[eoininho]

After last season I would never write them off, they will be very foolish if some1 doesn't come in as cover for the back four, Toure as Maleria of all things and he's their best defender
Nasri will take over from Hleb no big worries there, but they need a replacement for Flamini who was excellent last year, and they have also allowed Gilberto leave,.. another foolish loss of an experienced player!!

Vela and Walcott might, but probably wont excell next year

Fabregas will have to be the main man AGAIN, he'll start off magnificantly as you would expect, I think he is the best midfielder in the world now.. but he will be expected to play every game and as last year proved he may well run out of steam!

V Persie I expect will have a good season, I will have him in my Fantasy team, he'll want to make up for last year! Adebayor may or may not go, either way I expect that wont be a problem as a replacement will be brought in

In Conclusion they:
Desperately need a Centre Half 9they were foolish not to go for Richard Dunne when they had a chance!)
Desperately need a Midfielder of the Hargreaves / Flamini mould .. they should just fork out for Barry!
Resolve the Adebayor issue one way or another

Definitely a top 4 place, simply because no1 else is good enough / consistent enough... but in the coming years they will be more and more exposed if they dont make quality signings!!

[CROoney]

Originally Posted by Jazz 16

Normally Im a lot more worried about the threat they pose. To be fair to them
they only finished 4 points behind us and were unlucky not to get to the CL
semi's.

But wtf is going on at the Emirates?
They have lost Flamini, Hleb, Lehmann and might lose Adebayor.
They have signed Nasri, who admitedly is an excellent prospect. He has been
running the show in Marseille for some time and the 'new Zidane' tag doesnt
seem to phase him.

But they seem to be losing the plot somewhat and need to start buying some
players before its too late. We only need a striker where as they need a few more
players to at least replace the ones that have gone.

Even Hleb is worried ;-):- http://www.sportinglife.com/football...l&PREV_SEASON=
They surprised us all last season with their great football and were unlucky
in some respects with injuries and some suspect decisions.

But what do you expect from them this season? 2nd? 3rd? 4th? 5th?
Thoughts?

Who cares ???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want them dead and buried !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Arsenal seem to always be written off but always seem to respond. i see them as usual suspects. They have enough firepower up front to defeat anyone

[Jazz 16]

Originally Posted by CROoney

Who cares ???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want them dead and buried !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I care It's good to keep an eye on how our main rivals are doing.
Keep them in check adn see what they are up to

[ARBUCKS]

They will be there about all season, Its is Arsenal but i dotn except them to finish about 3rd... United's and Chelsea's squads are far better so i see them finishing 3rd-4th next season

[RedForceRising]

Arsene Wenger manages to do wonderful things with a limited budget. Much better than that loser Benitez.

The line-up that Sparkic put up looks strong and they should not be underestimated at any cost.

But, they still do not have enough steel in defence.

They need two world class centre backs and I'm not sure where they would be coming from. Gallas would be on the subs bench at Man Utd, Chelsea and even at Liverpool he would not be a regular.

Kolo Toure is alright, but still not on the same level as Vidic, Rio, Terry and Carvalho.

It's a blaessing that they have Bakari Sagna, because this guy is very, very good and help his centre backs a lot!

BTW, It's the same with Spurs. they've bought in some good midfield players in dos santos and Modric, but their problem is not scoring goals - their problem is they conceed too many goals.

Back to L'Arse.....

Without Flamini the midfield is lacking some grit and defensive strength. They will beat most teams - that's a given, but I don't think they will take points of man Utd this season.

In fact, if it weren't for some last minute miracles, they wouldn;t have taken any points off us or Aston Villa at home last season.

they will be good, but not title contenders.

[Cappy]

doesnt help that Kolo Toure just came down with Malaria...but I am not worried about them this year as much last year...I think they will slip back a little bit, then take a big step forward the next year...the biggest question for them is who is going to do all the running so cesc doesnt have to? i mean hleb and flamini never stopped either winning the ball back and making runs for him as well...not to mention that RVP seems to be almost a Dutch Saha

[CROoney]

Originally Posted by carlyluvsunited

i honestly thought i couldn't hate them more but after seeing this video - i guess i was wrong !!!!

[quote=RedForceRising]Arsene Wenger manages to do wonderful things with a limited budget. Much better than that loser Benitez.

The line-up that Sparkic put up looks strong and they should not be underestimated at any cost.

But, they still do not have enough steel in defence.

They need two world class centre backs and I'm not sure where they would be coming from. Gallas would be on the subs bench at Man Utd, Chelsea and even at Liverpool he would not be a regular.

Kolo Toure is alright, but still not on the same level as Vidic, Rio, Terry and Carvalho.

It's a blaessing that they have Bakari Sagna, because this guy is very, very good and help his centre backs a lot!

