From frustration in the treatment room, to PFA Player of the Year winner. The rise of RVP!

Over the last few season injuries have often been something that Arsenal fans have referred to, as a reason as to why we haven't finished of the season with trophies. In the last few years, we have been in great positions in the early months, and then have fallen away dramatically (ala Spurs) in the subsequent months, towards the end of the season, leaving us with nothing! One player that was more often than not pinpointed as a key player missing for a long time, thus decreasing our ability to win things, was Mr Robin Van Persie.

I will take 2009/2010 season as an example. At the start of the season we were absolutely flying, scoring goals for fun, the season ahead looked like it could be an exceptional one. On the first day of the season we won 6 - 1 at Goodison against Everton, followed by a 4 - 0 demolition of Portsmouth at the Home of Football, I could go on but I won't for fear of borring the socks of you! The point is we were absolutely flying and I remember RVP was the premier league's leading scorer in the early weeks of this season, and he was relishing his new role as the CF in our new (at the time) 4-3-3/ 4-2-3-1 formation, one which was designed to get the best out of Cesc and the man himself (RVP). It was a tactical move that RVP himself, has since admitted to being sceptical about, as he did not see himself as being able to be a successful CF as he saw himself as more of a second striker (where he had been playing off Adebayor a player who was not replaced after his departure to $ity)

Besides to say RVP was a key factor in our great start to the season, he was on top form. However as had a been a regular theme in the seasons and years leading up to this point, he then got injured in an international friendly against Italy in October 2009, and it was revealed that he had a broken ankle which would leave him out for around 4 - 5 months. This was a big blow! I remember thinking at this point that the man is super super talented, but a liability injury wise, and I have to admit was beginning to think that maybe we should let him go because of his injury record! He was a player who would put in some great performances, score some great goals for a period of time and then get injured and be out again, for a long period of time which was really costing the team goals, as we then had to rely on the likes of Bendtner and Eduardo neither of whom had much confidence for differing reasons. Eduardo was just coming off that hideous injury and Bendtner was always the butt of fans' criticism! Therefore when RVP got injured we were often left suffering in front of goal, it was becoming a too regular occurrence.

That season he did come back towards the end of the campaign, by which time our season was basically as good as over, once again we were ruing what might of been had RVP been fit for the season. The 2010/2011 started in similar vein no RVP after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, however at this point we had a striker on great form in the shape of Maroune Chamakh-attack a recent signing on a free transfer from Bordeaux that summer, which made the loss less problematic than it had been in recent years (especially in the previous season). However since his league comeback against Chealsea in December of that year (2010) he has been spectacular and has been improving all the time. I remember thinking when the team was announced that night at the Emirates and hearing RVPs name read out, that he must be sharp because otherwise Arsene wouldn't have dropped a man in form in the form of Chamakh for such a big game. Sharp he was, as they say form is temporary class is permanent, and class this chap RVP most certainly has! From that game onwards he has been brilliant, has broken record after record: "most away games scored in a row", "most goals by an Arsenal player scored in a calendar year", "first player in premier league to 10 and 20 goals" (2011-12 season), numerous Barclays Premier League and Arsenal.com player of the month awards, and of course the one recently "PFA Players Player of the Year Award" 2011-2012. He has been phenomenal from January last season (2011) till now. He has been fit for a long period of time (every one touch wood please!), for what is really the first time in his career at Arsenal, and we have reaped the benefits of that, there is no doubt!

As I said this is a man that didn't believe he could play as a lone striker as a CF, and believed that he would be better used in the "Cesc role" or as the 2nd Striker. However the last year or so has proved that boy this lad can do such a job, and do it fantastically well!! This is a lad that many (including myself and many of my friends and family) were getting frustrated with from an injury perspective, because every time he got into great form and started driving the team forward he then got another injury, he was becoming a liability. But praise the Lord, thank God the boss stuck with him, as he has with many other players in the past 16 years, because we are now seeing what a fully fit and firing Robin Van Persie can do over a long period of time when injury form, and we are seeing that he can "Score when he wants"!! He is world class, and lets all raise a glass or can/ bottle (whatever) to RVP and the contract talks that are going to start in due-course, and heres hoping he signs on the ".............."!

