How Wenger can make Arsenal serious title contenders

The third player is a defensive midfielder. The annihilation we suffered at City, Chelsea and Liverpool were primarily due to that weakness. Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta are already past their best, so a younger dynamic, powerful defensive midfielder is an almighty necessity. There was talk of Lars Bender whose possible arrival would have added a lot. However, he disappointed me with his comments in which he claimed to not being ready to move to a bigger club yet. Upon such comments, I began to doubt his mentality and whether he would not crumble under the pressure of expectations at Arsenal. I gave up on him and looked at other options; Morgan Schneiderlin and Javi Martinez would be ideal. The Frenchman would be very easy to get as Southampton would not be able to resist Wenger’s advances, and he would be a good buy. But it is the gangly Spaniard who would provide real presence, power, tenacity and bite in midfield. He is an absolute monster, and I don’t think he’s a Pep Guardiola type of player, which is why he has not had a prominent role in his team, making cameo appearances as a midfield substitute and sometimes being used as a make-shift centre-back, with his place being taken by Philip Lahm – a natural right-back! I believe that if Wenger got serious with him, he would be able to land him this summer.

As for the right-back, many might not agree with me here but for me we don’t need a replacement in this position as Carl Jenkinson is more than capable of making the position his own, and I will not b surprised if Wenger does not sign a new full-back. Going by history, Wenger has always found solutions from within. For example, when we lost Sylvinho to Barca, Wenger promoted Ashley Cole as his first-choice left-back. He did the same when he made Gael Clichy first-choice when Cole left for Chelsea despite Clichy having become something of an injury-prone player since his move from Caen in 2003. And most recently, it was Kieran Gibbs who became number one after Clichy left for City, and Given Jenkinson’s performance in the starting XI two seasons ago, when Sagna started the season injured, there’s no reason why Wenger shouldn’t entrust him with a starting berth come next season, with Hector Bellerin deputizing, and, with the signing of a new defensive midfielder, Flamini too will be considered as back up for that position, a role he took severally during his time at the San Siro.

Finally, we need a new goalkeeper to play second fiddle to Wojciech Szczesny now that Lukasz Fabianski has departed for Swansea.

A fourth choice centre-back is a necessity too as having only three is a risky venture. But perhaps Wenger should use this summer’s pre-season to test a system of three at the back in order to accommodate Thomas Vermaelen. He needs to play. He’s too good to sit on the bench permanently. If Wenger employed three at the back and used it depending on which opponents we played, it would make Vermaelen happy enough to drop the idea of wanting to leave the club because getting a player like him to only sit on the bench will not be possible. Wenger should do something to change his situation otherwise Thomas will leave and we could end up signing another Sebastien Squillaci’s as third and fourth choice centre-backs!!!