Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Phil Gregory

With Giroud announced officially this morning, talk has inevitably turned to what this means for the rest of the squad. Doomsayers cry that it means RvP is on his way out, whereas the more sane of us accept that is still a possibility, but argue that it is more plausible Olivier is here to support Robin, as well as offering an aerial plan B.

Quite clearly, Bendtner looks to be off this summer. He put in some good performances at the Euros which will only help matters, and a loan spell away last season pretty much ensured the writing was on the wall. Of course, he hasn’t left yet but it is still early doors, so it doesn’t seem reasonable to assume that the young Dane will be somewhere else come the start of the season.

That leaves us with the following clear options for the central striking berth:

Van Persie, Giroud, Chamakh

The first two of those three are self-explanatory, whilst the lack of transfer talk around Chamakh suggests that he will remain with us. Certainly, the Moroccan hasn’t performed after an excellent start to his Arsenal career, but those first few months suggest that he has it in him to be an asset for Arsenal FC so perhaps with the likes of Van Persie and Giroud taking the burden off him initially he can come back after a summer of rest and rediscover his confidence. That would leave us with three excellent options for one striker berth.

Podolski would be most likely to be considered number four, as I expect his time to be spent on the left flank. Joel Campbell had a promising loan spell in Ligue 1 last season, but I believe a work permit still needs to be secured for him to play in England and I’m not sure he’s quite ready to compete for one of those three striker spots in the squad just yet. Park is also in the mixer, but again the South Korean was barely involved last season even with Chamakh struggling for confidence, so I’m not really convinced he’ll get a look in. Vela is also back, and his style would fit a wide forward in our formation, but he hasn’t met expectations and seems likely to move on too.

So with Van Persie, Giroud and Chamakh as our three main striking options,  the sales of Bendtner and Vela seem likely.

It would certainly make sense for Arsenal to have waited to secure the signing of Giroud before sanctioning any departures. The level of interest in Bendtner may mean that it is a fairly drawn out transfer but that can only be a good thing for Arsenal, by bidding up his price. We’re not dependent on his fee for further moves in the market, though an extra place in the 25 would be nice.

On the left we can probably expect Podolski and Gervinho to battle it out, with Chamberlain also an option to play there. Theo Walcott is a shoe-in to start on the right hand side, with Chamberlain potentially deputising.

Options wide therefore a little thinner than up top where we have arguably too many players. This certainly reinforces the case for Podolski to feature on the left, and Chamberlain should be capable of mitigating the absence of Benayoun. Given the depth up top, Park may be considered a back up for the wide positions suggesting he may be retained for this season, while Miyaichi comes back to Arsenal after impressing for Bolton on loan last season. For me however, this season will come to soon for Ryo to make an impact in the league for us, so he’ll likely be kept around the squad for early cup games and to develop aspects of his game before heading out on loan to a Premier League side in January.

Andrey Arshavin’s situation is totally up in the air, I’m not even sure the Russian league has finished yet so he may still have games on loan to play, unless we specified we wanted him back after the Euros. With relatively light, inexperienced options on the flanks, there may yet be a squad role for our little Russian.