Liverpool vs Arsenal: Match Preview

Even the straight men admire Ollie.

I don't know if the wheels of Liverpool's season are coming off, or if I overestimated them earlier in the season, but either ways it seems like they weren't club they used to be when we faced them in November. I still feel that we were a bit fortunate to win by 2 goals back then, even though our defence was a bit suspect.

However, the team's defence has undoubtedly solidified since then. While Liverpool's defence is certainly not the best, they have a superb SAS partnership to shield those flaws. It's quite the opposite with Arsenal, who have a terrific defence and only a decent defence. The stadium being Anfield makes this match all the more difficult, but I think that we'll come out with three massive points today.

Wenger thinks that the last game's result will give us a morale boost going to Anfield, by saying:

“You always think about the psychological impact of the last result on the morale of the team, as well as the confidence and happiness of everybody. You think the only way to deal with it is to just focus on the next one and win it, then everything will be alright."

If you asked me to choose a victory against Liverpool in the Premier League or in the FA Cup, I'd readily cash in on the cup. A loss at Anfield would hardly be the end of our title hopes; it's only February, for crying out loud! The FA Cup yet remains our only realistic hope for a trophy, which is why I'd prefer a cup win over a league win.

But such is football that Arsenal can win both encounters, which would provide the team a massive fillip ahead of the Bayern Munich task. We really need it, because I'm still unsure that we can beat Manchester United at the Emirates. Liverpool is a winnable game (whether home or away), - and as title contenders, we should hope for nothing less than 3 points today.

I think we'll play with the same lineup that we did against Palace owing to nothing much developing in terms of injuries. I'd hope for Rosicky to be given a start; Ozil should be rested, he will be needed four days later against United. In addition, Tomas had an electrifying game in the reverse fixture, and I think his flair will help us a lot today.

I have great respect for Liverpool. Even though I detest Luis Suarez's personality, I'd be a fool to turn a blind eye to his breathtaking performances. Brendan Rodgers seems like a good manager, and players like Coutinho and Flanagan seem like promising talents. I actually reckon that had a club like Arsenal did not exist, I'd be a Liverpool supporter.

Think about it. They, like us, have been waiting for a major trophy (the Carling Cup barely counts), and have endured more than their fair share of disappointments every season. Steven Gerrard is an individual whose loyalty I respect - one senses that Jack Wilshere can go along the same way with Arsenal. I have long sensed a mutual respect between these two clubs, and it's something that I admire in times of pure loathing among rivals.

However, there is no doubt that I'd be rooting 100% for Arsenal in the coming match. I know that our team is "quality" enough to beat the Mugsmashers, we have an excellent defence and a fairly dangerous attack. Three point is a must, whichever way we get it. Let's hope we do.

#COYG

P.S. Sanogo is fit again. If anyone cares.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Arsenal 2-0 Palace: Our Ox on the field carries the burden this time

After a frustrating 45 minutes, Oxlade-Chamberlain struck twice to save Arsenal the blushes, giving us a 2-0 victory in the end. At half time, I won't deny that there were genuine concerns for me, even though I knew that there were 45 more minutes to go against a tiring Palace side. Once again though, this Arsenal side have demonstrated a willingness to up their game when necessary for three vital points.

The first half - let's face it - was a pretty drab affair. Frankly, aside from the Monreal chance created by Ozil, it's a wonder how most of the Emirates crowd managed to stay awake. Even though in the end we did manage to get those all-important three points, people tend to overlook these vapid, boring minutes where we were clueless in front of goal.

I'm not going to do that, though. If we want to win the title, we need to vanquish our negatives, and pointing out those flaws is certainly at step one. One of the reasons that I was imploring the manager to spend was because that striker would have that knack of scoring goals from decent positions, unlike the tap-ins that Giroud comfortably tucks away. The first half against Palace was a clear example of how toothless we were in the final third, largely (if not completely) down to a clear lack of movement at the face of Speroni's goal.

This kind of flawed attack is exactly what's going to cost us later this season. Players like Podolski, Giroud, Santi Cazorla and Ozil were completely stationary near the D, barely making runs either at the goalkeeper or across the face of goal. I can understand Giroud lying idle with his back to goal; after all, he's supposed to pivot the balls off to his teammates. However, players like Podolski, Cazorla and Ozil really don't have many excuses for a lack of movement near the box.

