With the World Cup drawing to a close in the next two weeks, focus has begun to shift onto the new Premier League season. Arsenal enter the season with a trophy under their belt for the first time in a decade and will be looking to build on their FA Cup success achieved in May.
Players enter the season in completely different scenarios. Some are looking for a breakthrough year, others may be on their last legs and we could still see a World Cup winner in our squad for the campaign next year.
Each of the players in the squad, front back to front, will be important if Arsenal are to mount a serious contention for the Premier League title next year. I’ve said for years that the Gunners won’t win the league until they’ve won another domestic trophy, now that’s in the bag the North London club can really begin to progress.
Here’s three players who are set for an extremely important year with the club next term.
1. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Last summer I was fortunate enough to bump into Oxlade-Chamberlain in Nike town and he briefly spoke to me about his excitement for the new campaign. It was tipped to be a big, breakthrough season for the former-Saints player but injury blighted his progress last term- forcing him to watch on the sidelines for the majority of the season.
When he returned, Oxlade-Chamberlain was impressing and started to show that his future does indeed lay in the centre of midfield. That’s an area hotly contested for Arsenal, with Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere just two other players fighting for that spot. This year Oxlade-Chamberlain has a chance to break into the starting line-up and stay there.
He enters the tournament after a frustrating year for both club and country, as his inaugural World Cup campaign was also affected due to injury and the Three Lions crashed out at the group stages for the first time since 1958. Expect Oxlade-Chamberlain to seek redemption on the green grass at the Emirates. Use the page numbers below to navigate through the rest of the article.Â