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If I offered you a centre-half with one year’s experience in the top division of a European league, you’d probably be a bit cautious about taking him on, agreed?

If he then played a part in a defensive howler which cost Arsenal the Carling Cup against Birmingham, you’d probably think we’d re-signed Pascal Cygan or, even worse, Igor Stepanovs.

Laurent Koscielny is of course to whom I am referring and despite the above the Frenchman is fast-becoming a vital part of a slumbering Arsenal team which may just wake up and smell the trophies once more.

But how did he go from zero to hero in less than a year? Simple, he did what he has done his entire career and didn’t settle for anything less than the best.

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We’ve heard Arsene Wenger make a lot of noise recently about clearing out the deadwood within the club (that means you Denilson), but in the next year or so Wenger may have another situation where he has too many players. Looking at the current squad and including the half decent players on loan, Arsenal currently has up to 6 “wingers” pushing for a place in the first team.

Let’s have a look at each of them and decide, using our incredible collective wisdom, what we should do with them...

Theo Walcott

I believe he is the most frustrating player we have. One minute he can be a mix of pace, power and finishing, the next he can look like a marginally talented sprinter. He wants to play in a central role like that other guy who used to wear the No.14 jersey for us, and keeps reminding us that he is only 23 and will show his potential at some stage. I’d keep him on the basis that he is still relatively young and can terrify defenders who give him space. Verdict: Keep (with an eye on playing him centrally)

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Since there is absolutely nothing going on in the world of Arsenal (no news is good news ‘eh?), I thought I’d have a look at the two men vying for power at our beloved club, and who would be better for the club in the long term.

We all know Kroenke has the majority share (62%), but Usmanov is getting his KGB mates to sneak around and see if there are any loose shares he can pick up to reach that magic 30% that would let him look at the numbers on Arsenal’s books, and would force him to make an offer to Stan to buy the club outright. So let’s have a look...

In the Blue Corner

Right so what do we know about the man dubbed as “Silent Stan”? Well firstly, he’s called Silent for a reason. Short of saying “You’ll be seeing a lot more of me” when he took the cub over, the man hasn’t said a bloody word really. He hasn’t given Mr. Wenger any of his relatively few billions to spend on Messi, and he’s turned up to watch very few games over the season.

Secondly, he really is a bit of a pauper, weighing in with a relatively meagre $3.2 Billion net worth, when compared to his adversary. These lack of funds and cautious nature sort of lend themselves to loving the “Sustainable Model” that Wenger bangs on about whenever we don’t buy anybody.

That sums Silent Stan up really. He does nothing, says nothing, and interferes with nobody.

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I’m making a fairly large assumption here by saying that Lukas Podolski, the German international superstar (sort of), has agreed to sign for Arsenal in the summer. Reports vary from saying he has agreed personal terms to terms and a fee, or just would like to move in the summer.

Naturally, when reports say a player will sign for Arsenal, they do. No Mata what.

But let’s get to the point. What Arsenal are hoping Lukas Podolski will bring is goals. He has 15 in 19 appearances for Bundesliga side Koln and could have had more even at this stage if he hadn’t been injured in late January. Nothing on Robin Van Persie of course, but then again Podolski’s side are relegation battlers who almost totally rely on him for goals.

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We have been here before. Another one of our crown jewels is up for a new contract, no need to remind you all of the chaos of Fabregas and Nasri. Here we are again with our very own Robin Van Persie, will he, won't he, be here next season?

Some of the cynics out there might ask, is there a coincidence that RVP has played more games this season then the last 2 seasons and still a third of the season left to play? I, however, have no doubts that he has been managed better.

With the technology they have at Arsenal nowadays is this helping RVP? The investment that has gone into the medical centre has been huge, for example the Anti Gravity treadmill, getting the players running a lot earlier and on to the field more quickly . Robin is doing a fantastic job, doing exactly what he is paid to do…… SCORE GOALS!

But what about the rest of the team?

We all know this season has been plagued with huge injury problems, Why? I really don’t know, bad luck? Bad training? Who knows? There is evidence based on a regular study carried out by UEFA, that we suffer no more injuries than anyone else. This study has been running for years now.

  1. Easy plan for Arsenal turnaround
  2. Pep Guardiola - Arsenal's New Man for the Job?
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