This is why I feel that players like Wilshere, Rosicky and now Oxlade-Chamberlain will have a very good second half of the season. Unlike a majority of the squad, the above mentioned players are ones who are prepared to make electrifying runs and press the opposition higher up the pitch, rather than sit back and soak pressure.

With Rosicky and Jack not in the starting XI, it was the Ox who stepped up this time and got a goal immediately after the break. While everyone was standing still and passing sideways, Oxlade-Chamberlain made a lung-bursting run from midfield into space. Santi Cazorla executed an easy ball with perfection, and Chambo looped it over the helpless keeper. 1-0.

After taking the lead, we inexplicably proceeded to apply the dreaded handbrake against a medicre side like Crystal Palace. Instead of making runs near the box and killing off a newly promoted team, we passed the ball pointlessly and acted like the game was done. We're getting really dependent on Bould's usually fail-safe defence, grabbing a goal and sitting back for a lot of games this season.

If playing like this - defending for long periods and snatching goals - is indeed a part of our game plan, then I honestly have no issues with it. However, I'm not sure that playing pragmatic football to such an extent is part of the whole idea. Arsene Wenger is a person who's fond of blowing teams away, and I'm sure that he didn't buy Mesut Ozil for him to contribute in scrappy one-nillers against the likes of Palace.

Such a strategy of football may work well against average, yet stubborn opposition. However, it can and will backfire against powerful attacking prowess' like Manchester City's or Bayern Munich's. We need to find a perfect blend between attack and defence, instead of playing pragmatically - a euphemism for "parking the bus" - against a mediocre Premier League team.

We did add more gloss to the scoreline, in fairness. Some intricate play between Giroud and Chamberlain saw the latter get quite a lot of space down the left hand side. Chambo's hunger to score was apparent when he drove up the pitch and shot it past Speroni. In whatever fashion we did it, ultimately we bagged three points, and that is what matters.

This is a very good result, in light of knowing that Manchester City and/or Chelsea are guaranteed to drop points tonight. Personally, I'm looking forward to this encounter, because it's two opposites pitted against each other with a common objective - to get closer to us.

Mourinho's staunch defence and Pellegrini's scintillating attack means that we should be in for a game which should really fascinate the strategists. That's not to say that the neutrals won't enjoy this; should City break through Chelsea's parked bus, Mourinho's men would be forced to come out of their shell and make a game of it.

This game is hardly a title decider though, and I'm planning to watch it as a neutral. Even though I hope for City to take the lead and the game to culminate into a goal-fest (not unlike the 6-3 game we had to endure), I expect Chelsea to take the lead, City to peg back and finally make it 1-1 at full time. However, I could so easily be wrong.

You know why? Because football is crazy.

P.S. I was thinking of writing a piece on the Kallstrom madness that surrounded deadline day, but it felt futile when there was already a piece on the Internet mirroring my thoughts. Check it out.

Also, ha ha to United.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Arsenal vs Palace: Match Preview

I wish I could feel excited about this game.

However, I don’t. Even though I decided to get behind the team after the manager yet again underwhelmed, I still cannot get to the terms that Wenger so readily refused to spend, even though a reasonable amount of targets were at our disposal. I’m still seething in the aftermath of another failure of a transfer window.

I did see it coming, though, and that considerably reduced the pain of seeing the Draxler and the Vucinic deals fall apart. It was completely expected, yet the realization of failure early in the window didn’t stop me from feeling pretty drained at the end of it. The frustration of seeing an inactive manager lie through his teeth has reached new heights, if possible.

However, what frustrates me the most is that there are people who blindly support him, not realizing the humongous blunders that he has done over the years. It’s really hard to believe that people are so fixated on the “Wenger Knows” quote that they will go to any lengths to defend the stupid decisions that he has taken, instead blaming the board, the debt and the Financial Fair Play.

People fail to realize that Wenger succeeded in his early years at Arsenal because he had inherited George Graham’s defence. I won’t deny that Wenger deserves huge applause for capitalizing on those foundations laid by Graham, though. He introduced a new diet to prolong the careers of players like Tony Adams, and mixed ageing legs with exciting new talents.

