Part 4: Arsenal’s in team competitions for a place in the starting eleven
One of the biggest problems that Arsenal have had to face over the last two or three seasons apart from their poor goalkeepers has been that of finding a suitable centre back partnership. The last notable centre back that Arsenal had was Kolo Toure, but unfortunately for the team, Toure decided to leave and join Manchester City instead.
Arsene Wenger acted almost immediately and brought in the Ajax captain, Thomas Vermaelen. Vermaelen was sent straight into the starting eleven and was partnered with William Gallas at the back. However Gallas was to turn into a thorn in the side of the team and was starting to adversely affect the team.
At the end of the season, Wenger went on a crazy transfer run which saw him getting rid of almost every aged centre back at the team, including William Gallas, Sol Campbell and Mikael Silvestre. However with all the players leaving the team, it was believed that the manager would bring in some big name signings to help Vermaelen form a solid wall in front of the Arsenal goal.
However Wenger being the man that he is went in the complete opposite direction. The manager went on to make two signings that he hoped would help reinforce the Arsenal back line. Those two signings were that of Laurent Koscielny and Sebastian Squillaci.
Koscielny was brought from Lorient in France, where he was considered to be one of their greatest upcoming talents. Squillaci was bought from Sevilla in Spain. The player has tremendous experience substantial plus. However, he is already nearing his retirement which means that he is only a short term fix to the side.
Koscielny has had more playing time for Arsenal compared to Squillaci and the player has looked decent so far. Koscielny is young and hence lacks much needed experience and that is why he has been outsmarted on a number of occasions in the past few weeks. On the other hand Squillaci made his debut against Bolton due to Vermaelen picking up an injury and the player impressed from the very first minute. He showed great presence and held his line brilliantly. Every time Koscielny fumbled Squillaci was there to cover for him.
Wenger must have clearly been taking notes of this and it is strongly believed that once Vermaelen is fit again, he would opt to go with Squillaci and Vermaelen at the centre and Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna on the sides. On paper that defensive line up looks to be one of the best. It has pace and strength which can prove to be very crucial in the coming weeks. However despite this fact the one area that the defence still suffers in is aerial ability. Despite being really good on the ground, the defensive line up is not one of the tallest in the world. That is something Wenger would probably keep in mind going into the January transfer window.
Wenger has already admitted that he is currently running low on centre backs and would want to sign one or two more defenders. So it is now a wait till January to see if the team manages to get some reinforcements in order to boost the height averages.
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