Arsenal are looking like title challengers once again this season, and our local Gunners punters here in the Transfer Tavern are desperately hoping they’re going to finally seal the Premier League crown for the first time since 2004.
After a wobbly start they’re right back on track with a 3-0 win over Chelsea and a last gasp win over Burnley being their last two games, and it is those results that suggest they could be genuine title contenders this year.
They currently sit two points behind Manchester City who lost at the weekend to rivals Spurs and with their squad looking in good shape, they should be there or thereabouts in May.
Arsene Wenger has once again put together a good side capable of playing great football but he hasn’t always got it right over the last ten years.
Our landlord agrees and thinks this XI is the worst to have played for the Gunners in the last decade…
Vito Mannone
Mannone was never going to make it at Arsenal and has now been usurped by Jordan Pickford at Sunderland, so where his career goes from now is anyone’s guess.
Emmanuel Eboue
Famously subbed on and then subbed off in one of Arsenal’s games Eboue never really showed what he had at the Emirates.
Flashes showed what he could do but they were too few and far between and eventually Arsene Wenger had to let him go.
Johan Djourou
Djourou always had a mistake in him and couldn’t cut it against the big sides making him a real weak link for Arsenal.
He was at the club for quite a while somehow but eventually he was moved on and very few missed him in truth.
Sebastian Squillaci
Squillaci was an experienced player when Arsenal signed him but his best days were long gone and that’s why this signing made little sense.
Arsenal needed a quality centre-half at the time and instead Wenger went for his country-man, frustrating the Gunners faithful.
Armand Traore
Traore was another young left back who was meant to be the ‘new Ashley Cole’ but he didn’t get anywhere near that.
It soon became apparent he wouldn’t be good enough to play for Arsenal and he found himself playing at QPR and now Nottingham Forest.
Emmanuel Frimpong
Frimpong talked a good game and clearly fancied himself to get to the top but his career has fallen flat on it’s face.
If he can reach the heights he said he could it’ll be some turn around now.
Denilson
The Brazilian played quite a lot of games for Arsenal but really wasn’t good enough over a long enough period to warrant such a stay.
He eventually found the Premier League too tough going to play in and found himself back in Brazil playing in Serie A.
Julio Baptista
Initial impressions suggested Baptista was going to be a good player.
He could score goals and was a real powerhouse but then he just seemed to lose interest in improving.
He found himself out of the side and unfit and was soon shipped out thereafter.
Nicklas Bendtner
Another man who talked a good game Bendtner frustrated the life out of the Arsenal fans.
Occasionally he showed what he could do in front of goal but more often than not he didn’t work hard enough and didn’t score enough goals.
All round he was pretty wasteful.
Marouane Chamakh
He signed with a decent goal-scoring record from Ligue 1 but the optimism around Chamakh soon dissipated and what was left was a very poor forward.
He wasn’t physical or mobile enough for the Premier League and didn’t score goals, a pretty poor combination.
Gervinho
Wenger really did excel himself in bringing in sub-par strikers over the last ten years with the Ivorian, Gervinho, another example.
He lacked the quality to get around Premier League defences and soon found himself out of the side and then, the club altogether.
