It looks like we’ve bought Olivier Giroud. But where will he play, and with whom? « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month
By Tony Attwood
So it is to be Giroud – at least with the BBC and most of the press running the story, and with Untold having run it twice (and let’s not be reluctant to say that the first story was quite a while ago, so even if we were not first, we were at least near the front, well, fairly near…) let’s consider.
The previous two articles have done the background stuff on last season top scorer in La Ligue. So, unless something goes horribly wrong in France, or Man City come in and offer quadruple the price, and the player is silly enough to take it and believe it is because they want to play him, rather than stop Arsenal getting him, he’s (probably) ours.
And that raises a question. What is our forward line?
The point is of course that we don’t have a forward line, we have a double forward line.
As Anne suggested at the end of the season, there is reason to consider the point that there might be a deliberate targeting of Arsenal players going on. Certainly it is one way of explaining our injury records.
And if so, all we can do is
a) Expose the issue as we have done with oddities in refereeing
b) Have extra players
So we have:
- Lukas Podolski
- Robin Van Persie
- Gervinho
- Theo Walcott
- Alex Oxlade Chamberlain
- Ryo ??? or on loan again
- Arshavin ??? or transferred to Russia
- Benik Afobe ??? or loan
- Joel Campbell ??? depending on status, or maybe more loan out.
- Sanchez Watt ??? or loan
Which suggests that the following will be going
- Bendtner
- Park
- Chamakh
- Vela
It is interesting in that I thought this past year Bendtner was far better than Chamakh – who was fine the year before but completely seemed to lose his way. But it is hard to rate players who are out on loan.
Anyway, without the ? players we have five players (plus Giroud if he does come as seems so likely), and then four ??? players. Quite an interesting array.
Van Persie can play either centre forward or number 10. Podolski could play on the left. That would put Theo or Oxland-Chamberlain or Gervinho on the right and make Giroud a back up to Van Persie, (having scored 21 goals in France last season).
But injuries there always are, and quite often two games a week, so this would be a powerful set of alternatives as the season gets going. How about:
Team a)
Podolski Van Persie Theo
Team b)
Gervinho Giroud Oxland-Chamberlain
While we are at it, here’s how the midfield is shaping up
- Diaby – the few minutes we saw of him reminded us of his ability. Maybe, just maybe his injuries might be over. After all, Rosicky did come back.
- Oxland-Chamberlain – if not being used in the forward line
- Rosicky – a repeat of last season would be fine
- Arteta – a revelation last season
- Ramsey – criticised by many, but clearly working his way back and is still young
- Wilshere – we all hope he’ll be back
- Song – of course
- Frimpong – probably not fit for the start of the season but if he keeps his temper, and has no more injuries he should get a chance
- Benayoun – may return to Chelsea, but he was good towards the end
- Coquelin – versatile as he can also play right back
- Lansbury – if not back with us then he will be sold
- Aneke – probably one season too soon
- Oguzhan Ozyakup – maybe…
That is 13 players. Taking it down to six we could have
- Diaby –
- Rosicky –
- Arteta –
- Ramsey –
- Wilshere –
- Song –
And before anyone says I’m a turnip for including Diaby, of course I don’t know if he will survive, but if not, there are still all the others that I haven’t included. Coquelin is a stunning talent. As I mentioned, I rate Frimpong. Lansbury I have only seen occasionally but when I have he looks great. It is a great array.
Yeah, yeah, yeah (or words like that) say the AAA, it is the defence (noting the number of goals we let in last season), and forgetting that we ran out of full backs. It looks like Djourou might be off, so let’s discount him for the moment…
But let’s do that in another session.
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