Arsenal: The time is now

Mesut Ozil with Arsene Wenger: What a difference a signing makes!

As the Arsenal world recovers from the collective Ozil Özilgasm, and gets ready for the hard grind of the English Premier League, I look at my wobbling emotions going into the last few days of the transfer window.

The transfer window had finally seemed to have sapped all the happiness from me. It seemed to have had brought me down especially as it was meandering to a slow and painful end. My feelings, nay hope, of Arsenal pulling off a big money signing had already all been extinguished and were at its lowest ebb. And to add to that despondency, I was a victim of a mugging in which my beloved iPhone was taken from me. Sniff. Tough times, I thought to myself.

My faith in the great man was a bit shaken. Surely, we would strengthen. Surely? To go through the window and not significantly strengthen would have been sacrilege bordering on the criminal. Not to mention incredulous. And to make matters worse, there was a small matter of the North London Derby, against a multitude of new signings made by Tottenham Hotspur. Things were headed south in a big way and Arsene’s goodwill quota among the fan base was surely running low. While most Arsenal fans were outwardly bullish on their chances against Tottenham, within each of us there was a growing and gnawing worry.

You don’t need me to recount what ultimately happened. The Arsenal beat Tottenham 1-0 in a convincingly manner, the scoreline flattering the Lilywhites. Whereas Bale was finally being presented to the Madrid faithful, Arsenal and Arsene Wenger were busy securing themselves the services of a certain Mesut Özil. He had been signed after he was sold the ‘Arsenal Project’.

While the importance of signing Özil for a club record 42.4 million pounds is massive on the pitch, it is even more significant off the pitch. This is what the Emirates stadium was built for. The fee for the German international obliterated the previous transfer record fee by almost three times over and the reported salary too has broken the shackles of the “social wage structure” prevalent before. It is truly a blockbuster signing. The purchase puts Arsenal squarely among the elite European clubs in terms of spending powers.

But let’s be honest here. The purchase of Özil has more to do with the allure and pedigree of Arsene, and in turn Arsenal, than Arsenal in itself. The hard cash advantage that Arsenal have of course played a huge part, the fact that it is THE most solvent club in Europe, but as we have found out painfully over the past few years, balance sheet of a club matters little on the pitch. We are the fourth best team in England and that’s that. Of course, it’s something where other clubs like Liverpool and Spurs want to be and that’s cool. But we are not exactly setting the world alight. And by all accounts getting a player of Özil’s quality is a mini coup. But the signing of Özil should not detract us from the fact that thanks to Podolski’s injury we are one injury away from being forced to field Nicklas Bendtner, a player who on numerous occasions has said he would not play for us again.

Özil will improve us massively and pretty much cements our place in the top 4 for me. But as a squad, we are light and come May, there could be huge regret that we did not strengthen despite the presence of significant resources to do so. Keeping fingers crossed and all that.

I am as excited as any Arsenal fan by simply visualizing and imagining all the possibilities of various plays between Santi Cazorla, Özil, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky, etc. The club, along with the majority of its fan base has been really fired up by this signing. Just look at the player responses. There’s genuine excitement and buzz.

Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere: Talented young footballers

Arsenal are in no danger of falling out of the Top 4 but it could be argued, if they really are a threat to the other teams for the league trophy? Probably not. What could work in Arsenal’s favour is the relative stability we enjoy in comparison to other members of the Top 6 clubs in England -especially Mancehster United, Chelsea and Manchester City. Essentially, all those clubs who have changed managers.

While United are coming off the transfer window looking like absolute buffoons, City are lacking personnel in the defensive third as the shocking but completely deserved loss to Cardiff shows. Problems facing Chelsea are of a different nature.

Arsenal in all of this, have a fantastic opportunity to power ahead in the short term and set the pace if they want to be taken seriously as title challengers, as Arsene Wenger wants us to believe.

Although, I have long argued that under Wenger, every third year we have had a great team, generally preceded by minimal transfer activity with regards to the incoming-department and greater activity with regards to the outgoing-department.

Here are the examples for the said pattern:

1998 – Winning the title.2000/2001 – Should have won really.2001/2002 – Won (anomaly)2003/04 – Invincibles. The entire team carried over to 2004/05 until it was disbanded slightly.2007/08 – Again should have won the league, after a complete overhaul and nearly every member of the invincibles gone.2010/11- Catalysmic failure towards the end after along with Theo Van Nasregas, Jack Wilshere had set the world alight by beating Barcelona 2-1 and leading the league for a while.

Adding three to this roughly works out to the 2013/14 season

Majority of these years have been preceded with minimal incomings and greater outgoings in number. Which has been the case this summer.

My pre-season prediction of Arsenal finishing in the Top 3 received a massive shot in the arm thanks to the joke that was United’s transfer window. And I stand by it. Title might be a bridge too far but a domestic trophy AND a top 4 finish is definitely on the agenda and achievable.

We shall judge you in May, Arsene. As always.