Ambition is priceless

Hey guys, Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. I know i should've had a match review up for the derby and a post-deadline day round up but i felt a bit under the weather. I still don't feel a 100%  fine but i just had to share my thoughts on what  has transpired at our club since last weekend. So first, how about that win on sunday eh? Brilliant stuff ! I recall writing in my preview before the game how in spite of all our transfer gloom, we still had our aces up our sleeve against them. Yes it was clear they had the better form and arguably the better squad going into the match but we definitely were the more closely knit side without a doubt. This Arsenal team has cultivated a very formidable spirit among itself that not many observers have recognized yet. I believe this spirit is borne out of all those crushing defeats and terrible disappointments of last season.Those experiences toughened these guys up like hell. They've seen it all and now, its almost like they feel they can cope with anything. The Spurs team i saw was exactly like i had expected, individually strong and confident but desperately lacking any sort of established pattern or team cohesion. Chadli, Townsend, Paulinho, and one time Arsenal target Capoue stood out for me as impressive,and may yet be big hits in this league but on Sunday they were always 2nd best. Our team had a resolve. And that resolve was to bring their swashbuckling early season swagger to a halt. My man of the match for Arsenal was Giroud, whom if i'm honest, i'll say i never believed was capable of  scoring a goal of such technical quality. It was almost Van Persie-like (Sorry i had to go there). Such was my amazement that i suddenly felt i owed the Frenchman an apology, for being such a harsh critic of his ever since he joined us. Truly, if that's the kind of goal we can now come to expect from Giroud, then happy days lie ahead for us seriously. It was expertly taken, nothing more to add. Also, whisper it if you must but how about that for a defensive performance?! Its hard to attribute it all to the back four, seeing that it appears the whole team is now alive to a collective defensive responsibility. In addition, this Arsenal team is definitely a smarter unit too. Look at the way we attacked when the score was 0-0 and compare it to the way we switched things up when we were ahead. We resorted to the pattern that worked for us in those final games of last season, which involved soaking pressure resolutely and Counter-punching intelligently. Maybe its down to the fact that this team has more experienced old heads than the days of before, as we now seem to be able to close out games quite efficiently. So we notched up our 2nd win and stand 4th in the league table above United (boom!) in 7th place as we moved into the final 24hrs of the transfer window.

And what a cliffhanger it was. We had all endured a torrid summer that promised much and delivered little. We had just won a hard game against our bitter rivals and were basking in joy, yet everyone needed the club to crown that with a glossy finish to the night with proper signings. Now in my earlier posts when i began this blog 2 months ago in July i broke down positions i felt we needed to strengthen to compete for trophies. i highlighted a goalie,striker,central defender,creative midfielder and Defensive midfielder. In the end the club acquired only 3 out of that list. I won't say i expected we would get all, but at least i felt the Striker,Defensive midfielder and Creative Midfielder were a must. Santi Carzola last season was under too much pressure to create things for us and opponents discovered that if they isolated him, we would struggle.Which is why the purchase of Ozil is not only a fabulous acquisition, its an ambitious one that lets our rivals know we mean business. I don't need to tell you how fantastic he is you probably know that, but he is also the kind of player that can get us back there in the upper echelon of European football with the kind of players he can attract. Real madrid would've wanted to keep him, but their need to freshen things up in their team for the new season was far greater. A classic case of their loss being our gain. Flamini and Emiliano the new keeper were necessary but given the choice, i'd have opted for getting a Top striker over the keeper. We have only one recognized striker in Giroud and though Podolski and Walcott are finishers both cannot lead the lines by themselves like a true center forward can. If heaven forbids Giroud is sidelined, what then? Sanogo? Bendtner??? it brings to the fore the error of not getting Higuain or even David Villa when we had the chance...but having said that, one of our weapons as a team is that everyone is capable of scoring. So here's hoping we get by until January, where i suspect a striker and Ashley Williams will join us ( a little dreaming never killed anyone).

Arsene answered his critics emphatically in terms of the question of our ambition. We smashed our transfer record to pieces to get Mesut Ozil and that shows we are definitely not placing a price on it. Someone said to me that this is the beginning of a new era for Arsenal. whatever that era holds, we cannot allow it to be barren in terms of trophies and undo the massive good this quality addition to our side promises.