Midfield Crisis at Arsenal?

Once a midfield superpower in club football, Arsenal FC no longer have that silky passing or dominance in midfield. The gaping hole left by Cesc was clearly visible in the games against Liverpool and Newcastle where Arsenal did not even have 50% possesion. Their trademark passing game is no longer seen and they are starting to look a little ordinary. Now, the dilemma for Arsene is to locate the problem with the squad.

According to me, I feel the problem has now shifted from the defence to the midfield. Eventhough their defence is still shoddy as we saw against Liverpool, it can easily be improved with a few tweaks. But at the moment, the worry for Arsenal is that they have not scored a goal in their first two Premier League games.

One of the main reasons for this is the glaring lack of creativity and incision which were the two main qualities that has helped Arsenal over the seasons. It is clearly visible that a major signing is needed in this department as during the match against Liverpool, Arsenal failed to create clearcut chances. The reason was that only two of  the first choice midfielders that played in the 2010-2011 season were available for selection.

The fact that Wenger still has not understood this is baffling even to the Arsenal players and this was seen in Walcott's statement which went like,

Of course the players sometimes think, “What's going on?

‘But I'm sure the boss has got players coming in. I don't know, but if you sell one of your best players... I'm sure he's got some options coming in.

'He has picked up great players before. Only time will tell what he is going to do.

‘We've had a couple of injuries and we have to hope they are not too bad. We don't want the squad to get lower and lower

Hopefully Wenger will identify Arsenal's Achilles heel sooner rather than later otherwise we will have to be braced for a difficult season ahead which will feature an Arsenal squad with 5 teenagers in the starting lineup.

What Arsene Wenger's transfer policy should have been

It is an undeniable fact that the current transfer window has not gone too well for Arsenal. Their weak defense was weakened with the sale of Gael Clichy and even with reports in the papers that Arsenal are close to a new signing, it just doesn't seem convincing enough. Continuous speculation about the future of  Fabregas and Nasri has not done any good to the morale of the players and this was reflected in a poor pre-season display which concluded with only one win. I feel that the fault lies with Wenger's transfer policy and in my opinion he should have been a little more aggressive. First he should have prioritised his defense as a weak point and focused on signing new players who would add quality to the side. The main problem with Wenger's policy is that he is too hesitant to sell players who are not adding quality. Rather than signing one centre back and keeping the existing players, he should have sold players like Squillaci who have not performed and who do not look likely to preform. This would have freed up space and money which could have been used to bring in two quality centre backs. Secondly, regarding the situation with Fabregas, Wenger should have given Barcelona a solid deadline to buy him instead of letting the situation drag. He should have made in clear to Barcelona that Fabregas is one of the world's best players and if they were serious about buying him, they should pay the amount in full which I feel should be 40 million pounds. By telling Barcelona that if they do not pay in full they will be blocked from buying Cesc, Arsenal would have put themselves in the driving seat and not Barca. The situation should also have been made clear to Cesc so that he would be prepared for any result. This would have also freed up more time to find a suitable replacement.

But all is not lost for Arsenal and I feel that if Wenger changes his policy at least for the final stage of the window, the future could look much brighter. Wenger still has a shot at radically improving his defense by buying Per Mertesacker who is in his final year of his contract and would come cheap. Along with this, money from sales of Bendtner and Eboue could be used to buy Gary Cahill. Time is of the essence at the moment and Wenger needs to move quickly. From what we have been hearing, Arsenal at least have 30 million pounds left for transfers if this is added with money brought in from sales, Arsenal would have a large amount of funds to bring in the required players. Eventhough Wenger has made a hash of the window so far, the cards are still in his hands and its upto him to play them.