It worked remarkably, as Arsenal were firmly on the up in the early 2000s, reaching the pinnacle of their success in 2004. Arsene Wenger rightly deserved applause for that, because he found a perfect blend between experience and young blood, leading to some mesmerizing counter attacking football and staunch defending.

However, once the defenders started “moving on” and The Back Four disappeared, it became clear that Wenger couldn’t teach his team to defend to save their lives. To top it all, he sold all of the experienced players and replaced them with teenagers, who had nobody to look up to. Once the foundations that Graham had led began to disappear, so did Wenger's success.

No wonder we saw such shameful defending for 5 whole years. Pat Rice was barely given any input by a dominating Wenger, and the wage budget was destroyed by wasting resources on duds like Stepanovs, Poom, Almunia, Vivas, Bothroyd, Pennant, Diawara, Malz, Aliadiere, Bentley, Stack, Jeffers, Wright, Inamoto, Hoyte, Cygan, Shaaban, Awusu-Abeyie, Senderos, Lupoli, Traore, Mannone, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue, Nordtveit, Bartley, Merida, Bischoff, Silvestre, Wellington Silva, Squillaci, Djourou, Andre Santos, Chamakh, Gervinho, Arshavin and Park Chu Young.

I know that building the Emirates Stadium meant that we had to keep a check on our resources and not spend too much, but I strongly feel that that was used as an excuse for not buying top talents when available. Upon analysis, Arsenal Truth has clearly pinpointed the wastage on flop signings. Of course, I could cut the manager some slack had he only bought a couple of flops, but such a high number is astounding.

The board are a spineless bunch of profit-hungry businessmen who put blind faith in their manager, giving him too much freedom and interested only in CL qualification. It speaks volumes that Wenger’s job approaches untenable only when Champions League is on the line, because the board members are only interested in the profits that come along with it.

However, it seems like Gazidis is growing a backbone in recent times. He oh-so cleverly made a public declaration that Wenger would have the funds that he needed to make major signings. Deals with the Emirates and Puma were well-publicized as well, which means that the club will rake in £180m from July 2014 onwards.

Our booming financial conditions meant that Wenger was rightly held 100% accountable for any signings made in the window. While even after 2006 there were no signs that Wenger was denied funds by the board (Wenger’s supporters merely assumed that to absolve Wenger of blame), now there was irrefutable proof that the board were willing to provide Wenger with a bottomless pit.

However, by then Wenger was so disillusioned with his megaflop “Project Youth” campaign, that he refused the fact that he needed to spend big. Even throughout the years when he was supposedly denied funds, he refused to buy top talents at a cut price, instead trusting his deadwood. Witness Xabi Alonso’s failed transfer to Arsenal because Wenger opted to keep faith in Denilson; how stupid does that sound now?

We’ve passed two transfer windows since Ivan made the Gooner family wise that Wenger had an £80m transfer kitty available, yet the only marquee signing that Wenger made was Mesut Ozil, a last ditch panic purchase. For people who are open-minded enough to notice, Wenger has been turned into a power-hungry, procrastinating, profit-making, arrogant dictator after getting too much freedom since 2006. Since David Dein left and the board was replaced with a bunch of money-oriented businessmen who didn’t know squat about football, Wenger was given a lot of trust and power, because he was the only higher authority left in the club who understood football.

However, the lure of having single-handed control, undisputed authority and the ability to get away with everything except CL qualification at a club like Arsenal went straight to Wenger’s head. From being a wise philosopher and a winner at Arsenal, Wenger slowly lowered his expectations because he knew that his new bosses would be okay with failing to win the title regularly.

And now, even though we have a great chance to win the title, we are been backstabbed by a shadow of a man who is living off past glories and knows that the board and a majority of Arsenal supporters will defend him should he fail. Wenger has NO MOTIVATION to aim for the stars this season, since his contract is secure (with a possible pay rise) and CL qualification is in the bag as well.

Many would find this hard to believe. After all, they hear Wenger's wise quotes in press conferences and see his frustration on the touchline when Arsenal are losing, and believe that he knows best. They listen to Wenger saying that he wants to win the title and assume that he’s telling the truth, instead of considering the possibility that Wenger might just be building his PR image to the footballing world.