UP THE ARSENAL!!!

Find me on twitter @Mr_arsenal_blog - tweet me your thoughts I do reply to them all!

Also check out @Grantafc and @Marrcarr85 for links to their Arsenal Vlog and blogs respecitively, both of which are excellent!

Looking forward to next Season, is it going to be "the one"? What can we expect?

I am sure those of you that follow me on twitter on my account @Mr_arsenal_blog will be aware of the fact that I have been going on for a while about how I believe that next season we can really challenge so long as we make the right moves in this summers edition of the transfer window. I am forever an optimist when it comes to The Arsenal, some would say that maybe my heart rules my head sometimes, but I strongly believe that this summer with the right decisions we can once again be at the top of the English Premier League. In this article I aim to explain WHY I believe this and HOW the club could go about actually achieving it.

This season it is fair to say, has been quite a turbulent one to say the least! We had an absolutely appalling start and picked up I believe only 4 points by early September after a stalemate at St James' Park and a very unconvincing win over newly promoted Swansea at The Home of Football. Many fans were totally disillusioned with what was going on, many players had left and hadn't (at this point) been replaced and once again we had been cursed by injuries and suspensions. I think it is fair to say that we went to Old Trafford on that fateful day in August crippled, I remember landing back at Heathrow on that day checking twitter and seeing the starting X1 that Arsene had announced, and thinking "oh dear God". That wasn't a feeling I had ever had as an Arsenal fan, to be honest it was the first time as a fan of the Gunners that I was properly dreading a game. The thing that struck me and worried me the most was the bench, most of which I knew very little about. I was worried, and it turned out that my fears were justified. However after that fateful day our transfer window seemed to be kicked into life and we made what I think were some very good signings. The likes of Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos came in permanently and Yossi Benayoun came in on loan, all of these players carrying lots of experience. When the transfer window slammed shut that day, I remember many Arsenal fans were saying that these players were not good enough, however I believed that the boss had pulled of some good buys, and so it has proved.

These players have proved vital for us this season, as they came in freshened up the place, brought experience and most importantly helped us to start getting results. Apart from the game at Ewood Park, where despite playing some quite good football we lost, since they arrived we started to pick up some momentum and went on a very good run. With wins at Stamford Bridge and a very successful Champions League pool stage campaign our season was coming to life! Robin Van Persie was banging in the goals, Mikel Arteta, Alex Song and Rambo were taking control of the midfield and with Per Mertesacker and Koscielney at the back and the fast improving Woijech Sczesney behind them, we started to look more solid, and picked up results. Despite another blip in January since the Ewood Park game we have picked up a lot of points and have gone on some very good runs, culminating in the 7 games won in a row up to the beginning of April. The team was showing fantastic character, they were coming from behind to win at tough places such as Anfield and the Stadium of Light (where the grounds man seemed to want to recreate the fields of The Somme), the team was in a very good moment, and full of confidence. The game against Spurs at the Emirates in late February was an extraordinary one and a massive turning point I believe. At 2 - 0 down I was probably the most un-controllably angry I have ever been as an Arsenal fan, but by full time I was the happiest I had been after a game in a long long time, it was an epic win and one that I believe has shaped our season and could shape our next few seasons.

The confidence the team took from that game was evident, it showed that they could outplay and outscore anybody and come back so spectacularly from a loosing position. It is performances such as this, which makes me believe that with a few new faces and a more consistent level of performance from August to May plus a slightly less populous treatment room, we can challenge for the title next year. We have the basis of a very good team, and in games such as Chealsea away, Spurs at home, City at home we have highlighted this! Players such as Mikel Arteta, Luarent Koscielny, Theo Walcott, Bacary Sagna, Alex Song and of course the skipper Robin Van Persie were all played fantastically well and really galvanised the team in these games. And these players plus the likes of the returning Jack Wilshere and the brilliant Thomas Vermalean we can base our success around, and go on and have a fantastic season in 2012/2013!

