Season 2011-12 - First Half

Arsenal had always portrayed the belief in youngsters ever since Wenger started in Highbury. Gunner's had done their best to identify young talents across the world with their well accomplished networks and scouts; without doubt Wenger could woo lads into the training camp without any competition considering the chance any youngsters would get here in Emirates. The story had been no different for Fabregas and Nasri but unfortunately passion for homeland and once parent club and money prevailed over Wenger's dream and hard work for these talented play-makers.

Let's not scrutinize them for what happened but let's see what really happened in the team. Everything has to change one day and not sure when Arsenal is going to follow that. Wenger had dreamed of building an Arsenal around Fabregas but Cesc had other plans.

Arsenal sold and send on loan lot of players without fear this season:
Kyle Bartley (loan)
Nicklas Bendtner (loan)
Pedro Botelho (loan)
Joel Campbell (loan)
Gael Clichy (undisc.)
Thomas Cruise (free)
Roarie Deacon (free)
Denilson (loan)
Jamie Edge (free)
Emmanuel Eboue (undis.)
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (£1.1m)
Cesc Fabregas (undisc.)
Henri Lansbury (loan)
Samir Nasri (undisc.)
Mark Randall (free)
Gilles Sunu (undisc.)
Armand Traore (undisc.)
Carlos Vela (loan)
Wellington (loan)

At the same time brought in experienced and powerful legs to the dressing room:
Mikel Arteta (£10m)
Yossi Benayoun (loan)
Joel Campbell (undisc.)
Alex Chamberlain (£15m)
Gervinho (undisc.)
Carl Jenkinson (undisc.)
Per Mertesacker (undisc.)
Park Chu-Young (undisc.)
Andre Santos (undisc.)

The season started pretty badly with Gervinho one of the new guy losing his cool on Barton during a 0-0 draw against Newcastle United. The pre-season friendlies were not as good as it used to be since the team never showed any spark except for 3-4 players. Maybe because everybody was worried who is going to come in and gonna go.

Arsenal was thrashed by Liverpool for 0-2 and Manchester United for 2-8. This led to a bad start to the EPL with Arsenal sitting as low as 15 in the table.
These thrashings caught nerves of fans and management alike which led to signing of all these champion players.

We had moved to Champions league quarter finals to play against AC Milan who is now second in Italian League. We had been knocked out of Carling Cup courtesy Manchester City the new star in the block. Sitting on sixth spot in League table we hardly stand a chance to be winning the EPL considering the form and strength of other English clubs. But we should not be writing off Arsenal since we saw the exit of Manchester - United & City from the Champions league when Arsenal & Chelsea progressed. We will be facing Leeds United in next round of FA Cup which could be one of our main targets this season.

This team needs time together to win the league at least 1-2years. We had been heavily dependent on Robin Van Persie who had been season's top scorer and also stands a chance to overtake Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry.

The usual starting line-up had been as below:
Szczesny
Djourou-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Vermaelen
Song-Arteta
Ramsey
Walcott-Gervinho
Robin Van Persie

Robin Van Persie, Arteta, Koscielny, Alex Chamberlain & Frimpong had been few players getting few players getting noticed during the first half of the season. Thanks to the hard work of Song, Arteta and Ramsey. But we really lacked good creativity from centre of the park which was quite often the brainchild of Fabregas and Nasri. Most of the RVP goals came from assists from wingers.

Flops of the season so far had been Arshavin, Chamakh & Squillaci. I would say playing Arshavin on the centre as a CAM would be lot better rather than using him as a winger. Chamakh is showing no signs of interest when he is playing and always looked tired.

Rosicky & Benayoun played decent when ever they were given chances but lacked getting chance since the midfield mainstays were doing good together except lacking great creativity.

Wilshere is the most missed player on the pitch along with Bacary Sagna.

It won't come as any shock to me if Arshavin, Chamakh, Rosicky & Squillaci looks for other employers in January 2012.

Hoping Arsenal does well on coming days, I would like to resume my blog Arsenalite. Sorry for not writing for long time since I was stuck in the game called life.