Write for your team - Arsenal part 1

'Sup footie nuts? We missed out on the Arsenal piece(s) in last week. So let's get it sorted with a brand new piece! 

Chaps, let's have a read at what Craig Wolmarans has to say on his beloved Arsenal.

Write for your team - Arsenal part 1

Prediction: (pre-RVP leaving), Top 3 with a domestic cup

Prediction: (post-RVP leaving), TREBLE!....or 4th. 4th is a trophy now right?, well Kenny said that kit deals are trophies so 4th is the UCL.

It's over Robin...

So the Captain's armband curse continues, if I was Vermaelen I would have rejected the offer, remain vice & give it to Arteta. He has some Barca DNA & next year when we sell him to C*ntalunya we can get a nifty 8-10million (I kid! I kid!). As sad as I am about the Robin van Persie issue, I’m not totally devastated. Thanks to Arsene Wenger's "mental strength" mixtapes (reasonably priced at all good retailers) I mentally prepared myself for this. One incredible season in 8, that's how I look at it, he has always had fitness issues & if we had re-signed him there would of been 2 scenarios, would we have had the 2011 RVP? or the RVP of old minus a rape case?, I'd go for the latter.

Now I know we don’t want to sell our best players. But think of it this way, this is what his last 5 seasons have looked like.

49 – 28 – 17 – 36 -21 (@LeGrove)

On average, that gives us 30.2 games per season. Take out last seasons wonder year & what do you have? An average of 20.4. His return on goals has been impressive. He has averaged 19.6 goals a season over the last few years. A healthy return when you average 30.2 games a year, a goal every 1.54 games.

Throughout all of that you cannot discount the leadership & experience he could offer Podolski & Giroud if he had stayed, we would have had one hell of an impressive attack force for this campaign. Without RVP, it's back to bed in time, the last player to bed in was Chamakh, he was awesome. Then Park something something, he's off to fight a war soon.

Still there are silver linings, we saw the display from our summer recruits playing in 2nd gear & tearing FC Cologne a new one on Sunday. Santi Cazorla looks the business, Lukas Podolski will be key for us in this season & I feel the goal scoring burden will fall upon him in this campaign. Oliver Giroud is not a Chamakh upgrade, he can be a 20+ goals a season striker but needs time to adapt. I'm looking forward to his partnership with Poldi (nicknames already!) & our 4-4-2 formation looks more formidable than the 4-3-3 that brought us so much success in the past (Emirates cups & Berlin Bear's).

So with Alex Song leaving, Wilshere out until October & Diaby soon to be injured our midfield looks very lightweight. We need reinforcements & I still believe M'vila will be joining, Sahin, well...BOOOOM!!!!!!

The board & Arsene have shown that they are serious about mounting a challenge for silverware this season, now we need to go out & show everyone that Robin van Persie made the biggest mistake of his life. We'll be treble winners come May!.

Our huge gaping hole in defense needs to shore up. They have probably benefited the most from our 1st summer signing Steve Bould. He will no doubt have them drilled with that 90's defense attitude "only run forward to celebrate ya hear me!". With Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Sebastien Squillaci (I can hear those laughs!), Johan Djourou(stop laughing already!) & Ignasi Miquel waiting in the wings we have the makings of a soliddefense, they should only concede less than the 60+ goals we had last season. Happy days!

We don't need to go overboard like Chelsea or PSG…but we need to address some glaring holes in our squad. We need our current batch of players to see our club as the place to be, not the place to learn.

1st. Man United

2nd. Man City

3rd. Chelsea

4th. Arsenal

5th. Liverpool

6th. Everton

______________________

10th. Spurs!

Follow me on twitter - @craigmaran

#COYG.

Footiecall's feedback

Look out for Sean's piece later during the day. Also about Arsenal.