But in order to do such, this summer is absolutely critical! Firstly we have to sign RVP the MVP down to a new contract, this is imperative. We have to show the rest of the Premiership and the rest of Europe that we mean business and that we are NOT a selling club. Once this is achieved (and I remain forever optimistic that it will be), we need to go out and bring in 3 top players to push the team on to that level and to add depth to the squad. Now as my twitter gooner colleague @MattCarr85 mentioned on his excellent Arsenal blog http://gunningfromsussex.blogspot.co.uk we should already have the likes of Podolski and Vertoghen in the bag and both players will add depth and quality to the squad. Podolski is a fantastic goal scorer who has been capped around 90 times for Germany by the age of 26 and Vertoghen is an extremely versatile and talented Belgian defender come defensive midfield player, who it is believed dreams of playing for The Arsenal, and with the inevitable departure of Squillaci he will provide quality depth to our defensive resources. Therefore we only need one more player, and I would like to see this be a midfielder. Because despite the fact that Jack Wilshere is coming back, and despite the fact that Mikel Arteta has been superb this season and Rosicky has been rejuvenated, I do feel that when those two players I mentioned first have both been missing this season we have lacked that little bit of composure and bite on the ball, and that is what I would love to see us add to our rooster in the summer. There has been a lot of talk about the possibility of signing Yann M'Villa and he is exactly the sort of player that we need, technically gifted, strong and versatile! I hope those deals come to fruition. Another player we should look at is Junior Hoillet from Blackburn who is a free agent this summer, he is very talented, however Arsene may feel that we have a lot of wingers already especially considering Ryo will return this summer from Bolton.

Therefore to conclude I feel that we have the basis of a very good side and squad, and despite the trials and tribulations we have endured this season we have shown great promise. Therefore with the addition of a few quality players we WILL be up there this season. I am an optimist (perhaps mad) but I believe in this group highly, and hope that my fellow Gooners do too!

 UP THE ARSENAL!!!

Do follow me on Twitter @Mr_arsenal_blog - and tweet me your thoughts I will reply to them all!

Also check out @Grantafc 's twitter and his Arsenal YouTube channel where he reviews every Arsenal match to great aplomb!! http://www.youtube.com/allaboutarsenal

Reflections of the Wigan game. And why the hatred Gooners?? 

I have just returned from a devastating trip to the home of football, where Arsenal somehow lost to Wigan Athletic (1-2). Now I don't usually write reviews about each game, as I prefer to write articles about individual players, transfer targets e.t.c rather than writing up what you have all just seen, and what you will read elsewhere. However I just wanted to write a few thoughts up about the game today at The Emirates to see what you guys think. 

It was a very sluggish performance by The Arsenal and as @Grantafc says on his "Arsenal Vlog" (link will be below), we were "diabolical" especially defensively for their goals. Now, Wigan have in recent weeks and months under the tutorship of Roberto Martinez, changed their tactics to a 5-4-1 system, where they have 3 CBs and 2 Wing backs at the back and this helps them to really pack out the midfield. This worked very well against Manchester United (manure) last week, and it worked very well against us tonight. The Arsenal players to my viewing didn't seem to know where the Wigan players were going and what their set-up was, they were all over the place. You have to give credit where it's due to Martinez, his staff and his players for that change in set-up recently it really has worked, but I think it is important to mention that it is very worrying that The Arsenal boys didn't seem to be aware of this system and didn't understand their roles and the roles of their opposition players. Wigan gave us the run-around, and The Arsenal players didn't seem to know how to deal with it. 

