WHAT WE WILL ACTUALLY GET IN THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW

WILL THEY DON THE ARSENAL COLOURS NEXT SEASON?

        








As the January transfer window approaches, the talk of the town is- who will get in and who will get out of their club. If you are a Man City fan at the top of the league or QPR fan at the bottom, every fan likes to see quality players(players in their FIFA dream team :-)) to come into their clubs and the player(s) they loath most in the club to leave the club. The transfer window is always an exciting period for all fans alike.

Arsenal have been linked with a gazillion players before this window(hardly a new thing). Interestingly, although Arsenal have almost always signed youngsters and unproven players, we have been linked mostly with some of the best in the business than with rising prodigies this time around. Not that we were not linked to bring in big name players in the seasons gone by;somehow, it is different this time. Most of the rumors are ofcourse  pure works of fiction. But are they all fictitious?

Fact or fiction, what is undeniable is that Arsenal fans have their hopes raised sky high. The mere thought of players like Huntelaar, Llorente, Cavani, David Villa,etc coming to Arsenal gives us goosebumps. What fuels the excitement even more is the fact that Arsenal have recently given preference to signing proven players like Arteta, Mertesacker, Podolski and Cazorla. Also, Arsene is coming under more and more pressure form the fans as well as the media to buy proven talents. The signing of a new and, as claimed by Ivan Gazidis, a "huge" deal with Emirates is another reason for the fans to get excited about.

It won't be an understatement to say that Arsenal fans expect something big in the window; no doubt about that. There are enough reasons to believe that we could get the names(at least one if not some) that we are linked with in the January transfer window. However, I don't need to remind everyone about how many times we have been let down on this front in the past. So, lets keep our feet on the ground yet be optimistic, cautiously.

BACK TO "ARSENAL" WAYS

I have never liked Arsenal conceding a goal.In fact,I would take a 0-0 draw any day for a 2-1 win!(well maybe not all the time!).I have always believed that for a team to win trophies, it must show solidity from the back(unless you are Barcelona or Real Madrid ofcourse).

For their first 3 games of the season, Arsenal managed to keep as many clean sheets.They were being praised from all corners regarding their new found defensive solidity.Some even tipped them to challenge for the title after watching just 3 games!(which was ofcourse an overreaction).How things have changed.They started their old habit of conceding goals again after the 3 matches.So much so that they have not kept a clean sheet in any tournament after the first 3 matches!And the repercussions of conceding goals are clearly to be seen in the matches.The only match in which we looked comfortable conceding a goal was the one against Southampton.We had some luck in winning the other matches where we conceded while our luck ditched us against the matches against Manchester City(where we could and should have won easily) and against Chelsea(which ofcourse we lost).

When we were not conceding,you could see that all our players oozed confidence and they believed we could win.That is true for any team.As I have mentioned in my earlier post,any team that does not concede has every chance to win.But,if you analyze the matches in which we conceded, our players seemed more nervous and as a result, we gave chances to the opposition.

Personally,whenever Arsenal concede,I get nervous myself!I just can't take a goal!I start to get thoughts like "Ok. We might throw away this game here" "Here we go again!".These thoughts are mainly due to that dreaded night at the Emirates against Newcastle 2 seasons ago when we went from 4-0 up to drawing 4-4 and 8-2 defeat last season.Win or lose,I have always watched Arsenal matches till the final whistle.However, this season,I expect so much from Arsenal's defense that when we conceded a goal, I stopped watching the match altogether.I can't hold my nerves after we concede! It is in a way, too painful too watch.Please, Arsenal, do not concede....so that I can watch the full match.