‘league team’ in the earlier round, and could potentially play a completely different starting XI which would look something like this:

Fabianski

Jenkinson          Djourou          Mertesacker          Santos

M’Vila/Coquelin          Diaby

Ramsey

Chamberlain                                 Miyaichi

Podolski

Which I think most of you will agree is no shabby team and, depending on the difficulty of the draw, could definitely get us at least into the quarters/semi finals of the Carling Cup and the F.A Cup.

This will also benefit our endeavours in the league, as it allows more rest to key players, such as Van Persie, reducing the risk of injury.

So with the signing of Podolski and the development of some of the youth players, we should be able to field a side stronger than most other Premier League sides ‘second’ teams, and maybe, just maybe, end our trophy drought.

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