It’s safe to say our Arsenal supporters in the Football Transfer Tavern this evening are on cloud nine, having seen their side put up an incredibly disciplined display to take down arguably the best team in world football last night in the form of Bayern Munich.
Winning 2-0 on the evening, Petr Cech was in top form to shut down the likes of Robert Lewandowski and co as Arsenal maximised their inferior possession to hit the German champions twice for their first defeat this season.
Although the victory is fantastic in terms of Arsenal’s belief, giving them renewed hope of progressing through Group F, it’s pretty frustrating for the club’s supporters that they threw away six points in the first two group games against Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos where Arsene Wenger strangely weakened the team.
Nevertheless, Arsenal will now head to Bayern Munich on gameweek four more hopeful than before that they can claim another positive result tot haul themselves back into contention.
Going great guns in the Premier League as well right now, on the whole, Arsenal have responded fantastically to their shock opening day defeat to West Ham United and with the likes of Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez staying fit so far this season, they’ve freely managed to score a lot of goals.
For many of our Gooners in the tavern, if the club are in touching distance of first place come the January transfer window, they’d love for Wenger to learn his lesson and strengthen with a couple of signings to get the North London side over the line.
If this proves to be the case, some current Arsenal stars might be exiting through the exit door and that’s why we’ve devised a list of five players who Wenger should perhaps axe from his squad in the New Year.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five players Arsene Wenger needs to axe at Arsenal in January.
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Tomas Rosicky
While absolutely no Arsenal supporter wants to let go of Tomas Rosicky given the fact he is a true Gooner having represented the club for so long, the sad matter of fact is that the Czech Republic international is far too injury prone and even when he’s fit, he has an incredible fight on to get into Wenger’s starting eleven.
Expected to return in January according to Physio Room, perhaps Wenger should reluctantly part with his number seven in a way similar to Abou Diaby who departed for Marseille in the summer.
Back in October, it was reported that Rosicky wanted to join Aston Villa in the summer only to see his request denied but with Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere all capable of playing an attacking midfielder’s role, we don’t think Arsenal would necessarily miss not being able to call on Rosicky.
All of that said, Rosicky has been a fantastic servant to Arsenal and it’s just a shame that we didn’t see more of him due to the countless injuries he’s suffered down the years.
He’ll just need regular game time when he returns.
Calum Chambers
Somebody struggling for regular game time this season is Calum Chambers who is pretty much the dictionary definition of a bit-part player right now, stepping in when other members of Wenger’s squad are injured.
Enjoying an incredibly impressive start to his Arsenal career, riding on the wave of completing a switch from Southampton, Chambers hasn’t looked the same player since being run ragged away at Swansea City last term by Jefferson Montero.
Still young with plenty of time on his side, if Arsenal do manage to keep Nacho Monreal, Gabriel, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker fit come the New Year, perhaps a loan spell for Chambers wouldn’t be the worst idea so he can potentially develop even further at a lesser Premier League side.
Joel Campbell
Like Calum Chambers, Joel Campbell is only on the fringes of the Arsenal team at present and in reality only remains at the club due to the fact they failed to bring extra striking reinforcements in during the summer.
Having started the Capital One Cup round three game away at arch-rivals Tottenham, Campbell was quite impressive on the night and whenever our Gooners see him in action for Costa Rica, he always seems to impress, scoring a goal in a recent international friendly with the United States of late.
But that said, if Arsenal do manage to do a deal for a forward player who can help the club get over the line in respect of winning the major honours in January, perhaps the axe might fall on Campbell who you don’t feel Wenger is totally convinced by.
Alex Iwobi
With Arsenal fans having seen flashes of the potential of Alex Iwobi in both the Barclays Asia Trophy and Emirates Cup at the start of the season, they liked what they saw of Jay-Jay Okocha’s nephew.
Only making the Gunners bench once so far this term where he was an unused substitute against Tottenham in the Capital One Cup, the Nigerian youth international is unlikely to get any game time in Wenger’s squad at the moment barring a mass injury crisis so we think a Championship loan switch could be perfect for the player.
A tricky winger by trade, Iwobi was fantastic against a Singapore Select XI in the summer and just in that brief performance, we can see why he is on the books of Arsenal.
But with Arsenal boasting their fair share of small attack-minded players, we think for either Iwobi or Jeff Reine-Adelaide, they should perhaps be knocking on Wenger’s door for a value adding temporary loan spell.
Mathieu Debuchy
When Arsenal swooped to sign Mathieu Debuchy from Newcastle United last summer for £12 million, our resident Gooners were absolutely delighted that they’d signed an experienced ready-made replacement for Bacary Sagna.
But fast forward to autumn 2015 and Debuchy is very much in the shade of precocious young talent Hector Bellerin who hasn’t looked back since forcing his way into Arsene Wenger’s plans last season when Debuchy was enduring a long injury lay off.
While some Arsenal supporters don’t like seeing Debuchy on this countdown, Arsene Wenger will have a decision to make regarding Carl Jenkinson who signed a new deal at Emirates Stadium prior to re-signing for West Ham United on a second season-long loan spell in the summer.
With Calum Chambers also around too and with Debuchy now 30-years-old, perhaps Wenger may cash in on the ageing Debuchy who the club haven’t really got the best out of yet.