Bloggers like Arseblog, Gunnerblog as well as sports journalists, who speak a mainstream tone of Wenger nobly bearing pressure under an impatient fanbase lead the average Arsenal fan to think along the same lines as well. No one stops to think that they might be wrong, or that they might be unknowingly contributing to one of the biggest lies in world football history.

There is a reason that people who want Arsene Wenger out never stop complaining, even in good times. It’s because they know that there is a logical explanation behind the scenes for surprising Arsenal results, and that Wenger does not deserve half of the praise that he gets from everywhere. They know that under Wenger, we will always struggle to win things; winning the Premier League or the FA Cup this season won’t change that. Maybe it will, because it might remind Wenger of the times that he used to be a winner. I’m not counting on it, though.

Since 2006, the situation at Arsenal has always been massively complex. There are many theories to explain this steady decline of the club, out of which the widely accepted one is “It’s the board’s and the players’ fault, they didn’t co-operate with Wenger, and our beloved boss has been made a scapegoat”. However, I firmly believe in the theory that I have explained above, because it is supported by facts and figures, and explains ALL of the madness surrounding the club.

Even though I believe that the club has been managed like a circus for a long time through good times and bad, I will still remain an Arsenal fan. Despite knowing about the huge cover-ups and the vast masses of deluded Arsenal fans, I shall never leave this club to join another. I don’t want to brag, but I think that this speaks volumes of me. 

I am independent enough to have my own opinions, despite of what the world thinks. Even though there was a time that the club was filled with clueless board members, a manager who didn’t care about the club, heartless players who wanted out and fans who were horribly split (I am, of course, talking about the end of the 2010-2011 season),  I still had 100% of Arsenal DNA in me to sustain the disappointments.

I, of course, will still stand beside the team and cheer them on, even if I know that Wenger’s inactivity is certain to cost us dear in May. I have said a lot of times before that the players who currently don the red and white are a million times more deserving than the facades of Clichy, Song, Nasri, van Persie and Adebayor. The joy of watching honest, hardworking players give their sweat and blood for the club seems to lessen my pain of inevitable disappointment that’s certain to follow.

Today we face Crystal Palace at home, which is the calm before the storm. Our season – which seems like a dream come true so far – may just suffer a confidence shake up in the games that follow Palace. One cannot rule out the possibility that after the Palace game, the team might fall down a slippery slope and never recover.

The 90 minutes that follow may be one of the last times in a long time that you get to see a rock-solid defence and a scintillating attack. Enjoy it while it lasts.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Wenger gambles on our season

It's 1st February, and we're left with Giroud and Bendtner on the back of a disaster of a transfer window. Suffice to say, my worst nightmare of Olivier bravely dragging his jaded feet across the pitch twice a week has come horribly true. Not to mention that the seeds for the beginning of the end of our season might have already been sown. Arsene Wenger has done it - he's somehow managed to evade interest from Draxler and Berbatov, instead loaned some guy's name I've never heard of, and yet be completely absolved of blame.

Our Premier League season is over. The only way we'll win the league is if Giroud remains fit and firing, Ramsey returns for the City and Chelsea matches in storming form AND we defeat our two direct title rivals. Don't get your hopes up people - there's not a chance in hell that such scenarios are coinciding over the span of 4 months.

Even if it does, it would almost entirely depend upon luck and asking too much of our key players, especially Giroud. The title is not in our hands, far from the mark of a title challenging side.

I'd be astonished if we finish second in the table, forget first now. Chelsea did us another favour by not buying a striker, missing out on Diego Costa. One mightn't be wrong to reckon that Manchester City did us a favour too, by not strengthening in the window and giving us hope in an injured Aguero. However, we have failed to capitalize on the situation, bringing another midfielder instead of backup for Giroud.

I know that Kim Kallstrom is supposed to be a short-term fix, but I doubt that he would be necessary over the course of 4 months. In reality, I have a strong feeling that Kim would be obsolete after a month, because that's when Flamini, Ramsey, Wilshere and Rosicky would return. While he is a very good signing for depth, a midfielder was hardly a priority in the market.

In the aftermath of the signing I spoke to one of Wenger's lap dogs, who heralded Kallstrom's signing as a "game-changing buy". After laughing cruelly for about an hour, I could only marvel at how sometimes supporters are so completely ignorant and put blind faith in a clueless manager.