This is a big concern for me. Now many people I have communicated on twitter in the aftermath of the match tonight have mentioned that Arsene has never really been much of a tactician, which I think is a little harsh, but one thing I would like to reflect on is something that Mr Cesc Fabregas said last season I believe, something which is very much relevant after tonight's events. That is that Cesc said that The Arsenal don't really ever look at the opposition's set up/ tactics e.t.c before a game and prefer to concentrate more on their own preparation. This to me, was evident tonight. The Arsenal team didn't seem to be aware of what the Wigan lads were doing in terms of their set up, and didn't understand how to stop it. This is a real concern and something that I believe needs to be looked into by the club, and perhaps will be in the summer when a new assistant manager comes in this summer, they may start to become more clued up on the opposition. If Tony Adams were to be the new assistant for example I am sure he would be very much a stickler for how to deal with the opposition threats' being very much an old-school type defender. But we will see on that, but back to the main point, which is: is there something in the fact that Cesc said that Arsene and his staff doesn’t study the opposition with the team? I am not saying that the boss never watches the opposition because of course he does, but what I am suggesting is maybe they need to start being more pro-active with the players in informing them and telling them what the opposition is going to do! 

I believe this is becoming more and more important as the years go on, as the premier league to my mind is getting more and more competitive, and teams such as Wigan Athletic (as they did tonight) ARE capable of coming to places such as The Emirates (the home of football) and catching teams off guard, and I believe that if we studied the opposition more closely with the team, this wouldn't be the case. It is a very important issue I believe. Write comments down below or tweet me your thoughts (link will be below). 

Finally, it's late so I want to get some sleep, but I just wanted to say that I am a massive believer in the club slogan "Victoria Concordia Crescit", and tonight I saw some disgusting examples of where this was NOT the case. This saddens me immensely. A few mindless IDIOTS quite frankly, have targeted Aaron Ramsey, a man of great potential regardless of any individual and isolated performance, and told him to amongst other things "commit suicide" now this is DISGUSTING and WRONG. Football is (at least last time I checked) an 11-man game, a team game. And I am a great believer that you win as A TEAM and you loose as A TEAM, and this includes the fans (in the team). Yes tonight was extremely frustrated, and you can rest assured that I am as frustrated as anyone, but targeting individual players and just generally blaming individual players for defeat is wrong, unless of course they do something like Distin did at the weekend and literally give the opposition a goal, which Rambo did NOT do because he was not even ON THE PITCH at the time of either goals, which Arsene I know was particularly miffed about. Anyway remember Victoria Concordia Crescit, we win together we loose together WE ARE THE ARSENAL, we remain a team! 

COME ON YOU REDS!!! 

Tweet me your thoughts to @Mr_arsenal_blog - I will reply to them all. 

Also as promised check out @Grantafc and his Arsenal Vlog: http://www.youtube.com/user/afcghk?feature=watch he does great reviews of each game, and whether you agree with him all the time or not, he always makes interesting points! COYG

Mikel Arteta, a Spanish magician. Summing up his first season in red and white!

Last summer the transfer window was an absolute nightmare, and us Arsenal fans really suffered as a result of that, we saw arguably 2 of our most important players from the previous season leave the club and many fans were feeling disillusioned with the way they felt the club was going and labelled the club a "selling club". Replacing these players was never going to be an easy feat, and the players that the club did eventually bring in at the end of the transfer window attempted to dispel suggestions that they had been bought in as "direct replacements" for Fabregas and Nasri, but we all were aware of the fact that they had to step up and have a similar impact if we were to be successful as a team. One of these players was Mr Mikel Arteta, who arrived at the club on deadline day from Everton for around 10 million pounds. I remember watching his first interview as an Arsenal player where he said that he was NOT here to replace Fabregas and I couldn't help but think that he was the only player that could even come close to replacing the skill set that Cesc has and showed in an Arsenal shirt. However Mikel has since admitted that he did feel pressure to fill Cesc's boots at Arsenal and make an impact. He explained that he was a different player but that he was at the club to "help the team get better", and it is this kind of attitude from Arteta that I really admire: his selflessness. Fortunately Mikel has had a big impact on the team and the squad as a whole this season, and his performance on Sunday against Manchester City really summed this up.

