Champions League – Aftermath

After a successful night in Europe, we must re-group and examine where we are and what we need to do in the forthcoming months. Clearly, we need to stay in touch with the leaders, no more than four to five points behind the league leaders by the time the transfer window opens. The transfer window is our opportunity to rectify the mistakes of the summer, the failure to add a wide midfielder and a central midfielder.

 

Denilson has done well in the central midfield, but he is light-weight and will not last the season. Diaby showed last night what we can expect from him, he is strong, fast, athletic, skilful and can score, but the big question is how long is be fore Abou gets injured again. Unfortunately, this is the reality with Diaby.  Ramsey showed great composure, but he came on whilst we were winning, it will be slightly different if we are chasing a game.

 

On the wing we have two players, Walcott and Nasri. Wenger might use Diaby there or Eboue but neither are wide players, neither offer the true penetration and trickery afforded by Walcott and Nasri.  We do not know when or if Rosicky will return.

 

Several players have been mentioned, Affelay from PSV and Defour from Standard Liege, the fact that they may be cup-tied is irrelevant for the league campaign.  Wenger must have targets set up and use the first week of January to make the buys that may help us win the league. Failure to do so will result in us winning nothing this season and the prospect of losing Fabregas in the summer.