Kim offers nothing new to the team except a fix for 4 to 5 games, after which players like Arteta and Flamini would undoubtedly take over. People who think that Kim's superb free kick ability would help us are sorely mistaken as well. Players like Arteta, Cazorla and Ozil's free kick abilities have notably declined under Arsenal. It isn't a jinx - I think it's the result of a lack of set-piece coaching, and I fear Kallstrom will go down the same way.

Kallstrom may be good, he may be shit (I actually reckon that he won't be half bad), but the fact remains that Wenger left it late to make a deadline day saga of a fairly mediocre player. I can bet top dollar that Kallstrom was a player looked up on 30th January or on deadline day. Suggesting that he was a long term target is absolute bollocks. Instead of buying a striker that EVERYONE knows we need, we get a 31 year old midfielder to seal us the title.

UPDATE: Our backup to injuries is injured. This is beyond ridiculous.

Our Champions League hopes are doomed too. There is no way that we're getting past Bayern Munich over two legs with this team. We might pull a surprising result at home, but I don't think that we can get past them into the quarters. Nevertheless, I'll still enjoy hosting the best team in the world at the Emirates, even if the word "failure" will be hanging at the back of my mind.

We might have a good go at the FA Cup too, I think. If we get past Liverpool, we can only hope that we avoid Chelsea or City in the next round. IF we can beat Liverpool, I must emphasize. After a demoralizing transfer window and injuries/suspensions hit us, I don't know where the team are going to get the confidence to reclaim first and dispatch Liverpool away.

Look, the season isn't dead yet. We still have the FA Cup to look forward to, and can entertain ourselves over two legs against Munich. However, one would be optimistic - if not foolish - to expect more from this season.

I don't think that this Arsenal side will ever "collapse", like in 2008, 2010 and 2011. Nor do I believe that February will solely define our season. However, I think that by the end of March, the gap between us and the league leaders would be so insurmountable that we won't be able to catch up with them, despite an easy run in. I may be wrong, but the factor of me being wrong depends a lot on luck, injuries and the opposition screwing up.

Wenger had a clear shot at success, and he blew it. The market was not at all as difficult as he made it out to be. On the contrary, I don't remember a January transfer window where so many strikers were potentially up for grabs.

Alvaro Morata, Dimitar Berbatov, Diego Costa, Jackson Martinez and Christian Benteke were players that were within our reach if we tried, and footballers that would significantly improve our squad. Heck, towards the end of the market, even players like Alexandre Pato and Miroslav Klose had become a possibility.

Predictably, Wenger wasn't even remotely inclined to grab those chances. Instead, he made a half-hearted loan attempt at Salomon Kalou which promptly got turned down. To cap off his madness in the market, instead of working further for possibilities like Klose and Pato, he gave away Park Chu Young on loan to Watford.

There is no excuse for such inactivity by Wenger. The board cannot be blamed for refusing funds to Wenger; remember that Ivan Gazidis had publicly stated that they want Wenger to buy (a striker in particular). If the board had sanctioned £42m for Mesut Ozil, why would they deny £5m for Berbatov? One cannot even begin to blame the Financial Fair Play as well, because they didn't stop Manchester City incurring a £100m loss.

In the end, it all comes down to Wenger's desk. It was 100% his responsibility to buy a striker, but he failed. I could have cut him some slack had he tried really hard and failed, but this was such a predictable disaster it's shameful. This transfer window is daylight proof, if proof were ever needed, that Wenger prefers a top four finish, anything else is only a bonus.

At this part of the season had we been languishing in 7th, I have no doubt in my head that Wenger would have made a move for a top striker. People fail to notice that over the past few years, Wenger has only bought productive players when his job was on the line or CL was in jeopardy. This year it was neither, hence we end up with nothing except for a midfielder who was signed just for the heck of it.

I know that the players have not deferred from their objective of winning the title. However, they might be aware that Wenger did not buy a player because he is content with a top four spot, and that might dent their determinations. It isn't easy to raise the bar for yourselves if you think that your boss is happy with a significantly lower result, you know.

I know that the players are not stupid. I reckon that some of them might be knowing of Wenger's true intentions in the "title race". However, I find myself praying that they think otherwise, because if they ever catch wind of how the true nature of their beloved boss is, they might just give up on the title.