Arteta was a player who we knew well from his time at Everton in the Premier League but I think that is fair to say that lots of people didn't think that he could make the transition into the Arsenal team and that he wasn't good enough to make an impact on the team. However I have to say that when I heard on deadline day that there was a possibility we could sign him, I was excited because I always rated him as a player and was very keen for us to sign him a number of years back when many people would have argued he was at his best. I remember a few years back in an interview before an Everton game Cesc talked about how highly he rated Arteta and how highly rated he was at the Barcelona academy. The disappointing thing for me has been that Arteta never got a move to a bigger club sooner in his career because he has flourished at Arsenal this season with our style of play, he has been absolutely magnificent, and he is just so consistent. He never really got an opportunity in his career before now to play the style of football that we do, which is why I have been surprised as to how easily he has fitted in playing our style, but then a man who was in the Barcelona academy you would expect to be good at passing the ball! And that he is, as I will now discuss!

His passing this season has been superb, he is one of the highest passers of the ball in Europe, in terms of number of passes completed and he is just so calm on the ball. This side of his game, I believe has been a key thing for us this season, and this was evident when he was injured for a period in January especially away at Swansea at the Liberty Stadium. If you remember Aaron Ramsey had a bit of a shocker, and this was partly down in my opinion to the fact that he did not have Arteta alongside him to be that calming influence, to just give him the ball and he will get it out trouble quickly, he just keeps the game moving, nothing fancy he just keeps it ticking over! In this game against Swansea, Aaron Ramsey looked lost and outnumbered for large parts of the game and I believe that had Arteta been fit and alongside him we would have done a lot better, because his (Arteta's) ability to just get the ball moving, keeping out of trouble, is superb and Ramsey definitely missed this in the game against Swansea. When Arteta is in the team it is no coincidence that the passing seems more slick and there are a lot less unsuccessful/ uncompleted passes, he has been a pass master this season for The Arsenal, and against Sunderland at the Stadium of light he completed an incredible 100 passes, and as I mentioned many of these passes were nothing fancy but he just has the ability like other Spanish central midfielders (e.g. Xavi) to just keep the ball moving, keeping the game ticking over, and in his position in our team as quite a deep lying midfielder he has been able to really dictate our play, and he's been absolutely brilliant at it! On Sunday against Manchester City he showed once again what a brilliant player he is. His passing was flawless and his ability to keep the play moving was very much evident.

But it hasn't just been his ability to pass the ball and dictate play that has been impressive this season from Arteta, his ability to find the target has also been very impressive. As I mentioned before I have been surprised how much his passing has shown since his arrival, but his ability to shoot from range hasn't surprised me because this is an attribute that we saw on a number of occasions during his time at Everton. His goal against Manchester United at Goodison Park in stoppage time was one sticks in my mind where he struck the ball hard from distance which rocked into the middle of the net, and also remember a great goal against Merseyside rivals Liverpool where again he struck from distance. Therefore it has been no surprise that he has scored all of his goals for Arsenal from outside of the box and he has been very productive for us from outside the box this season. His free kick against Aston Villa and his goal on Sunday against Manchester City stick in my mind but another goal I really liked was his hit against Blackburn at Ewood Park, his first Arsenal goal. It was a lovely calm curved shot into the roof of the net, hit first time on the edge of the box from an Aaron Ramsey cut back.

All in all it has been an excellent debut season at The Emirates for the little Spaniard he has been superb on the ball, his goal tally is good and his overall leadership coupled with his experience of playing in the UK with Everton and Rangers I believe has played a huge role in our revival this season especially in recent months and this was outlined by his selection of skipper in the FA Cup victory against Leeds in January. He has been in my opinion certainly the best signing of the summer from Arsenal dealings definately, however I also rate Gervinho, Mertesacker,, Santos and the Ox very highly, and I believe that in the end the players we bought in, alb eight being rather late in the day as far as the summer transfer window was concerned, have all been pretty good buys. But as I say Mikel Arteta is the standout one, I was excited when we signed him because I always thought he was a talented player who would suit our game, but the way he has suited the team and the way he has performed has been a surprise as well, and he is definitely a candidate for player of the season, however I think that is already nailed on, and rightly so, to Mr Robin Van Persie due to his exceptional performances and captaincy of the side. Nonetheless Arteta has been extremely impressive and I have loved him being part of our side!

 

COME ON YOU REDS!

