After a relatively calm pre-season, where Arsenal have spent in excess of £60 million, expectations are rather high in North London and many are dreaming of a special season ahead.
For once we’ve done our business early, improving and reinforcing the squad across key areas of the pitch. Although in certain positions we still may be slightly short, the new signings have been acquired early and have had the chance to be properly integrated into the squad.
Arsene Wenger is again firmly popular with the fans and calls for his head should now be a distant memory. The FA Cup victory has seemed to revitalise him and hopefully he can carry on guiding us to success in the next three years that remain on his contract.
Taking the above into account should make even the most pessimistic Arsenal fan believe we stand a good chance of doing something this season. Another improvement from last season and perhaps our most important signing this summer is that of fitness coach Shad Forsythe.
Forsythe worked closely with the German National side and was part of their back room team at the World Cup. He is vastly experienced in his role and should hopefully contain the amount of injuries at the club. We’ve had injury problems for a long time and this had definitely held us back in past campaigns, Forsythe will bring in fresh ideas and with his knowledge should hopefully curtail the backlog of injuries that the club has previously endured.
The club is finally in a position where it can flex its muscles financially and we can now compete with all the other major sides in the division. The side looks very strong and we have quality competition for places across all areas of the pitch apart from defensive midfield. Our wide array of attacking talent should stand us in good stead and if we can improve our performances against the other big sides, especially away from home then the season will have a good outcome.
Crystal Palace will be very tough opposition, and even though they’ve lost Tony Pulis, you’d expect them to come to the Emirates to frustrate and contain the Arsenal side. After winning the Community Shield confidence should be high, and if we can register a good performance and result against Palace to get the season underway then things will look very hopeful for the season ahead.
There is a big belief throughout the club that things are slowly changing and with the signings we’ve made things look very hopeful. It’ll be hard to win the Premiership, but if we can bring in a couple more quality players, then come May something special may just be round the corner.