2009 Arsenal EPL review

It has been another lously year for Arsenal, 4 years without a trophy, and is a tough pill to swallow for Arsenal fans.

This year without Arashavin, Arsenal may still be fighting for 4th place. I feel that this year Wenger has got many of his tactics and strategy wrong.
- not fielding Arashavin in the FA cup, the only realistic cup to win
- persisting with Diaby who is crap and even worse playing him out of position
- in the 1st championship match, Walcott was already in Evra pocket, with of little use, in the 2nd match Wenger still played him in that position....poor decision. I will have moved Bendtner there who played much better in the 1st leg after taking over from Walcott, and placed Walcott central striker instead of Van Persie. The space & penetration in the final third was lacking. Van persie is more technical, but had no speed and thus no space. Walcott would have been better as a second striker feeding of Edabayor.
- In the last match vs Man U, we see that they have improved vastly, maybe because Man U was also cautious.
So what next, I feel that Arsenal although has progressed, is still lacking as a top club. They lack speed which only maybe Walcott is providing. Nasri is a central midifielder and playing him wide is a bad choice as there is little speed. He is not like Pires who gets into very dangerous position in the final third and scores lots of goals. Nasri playing wide does not get into dangerous position in the final third, usually outside the box.
1) Maybe they should get a natural wide winger with speed like Ryan Babel, 2) a more tenacious midfielder and and 3) tall capable defender. 4) And definitely a speedy tall & techinical striker to replace Edabayor who has lost interest and ineffective.
Bendtner although tall, is not good technically. Look at simple 1st touch which he hopelessly miss. Will he get better as he is still young? Although his goal tally is good for his age, it has to improve. If not he should be let go sooner, it is a waste of time, and waste of future precious points.

Well it is time to look for next season, hoping the next experience players get recruited, and definitely will look forward towards Arashavin, an improved Walcott, Educardo and Rosicky fighting for next season.