Do tweet me your thoughts to @Mr_arsenal_blog - I do reply to them all!

The return of the Little Mozart, how we missed him.

When we allowed Super Bobby Pires to leave the club at the end of our last season at Highbury in May 2006 we signed a player by the name of Thomas Rosicky, a "classic playmaker" of superb technical quality born in Prague (Czech Republic) to be his replacement, for around 10 million pounds from Dortmund, a club at which he was adored and rated immensely. But despite this in our neck of the woods, he was still a relatively unknown quantity by most but he was a player that Arsene Wenger has said on many occasions that he loves and clearly rated him to the extent that he gave him the precious number 7 jersey, recently vacated by Mr Pires. He (Rosický) is a player "renowned for his penetrating runs, creativity and passing accuracy on the pitch which contributed a lot to the team's attacking play. Rosický specializes in using of the outside of his right foot to make quick and swerving passes".

During his first few seasons at the club we saw why Arsene rated him so, he brought superb technical ability and vision to the team, and showed that he was capable of really creating golden opportunities and openings for his fellow players to thrive upon. He had a great few seasons and was part of the reason why he had a very good beginning of the 2007 - 2008 season forming a great understanding with his midfield colleagues: Cesc Fabregas, Alexsander Hleb and Mathiu Flamini. However his Arsenal career hit a brick wall when he got what seemed like a rather straight forward hamstring injury, however this injury kept him out of the side for the whole of the 2008 - 2009 season and the beginning of the subsequent season (2009 - 2010). This is an injury to which he has only recently recovered from to show the touches, finesse and vision that he showed on his arrival at the club back in 2006. Aptly nicknamed the "Little Mozart" he is a player capable of composing great passages of play whilst bringing others in to the game with ease. But this talent and undoubted quality was in danger of being wasted by this hamstring injury that kept him out of the game for over a year.

When he finally did return from this injury to take his place back in the first team, many people were looking so much forward to his return to the field, and expected to see his creativity, vision and passing ability come to the fore once again, however this never really happened, and instead he seemed laboured, slow and just generally off the pace, following such a long layoff and absence from the game. He was in and out of the team on a regular basis, unable to get a consistent run in the first team starting 11 frame. The player that we always knew he was capable of being, seemed to have disappeared and many had began to question whether he should have been awarded with a new contract in 2010 and after that as well. Many felt that we would never see the best of him again, and that we (the club) should cut our losses and sell up. However the boss, never lost confidence in a player that as I said he loves, and believed in him that eventually he would get back to the performance level that he was capable of doing.

And eventually this came to fruition, and in recent months the "Little Mozart" has well and truly returned, and has began to hit and in some cases surpass the level of performance that we had seen in him in his early Arsenal days and the form that he had shown before joining Arsenal. In recent times he has been superb, and I believe that he has been a huge factor as to why we went on such a great run in the last few months, culminating in 7 wins on the bounce. I believe that he has been driving the team forward, quite literally. The way that he dribbles with the ball, charges towards the opposition before, releasing the ball to his team mates, has been superb and I feel that he has been key to this run we are on. I write this article on the day after a fantastic day out at The Emirates where we beat Manchester $ity very convincingly, and during this game at times I specifically just watched Rosicky rather the ball, just to see his work both on and off the ball. And I have to say he is such a hard working player, and I feel that this side of his game is undervalued and under praised. He tracks back quickly and effectively, he moves into space into the channels all the time and basically never stops moving. He makes a pass he moves he makes a tackle he gets back up and runs for the next one. This was really evident yesterday, and I think that his closing down ability is now a very big part of his game. Yesterday I thought we really saw the midfield trio of Rosicky, Arteta and Song put in a great shift and worked their socks, off and Rosicky really stood out for me. Arteta will get the headlines for his goal and rightly so because he has done a fantastic season in my opinion and he is also a very much underrated like Rosicky, but yesterday for me showed why Rosicky has been in such good form, because of his work rate and technique, I thought he was absolutely fantastic, and I hope it continues.