I have to make a clarification from now on. To me this transfer window was the final piece in the jigsaw for me that Wenger is a manager who WILL accept 4th, and who WILL underachieve throughout his years in charge. However, the players are a different story altogether, for they want the club to succeed and win a trophy. They know that a lot is at stake this season, and that they will do what it takes to win it.

From today onwards, I'm drawing a clear line between the players and the manager. I don't care if Wenger is Arsenal's boss - in my head, he's merely an obstacle in the team's path to possible glory. Whenever I say, "Arsenal played really well to win the game", I shall mean only the players, and sometimes Steve Bould. I DO give praise to a person when it's due, but Wenger hasn't even come close to achieve it.

Come on Arsenal. And by that I only mean the players.

P.S. Genuinely upset to see Frimpong leave, to me he seemed like a direct Vieira replacement. If I would be the manager, then once Rosicky would've retired I would put Jack in Rozza's position, for he can match Rosicky's flair. With Wilshere's slot open in central midfield, there would be space freed for Frimmy to come in. Anyways, it's all irrelevant now, all thanks to Wenger.

Dench!

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz )

Could Deadline Day be any more "upon us"?

It's 31st January, and there aren't any signings yet for Arsenal. Sure, the rumours are there, but they yet haven't produced anything tangible in an official signing or departure. The clock is ticking away, and the manager needs to act quickly and decisively in order to salvage a season showing tremendous promise.

Chelsea did us a massive favour against West Ham, but I'd be doubtful that they would do us another at the Etihad. Nevertheless, we need to take advantage of their gracious slip-up, not only against the upcoming Crystal Palace, but also in the transfer market.

I've said it a lot of times before - it's no exaggeration when I say that our season literally depends on a striker. If we don't buy a striker (or a winger, and make Podolski a striker), the only chance we have of winning the title is if Olivier Giroud remains fit for 4 months straight and keeps scoring goals regularly, which is really unlikely. If we do want to win the title and recreate those glory days, a striker is nothing but a necessity.

A prime reason of Arsene Wenger's early success at Arsenal was because he had inherited George Graham's mean defence, and mixed it with scintillating attacking football. While our offense under Wenger has already been superb throughout the years, the "moving on" of The Back Four resulted in some appalling defending from around 2007 to 2012. Now that Steve Bould (another Graham product) is here to save the defence, we can focus on adding to the firepower up front.

It's almost ironic that after so many years of good offense-bad defence, when we finally find the solution to a bad defence, our attack has been found wanting. We already know that the path to reliving the glory days is a perfect blend of Graham's gritty defence and Wenger's pass-and-move philosophy. The thing is, while we have a lot of creativity in attack, we don't have the cutting edge to finish off the moves. That's what I want in this transfer window - along with some backup in defence.

Below are the targets that I want Arsenal to sign, which doesn't necessarily mean that I'm predicting that Wenger will buy them. Anyways, here they are:

A striker:

Well, this was an unexpected addition, wasn't it? :P

Look, it's painfully obvious that Giroud and Bendtner are incomparable to Manchester City's Negredo and Aguero. And Dzeko. AND Jovetic. City are our prime title rivals, and we need to match them in order to beat them. Giroud needs an excellent alternative that can complement him in order for Arsenal's strike force to shine.
Who I'd like: Dimitar Berbatov. Alvaro Morata. Jackson Martinez. Mario Mandzukic. Mirko Vucinic. Demba Ba. Anyone!

A centre back:

With only three center backs in our team - Mertesacker, Koscielny and Vermaelen - we need backup in that area in case any one of the above mentioned three get injured. With Kurt Zouma seemingly Chelsea-tied, our options are dwindling by the hour.

Vermaelen has enough competition with Mertesacker and Koscielny as it is, so I don't want a world-class defender or something that would put further pressure on him and push him towards the exit door. We actually have the luxury of getting a promising talent here, who can get more playing time in the FA Cups and give Mertesacker a rest.

Looking at "internal solutions" to solve this problem won't be a bad idea either. Promoting someone like Semi Ajayi or Issac Hayden might be productive for their development and our title hopes. Frankly, I would be content with quantity rather than quality here.
Who I'd like: Simon Kjaer, Semi Ajayi or Issac Hayden.

  
If we get these players, I feel that our squad will be complete, at least till May. We would be well-equipped to win the FA Cup, at least achieve second in the title race. While attempting glory at Munich would still remain a dream, the confidence exuding from the team due to these signings would at least make it a possibility.

