Arsenal finally went into the transfer market, and still came up short
After an intensely worrying period for Arsenal supporters, Arsene Wenger has finally splashed the cash. He bought Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez, taking this year's spending to nearly £100m. This summer, Arsenal have added the aforementioned duo, plus Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding and Takuma Asano (who was quickly sent out on loan to Stuttgart) to the signing of Mohamed Elneny in January. They've addressed all their major needs, but the team is still shorthanded.
Arsenal still aren't good enough.
The last time Arsenal won the Premier League, they had Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Freddy Ljungberg all in the same team. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are the only two players currently in Arsenal's squad who could be even considered close to that level now.
Whether it's old age, a change in philosophy, or simply the game passing him by, it's hard to look at this Arsene Wenger as the man to lead Arsenal past Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, or even Antonio Conte and his Chelsea team; especially with the Blues' added bonus of not having Europe to deal with. Wenger's team doesn't stack up with any of those squads and that's without even mentioning the team Mauricio Pochettino's built at Tottenham, and the Jurgen Klopp revolution in Liverpool.
Yes, Wenger spent, that fact cannot be denied. Arsenal bought, and they bought well. But where his rivals went out and added the best quality the market had to offer, it's tough to say the same for Arsenal. They made a net improvement, but the problem is so did everyone else.
No one Arsenal bought are on that level. The league's top three teams bought match-winners. Truly world-class talent. Players who can win them the league. Arsenal bought patchwork. Nice players to be sure, but players more in line with Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen. You know, Tottenham players.
It's not all doom and gloom for the Gooners though. For the first time in a long time, Arsenal will come out of the transfer window boasting a team with legitimate quality throughout, well able to combat the inevitable midseason spate of injuries that arrives every year. On paper they've got one of the best center-back pairings in the league, a fantastic midfield full of depth and options, and Perez could conceivably be the surprise of the season if he shows the form he did for struggling Deportivo last year.
Last year, Claudio Ranieri and Leicester City showed that it's not money or prestige that wins the league. It's execution. Ranieri took a team full of relative nobodies and forged them into a compact side with a clear game plan, a belief in his philosophy, and the toughness to grind through 38 games to lift the trophy.
Who knows -- maybe Wenger still has a little magic left in him. He surely didn't use it all up in the transfer market.
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