Therefore to conclude I feel that back in 06' we signed a player with immense quality and ability who shone through in his early days the club, but this was halted with a bit of a freak injury which no one had expected to last so long. On his return it seemed that we would never see the "Little Mozart" back to his best, but in recent months WE HAVE and boy can this boy play. In the last few months he has been superb and rightly so has kept the likes of Rambo and Gervinho out of the side due to his fantastic form which is largely down in my opinion to his exceptional work rate! I hope that we will be talking and raving about his form in Arsenal shirt for a long time to come. I love watching this player and hope that this continues to be the case. If we can add a few new faces to our squad to compliment the likes of Rosicky in attacking areas I feel we will have fantastic strength in depth because of the return to form of Rosicky and hopefully also the return to fitness and form of young Jack Wilshere! I for one could watch the "Little Mozart" all day! UP THE ARSENAL!!

Tweet me your thoughts @Mr_arsenal_blog - I do reply to them all!

What to do in the transfer window? What do Arsenal need, who should they look for?? And the implications.

 It seems that the transfer mill never stops turning, and as an Arsenal fan it is usually quite frustrating because we seem to be always linked with every player under the sun, and very few of them ever come to fruition. But this summer it seems that things will happen. Reason I think this is because of the fact that last summer was such a nightmare for everyone, especially the boss himself, and I think that this summer he wants to get what he called 'quality rather than quantity' and get these deals done early. This is a big thing, because last season we went off on our groundbreaking pre-season trip to Asia, still not knowing what was happening to two of our best players and several others. This is not good for the development of the squad of any squad in pre-season to not know what is happening so soon to the start of a new and important season. This is why this transfer window is a very important one for the club, and one the club must get right! Get it right, and I believe we can challenge next year for major honours, get it wrong and we will be back to square one like this season and take a while to get going again!

But the first thing that needs to be sorted, the most important thing, is contract extensions! This is something that I believe is so important, because unless we extend the contracts of the likes of Robin, Theo, Song, Bac and a few other who I think are all coming to the end of their deals, we may as well not bother looking at big players from outside of the club to bring in, because we MUST keep the core of this team together and then add to it! This is what we all wanted to see last season, we thought it was very important to add quality players to the likes of Cesc and Samir, but then of course we all know what happened! These guys left and Jack got injured and therefore our whole midfield just disappeared in one foul swoop, and that's why we had such a bad start because we had to reconstruct the heart of our team, a team that we all know was very very close to great things last season! So the first thing that we all acknowledge needs doing is to get these guys signed up, and I believe we will, and once we have done that, and these contracts are sorted, we can then go out and get the players we want from outside of the club, although we believe that Podolski will be in before that, potentially as a sign to RVP that he should sign a new contract, because we have got a quality player in, this could be key to him signing a new deal I think!

Once this is done, then we need to get I think 3 - 5 'quality' players in, to really push the team on to the next level, because I do believe that this team is this close to success. But who do we need to bring in? I think we need a back up goalkeeper, a CB, and potentially either a midfielder or a winger.

It has been widely argued in recent months that we lack back-up to Wojiech and this is going to made worse by the fact that Fabianski and the Spanish waiter are out of contract this summer and both will leave it is expected, and therefore we certainly need some kind of backup goalkeeper, and there are a number of good options available to us on free transfers this summer. Firstly German keeper Adler is out of contract this summer and could certainly be useful in rotation with Wojiech for the cups e.t.c. However I am not sure whether he would want to be a backup option, so maybe that is not a particularly feasible option for us. A good option could potentially be Steve Harper at Newcastle. He has been a solid if not fantastic keeper for many years up in the north east, and I am sure if given the chance he would come down to us, and look to have a run in the cups e.t.c with The Arsenal. He could be a good option. Clearly he is not going to be the next David Seaman, but as far as getting a top quality back up goalkeeper in that is not going to happen because obviously (as I said with Adler) top goalkeepers are not going to sit on the bench for most of the season, so therefore getting the right option I think is quite tricky.

