{"id":451,"date":"2018-08-28T20:42:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T03:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/?p=451"},"modified":"2018-08-28T20:43:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T03:43:34","slug":"is-arsenal-on-the-path-back-to-the-top-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/?p=451","title":{"rendered":"Is Arsenal on the Path back to the Top 4?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Unconvincing Start to the Season<\/h4>\n<p>Unai Emery picked up his first win as our new manager on Saturday, but the win wasn&#8217;t as convincing as we would have hoped. \u00a0West Ham had their fair share of opportunities, again demonstrating the gunners defensive frailties, while on the other end of the pitch our offence struggled with record signing Aubameyang yet to register his first goal or assist of the season. \u00a0Substitutes Alexandre Lacazette and Danny Welbeck, as well as starting left back Nacho Monreal were on target for the gunners after Marko Arnautovic opened the scoring for West Ham, but the score flattered our side who looked pretty equal to the visiting hammers. \u00a0The previously hapless hammers looked improved compared to their first two outings and will be disappointed to remain winless in the new campaign. \u00a0A relieved Unai Emery looked content in his post match interview, but upon closer reflection he will realize he has problems in almost every position.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"wOVZh3Z2SP9y68W6H8i9NA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/1023102374\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'wOVZh3Z2SP9y68W6H8i9NA',sig:'h_irgGGvasf9pU8_3PWAYs4O9sLj_lQyhoDEzWm6hQg=',w:'594px',h:'391px',items:'1023102374',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Problems in Every Position<\/h4>\n<p>Our defence has shown cracks repeatedly, and playing the high defensive line leaves us vulnerable against through balls and over the top passes. \u00a0Our defensive deficiencies are well known though with little to no depth in this area, but more surprisingly we are struggling at the other end of the pitch where our offence has yet to click. \u00a0Ozil missed out due to illness, with Ramsey replacing him in the central attacking midfield position, but Ramsey again showed he does not have the attributes necessary to fill this role. \u00a0Ramsey at best is a box to box midfielder, though recently he seems to have forgotten to get back to his own penalty box and defend. \u00a0This may be according to Emery&#8217;s plan, but ultimately he does not offer enough solely in attack to forego his defensive responsibilities. \u00a0Ozil has been poor as well this season, but I expect when he is back to fitness he will retain the number 10 role. \u00a0As for Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, and whoever Emery sticks on the left wing, things have not gelled as expected. \u00a0This is however the least of our concerns as I expect the goals should start to come.\u00a0 And I shouldn&#8217;t even get started on Granit Xhaka, who I just cannot understand how he has retained his starting spot in the side. \u00a0His lack of effort and pace are appalling. \u00a0Essentially the spine of our team is a big question mark while our lack of wide players has long been well recognized. \u00a0Ultimately, there is not an area on the pitch that does not need improving.<\/p>\n<h4>Are Arsenal Keeping up with the Top Teams?<\/h4>\n<p>Arsenal supporters have given their team a free pass for the first two weeks of the season, understandably so given the need for time to adjust to Emery&#8217;s tactics and integration of new players. \u00a0However, on Saturday it became apparent that perhaps Emery alone will not be enough to right the Arsenal ship &#8211; we also need the right players. \u00a0 This summer our biggest signing was a relatively unknown Lucas Torreira for \u00a326m, while in comparison Chelsea signed Jorginho from Napoli for over \u00a350m. \u00a0Two defensive midfielders of differing pedigree with Jorginho seamlessly slotting into the Chelsea line up. \u00a0We do have two \u00a350m signings in Lacazette and Aubameyang, which highlights some questionable business activity as the two play the same position and are identical types of players, but aside from these two we do not sign players of the same value and caliber as the other top five clubs. \u00a0Mateo Guendouzi&#8217;s another good example, a 19 year old signed from Ligue 2 side Lorient who has started all three games for the gunners.\u00a0 Although he has done exceedingly well, and it may well turn out that Guendouzi and Torreira could be astute signings by Emery, it is unlikely that astute signings alone will get us to the level of Europe&#8217;s elite clubs. \u00a0Liverpool spent \u20ac182m this summer bringing in a top goal tender and two established top midfielders, after bringing in Van Dijk in the previous transfer window for \u00a375m, smashing the record for a defender. \u00a0How can we compete with this? \u00a0And in the summer transfer window we saw lesser teams spending unprecedented amounts on players. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.com\/premier-league\/transfers\/wettbewerb\/GB1\">\u00a0Fulham, West Ham, Leicster City and Wolverhamptom have spent \u20ac109m, \u20ac103m, \u20ac114m, and \u20ac74m respectively last summer<\/a>, all brining in quality players which will help them challenge the top teams. A lot of pressure is being placed on Unai Emery, but ultimately football has become a game that requires the right funding to stay competitive. \u00a0The bottom line is that one would be hard pressed to name a player in our squad that would walk into one of the top five clubs and start.<\/p>\n<p>After a very unconvincing victory against a mediocre side that in truth showed enough to have at least deserved a point, we will need to see much greater consistency from our squad if we truly want to rejoin the Premier League elite. \u00a0We have fallen down the Premier League table over the last few seasons, and as other teams are becoming increasingly competitive it will be a steep task to get back into the top four. \u00a0We will hope Emery is given the financial support required to build a team that will be up to the task.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unconvincing Start to the Season Unai Emery picked up his first win as our new manager on Saturday, but the win wasn&#8217;t as convincing as we would have hoped. \u00a0West Ham had their fair share of opportunities, again demonstrating the gunners defensive frailties, while on the other end of the pitch our offence struggled with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arsenal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa1Vgs-7h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}