Maybe Next Year...Where have we heard this before?

Things were looking bright for the club heading into the final games of the season, with a quarter final against Barcelona to look forward to. How quickly things can change though. Before we could even blink an eye we are sitting third in the league 6 points behind Chelsea, with 3 games remaining and smashed out of the champions league by a rampant Barcelona. I hope these last few weeks have taught Arsene Wenger a few lessons, because I certainly have learnt a lot from them.

First of all I would like to look at the positives from this season. Lets face it, know one expected us to be in with a shout this season, but we were almost there. The form of players such as Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas and the signing of Thomas Vermaelan also shed light on a mixed season. We have shown lots of character throughout the season, scoring many last minute winners to gain vital points in title race. I suppose another good thing coming out of this season is realising that we are not good enough. I think Arsene Wenger has seen now that improvement must be made, or else we may find ourselves going on a downward spiral.

Its evident from this season the defence was not good enough. We have conceded 39 goals in the league this season so far, that is the 8th best record in the premier league, with teams such as Tottenham, Fulham and even Stoke having a better defensive record against us. There is a saying that 'offense sells tickets, defence wins championships'. I'm not just saying that the back four has been poor, because that wouldn't be true. In Clichy, Sagna, Gallas and Vermaelan, we have four of the best defenders in the world. However just because you have the best defenders doesn't mean to say you will have a great defence. Defending is a an art and takes the whole team to create a great defensive team. For example Man Utd, they have the best defensive record this season. The difference between United and Arsenal defensively is huge. The way Uniteds midfield close down, and intercept crucial passes is a joy to behold. Defence is not only just about stopping the attacking team, its about being disciplined and creating a brick wall. Arsenal instead of having a brick wall seem to have a bit of tape. Its not just against the big teams our defence has been found wanting, but even against some of the smaller teams, we have struggled to keep a clean sheet, and concede silly goals. We have kept 12 clean sheet this season compared to Man Utd's 17. Those 5 clean sheets could well be the reason why the title has been taken away from us.

In my opinion we must find a new keeper, Almunia has made some great saves this season, but i find it no coincidence that we have Almunia in goal and we concede far too many goals. I have been watching Hugo Lloris of Lyon, and he I believe would be a great signing. Also being linked with Joe Hart has bought a smile to my face, he is England's future number one, and i thoroughly believe that he has the ability to be a top keeper. Another name to throw into the mix is Igor Akinfeev of CSKA Moscow, highly regarded as one of the best young keepers in the world. Of course it would be harsh to just lay the blame on Almunia himself, but he certainly is a huge factor. Another factor is that we just cant defend as a team. There is a problem tactically with how we defend and I think that problem can be addressed on the training pitch rather than bringing in new personnel. Man Utd still defend better than us even with Vidic and Ferdinand out injured, and I'm pretty sure we have better defenders than Stoke and Fulham do. This in itself shows that you can have the best defenders in the world but if you don't defend as a team, then you are going to be in big trouble, and we have learnt this the hard way this season.

Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas and even Abou Diaby have been great this season, but even still i would like us to bring a new face in midfield. I think it has been unfair on Alex Song to play as many times as he has this season, its no wonder why he is now out injured for the games we really needed him to be fit for. I have been a long term fan of Yaya Toure. He could give us something different to what we have, and you don't just have to play either him or song, you can play them both. Against teams like Chelsea and Man Utd, I think it could actually help us playing two holding men, just to give us that extra strength in the midfield. He could be a few bricks in the wall i was talking about creating earlier on in the article. If we could secure the signing of Yaya Toure then I would be extremely happy.

Despite scoring 78 goals already this season, which is not bad at all, i still think in some games we have lacked a certain spark, especially without Van Persie. We need another striker, and after watching Chamakh, i feel he may give us something that we have been missing. However the issue doesn't just stem from the strikers. I feel sometimes that we run out of ideas in midfield and end up leaving all the creating down to fabregas. We still need another player that can create something out of the blue, we have to compensate for the fact that players like Nasri, Arshavin and Rosicky are going to have off games, we need someone who can come in and be effective from the off. I personally would like to see Gourcouff at the club. He is an Arsenal player through and through and i think he would thrive in the Premier league.

A lot of improvement must be made for next season, not only to win the title, but also to compete. Teams such as Tottenham, Man City and Villa are very close to penetrating the top four, as Liverpool have found out this season already. We must improve our personnel, our tactics, our mentality and we must start to create this winning attitude. I'm fed up of being satisfied with 'we were nearly there'. That attitude will never secure as a Premier League title. Personally I'm very offended that people don't expect Arsenal to challenge anymore, and 'nearly there' is seen as an accomplishment by the outside world. Arsenal Football Club should be winning trophies like they always have done, not bottling out of title races and throwing away opportunities to win trophies. We should be out to win every trophy we enter in for whether it be the Carling Cup of The Champions League. Until this attitude can be established in this Arsenal team then we will be going nowhere fast.

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