With Squillaci almost certainly leaving this summer due to his inability to play football, we do need to actually get another good quality CB to give us more depth in this position. It seems that year on year at some point we have a defensive injury crisis, and therefore it is imperative in my view that we have good players to cover these roles. Now, in Mertesacker, Vermalean, Koscielny and Djourou (who I still rate very highly) I believe we have some very good players, however if two of these get injured then obviously we have no backup, so for this exact reason I believe we should get Vertoghen from Ajax. This is a man whose name has been bandied about for quite some time as far as coming to the Arsenal is concerned, however he is definitely someone who I feel could add quality to our options at the back, and is very highly regarded by the Verminator and the boss as well. How much game time he would get would be interesting to see, but he would certainly be a welcome addition to our CB reserves, and hopefully limits the effect of our annual defensive player drought!

Moving on to the midfield I think that we are actually quite strong in this area, however we could do with support for Songo in the more CDM position and for this reason I would be delighted if we went after Yann M'Villa. He is a player very much in the Viera mould, and one that I think would be absolutely fantastic for us, were we to get him on board. He is strong, quick, excellent technically, and could slot in either in the CDM position or even alongside Songo if we want more solidity. However we do have many many options in this area at the moment and for this reason it really wouldn't surprise me if we did quite a lot of rotation next season, because we have Diaby and Jack to come back into it, on top of the likes of Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky, Coquilin and also Lansbury, who will come back from his loan move, and I think he will be given his chance in Pre Season this summer. Therefore fitting all these players into the 25 man squad is going to be tricky, but even so M'Villa is a player who I feel could help to take us to the next level.

Finally up top, it is widely reported that we have already signed Podolski, and therefore assuming that he has already signed we seem pretty good up top for next season as long as you know who signs on the dotted line for a new contract! This is clear to me also in the performances of Ryo Miyachi at Bolton on loan in recent months. I think he has been excellent and has actually created many opportunities for his team mates and this has been very very impressive. I expect him to play a part for Arsenal next season and I hope he does because he is a great talent and we can't waste talents like this, they must be given experience in the first team, and as Arsene has does over the years, this will happen next year I feel. Because of the fact that Arshavin and Yossi seems unlikely to stay beyond the end of this season (however I am still unsure as to whether I would want to see the back of the little Russian due to his undoubted ability to turn a game), I feel we do need another winger. Now, the usual suspects that have been talked about endlessly on twitter and in the media are of course Gotze, Hazard e.t.c. But these both seem unlikely because the former has just signed a new deal at Dortmund and the latter seems determined to pimp himself to which ever club is going to offer him the most Wonga, and I don’t really feel he would care if he is playing in the middle east as long as his pay check is high, which is a great shame but I am not convinced whether I want a player like that at the Emirates, and I know many of my fellow Gooners feel the same as me on that! They are both undoubtedly good players and I would like to see Gotze especially at the club, but I cannot really see that happening. However a player I would like and one that I see as being feasible to come through the door is Hoillet at Blackburn, who is available for a free at the end of the season! He is a very young, quick and skilful winger who I feel could add great depth to an already quite strong area of the field for us! With the likes of the Ox, Theo, Gervinho, Ryo, Podoslki (assuming the inevitable) we are quite strong here but I think Hoillet could add great strength and I think I am right in thinking that due to his age he wouldn't need to be registered so that is a bonus in terms of getting all the players into the squad, and that may allow Lansbury to be given a go in the squad. I feel that Park will leave this summer and I don't feel that Bentdner and Vela will come back from their loans, and therefore with Hoillet coming in it would add another interesting option, and would give us a nice balance of wingers and 3 CFs in (RVP, Pod and Chamakh - who it seems will stay).

Finally I expect Park, Squillaci, Almunia, Vela, Bendtner, Denilson to all leave the club for pastures new. Therefore to sum up I feel that with a backup goalkeeper alongside Mannoe to cover Wojiech another CB to add depth to that position (with Squillaci leaving), M'Villa to add strength in the heart of the team and then Pod and Hoillet up top, we would have some good players in to really help push the team forward.

Do tweet me your thoughts at @Mr_arsenal_blog , I do reply to all your thoughts!