However, I don't think that Wenger will buy anybody, mostly because our top four hopes are secure - the injury to Ramsey won't change that. Even though we have the money to activate Draxler's £37 million release clause, Martinez's £32 million release clause and certainly Berbatov's £3 million transfer fee, Wenger will not buy.

Why? Because he knows that his future is secure at Arsenal, Gazidis has already announced that. Even though there are a plethora of options that were available in the market at specific times (including NOW), Wenger is constantly creating the illusion of January being a difficult market to do business in. He's lying to our faces, and there are a bunch of supporters on his side as well, encouraging him to promote those lies.

Here's an extract that I wrote for Arsenal India Supporters on JANUARY 11th:

"He’s making it seem as if it’s really difficult to get a striker this month, while I have proved above that we can buy either Dimitar Berbatov, Alvaro Morata, Jackson Martinez or Diego Costa given the right effort. Why is he already making excuses beforehand when instead we could be sitting with a striker right now? There are only 2 conclusions that I can draw from this peculiar behaviour, which are:

1. He is content with his squad, and ultimately contented with a top four spot which he will doubtless achieve with this team. His habits of not spending extra to go that further mile seem to be at it again.
 
2. He’ll make a late dash in the window, possibly bag Dimitar Berbatov on 31st January. The logic behind this must be to avoid losses (clubs tend to bend the rules late in the transfer window due to lack of time) and bring the mentality of Arsenal supporters to, “We didn’t get a world-class striker, but meh, something is better than nothing”.
 
While I’d be much happier with the second scenario, both of these cases say a lot on Arsene Wenger. It says clearly that he puts money over football, and that he’d risk not getting in a striker at all for getting in a striker on the cheap. Whenever Arsenal’s top four hopes are on the line, Arsene will no doubt get quality – witness the £15 million Arshavin signing. However, if our title hopes are on the line, why would Wenger stall over getting a striker the whole footballing world knows that Arsenal need?
 
Arsenal supporters may not want to admit it, but this undoubtedly showcases a losers mentality. It shows that as long as our Champions League hopes are secure, Wenger will not get in a player. The fact remains that if Wenger wants to win the league, we would be in negotiations with a striker right now. Even after Bendtner and Walcott getting injured, we aren’t seeing serious activity from Arsene in the transfer window. It’s ridiculous, really."

In 19 days, NOTHING has changed. In reality it has worsened, witness Aaron Ramsey's injury that will rule him out for games against Liverpool, United and Bayern. However, Wenger is still showing no inclination of loosening the purse strings, even though he can get Alvaro Morata on loan and Dimitar Berbatov permanently for as little as £3 million.

I can't believe that people actually support Arsene Wenger. He has such obvious flaws that most of the Arsenal fanbase choose to ignore, simply because he achieved something remarkable a decade ago, which makes it all the more frustrating. Wenger should take 100% responsibility if he fails to get in a striker, because he gets too much insight into transfer dealings. Yet he won't, because there will be a bunch of people shielding him and instead blaming the board, the scouters, the Financial Fair Play or Chuck Norris instead.

There is an 80% probability that we're going to be inactive on deadline day. I had predicted that Wenger would make a late attempt on a player, and it seems like that was on Julian Draxler which failed. He might make another attempt on another player if the pressure of expectation on him increases, but I don't see anything else happening beside that.

At the moment, I see many Arsenal supporters who want Arsene Wenger to buy a striker. Let me tell you in advance that I shall have no respect for you if you sing a different tone at the end of the window, after realizing that Wenger had remained stubbornly inactive. Wenger is a person that has not received overdue criticism for a lot of mistakes that he has made, largely due to a deluded Arsenal fanbase. It seems like the same is going to happen on 1st February as well.

I realize that I have come across as increasingly harsh on the manager. After all there is still time in the transfer market to pull off a signing and rejuvenate our title challenge. However, I refuse to ignore evidence, and evidence clearly suggests that Wenger is not going to buy "top top quality" in the window. Let's hope that the coming press conference proves me wrong.  

Brace for disappointment Gooners, for I already have.

-Santi (Follow me on twitter: @ArsenalBlogz, I'll be giving transfer updates over there)