BTW, It's the same with Spurs. they've bought in some good midfield players in dos santos and Modric, but their problem is not scoring goals - their problem is they conceed too many goals.

Back to L'Arse.....

Without Flamini the midfield is lacking some grit and defensive strength. They will beat most teams - that's a given, but I don't think they will take points of man Utd this season.

In fact, if it weren't for some last minute miracles, they wouldn;t have taken any points off us or Aston Villa at home last season.
hmmm - as far as i recall that "loser" benitez actually won something since he came to anfield. arsene wenger won nothing in that period. and that myth about wenger's limited budget isn't true...their fans love to point that out whenever they defend the stupid policy of their coach but like a year ago they were bragging how they had the funds to splash and how they're the richest club in the world. sure he maybe can't spend as much as utd,chelsea or real but they have the funds. they are amoung the top 3 or top 5 clubs at least- wenger doesn't want to spend . and that's a completely different thing. Rafa Benitez has won La Liga( at the time La Liga was THE strongest league in the world ), Uefa Cup and Champions League with twice as lower budget as Arsenal's, thus Benitez is on a completely different planet than Wenger. a manager whose main goal is to play numerous short passes and winning nothing. It's easy to build a team when everyone gives you time to do it, when there is no pressure at all and when your fans rate losing the first place to third place as a successfull season.

[RedForceRising]

[quote=CROoney]i honestly thought i couldn't hate them more but after seeing this video - i guess i was wrong !!!!

Originally Posted by RedForceRising

Arsene Wenger manages to do wonderful things with a limited budget. Much better than that loser Benitez.

The line-up that Sparkic put up looks strong and they should not be underestimated at any cost.

But, they still do not have enough steel in defence.

They need two world class centre backs and I'm not sure where they would be coming from. Gallas would be on the subs bench at Man Utd, Chelsea and even at Liverpool he would not be a regular.

Kolo Toure is alright, but still not on the same level as Vidic, Rio, Terry and Carvalho.

It's a blaessing that they have Bakari Sagna, because this guy is very, very good and help his centre backs a lot!

BTW, It's the same with Spurs. they've bought in some good midfield players in dos santos and Modric, but their problem is not scoring goals - their problem is they conceed too many goals.

Back to L'Arse.....

Without Flamini the midfield is lacking some grit and defensive strength. They will beat most teams - that's a given, but I don't think they will take points of man Utd this season.

In fact, if it weren't for some last minute miracles, they wouldn;t have taken any points off us or Aston Villa at home last season.
hmmm - as far as i recall that "loser" benitez actually won something since he came to anfield. arsene wenger won nothing in that period. and that myth about wenger's limited budget isn't true...their fans love to point that out whenever they defend the stupid policy of their coach but like a year ago they were bragging how they had the funds to splash and how they're the richest club in the world. sure he maybe can't spend as much as utd,chelsea or real but they have the funds. they are amoung the top 3 or top 5 clubs at least- wenger doesn't want to spend . and that's a completely different thing. Rafa Benitez has won La Liga( at the time La Liga was THE strongest league in the world ), Uefa Cup and Champions League with twice as lower budget as Arsenal's, thus Benitez is on a completely different planet than Wenger. a manager whose main goal is to play numerous short passes and winning nothing. It's easy to build a team when everyone gives you time to do it, when there is no pressure at all and when your fans rate losing the first place to third place as a successfull season.

It is not true that Liverpool have half the budget of Arsenal and you know it unless you were saying that he had half that budget at Valencia.

I will admit that Benitez was brilliant at Valencia, but he hasn't made the best of the resources given to him at Anfield.

Wenger wants to spend, but they are hampered right now by the loans from the Emirates stadium project.

He is a more astute purchaser of talent than Benitez:
Hleb, Rosicky, Eduardo, Adebayor, Toure, Sagna, Henry, Flamini, Vieira, Walcott are better than every purchase benitez has ever made except Torres, Alonso and Daniel Agger.

Crouch, Pennant, Benayoun, Bellamy, Kuyt, Sisoko?!?!?!?

Let's also talk about the quality of football. You know Wenger wins that one.

Rafa won the FA Cup, UEFA Cup and CL with the bin-dippers, but Wenger has won the Prem three times and the FA Cup four times.

And I would say that was done on similar budgets.

[TheManc]

^^ Rafa has spent more than what you would think though. I don't have any stats to back it up but don't forget Rafa has bought about 50 players, 3/4 of who wre about 4M and never to be seen again.

I read a thread of the Caf ages ago that highlighted the fact that Liverpool's spending is similar to ours, the difference being we but quality, they buy quantity.

[piazza]

They're two or three injuries away from being mid-table imo.