Fellaini To Arsenal And The Negredo Connection

Fellaini Could Be Heading To Arsenal Next Season

First of all, let us answer an important question : "Will Fellaini be a good signing for Arsenal?"

The answer would be a resounding yes. A combative midfielder, good in the air, good on the ground...he  is exactly what Arsenal have been missing since Patrick Viera.

Fellaini, with a price tag of £22m , would be a dream signing for any Arsenal fan, especially because we have never spent so much on a single player. Its too good to be true right!

That brings me to my other question. "Is it really true or just another fabricated rumor?"

I cannot be 100% sure.Until Fellaini actually signs for Arsenal no one can be fully certain. But, I can tell you that Sky have reported it and usually when they report it, it turns out to be true!

We could end up signing the player...or not signing him if he decides to stay at Everton. But, what I am happy about ( and I am sure most Arsenal fans and critics are too) is that for once, we are showing some intent to strengthen the team and take a step forward after all these years of dissapointment.

Moving on to my final question "Where does Negredo come in all this?"

A few days back, Sky revealed, what I call, the "Negredo incident", according to which, West Ham had a  £14.5m bid rejected for Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo. Here was a guy who scored 31 goals in all competitions for Sevilla last season, who was apparently, linked with all the top clubs in Europe and then receives a bid from a team that finished 10th in the EPL. Fantastic...maybe. If you don't have wings, it does not mean you cannot dream of flying one day!

This tells something about the intent of this "10th placed club". To move ahead to; to reach for the next level. This is what is/was severely lacking in our own club Arsenal, needless to say. We have sold our best players each season and replaced, or at least tried to replace them with unproven talents.

We have never spent money on marquee signings and all of a sudden we come up with a massive bid for Fellaini! The "Negredo incident" might just have woken up our board from their slumber!

THE AFTERMATH

I still feel drowsy from watching the late night match between Barcelona and Seville last night.What a match it was!Barcelona came back fro 2-1 down to defeat Seville 3-2 in the dying moments of the match.How I wished Arsenal could achieve the same feat earlier in the evening.But bygones are bygones.It is a new day and we have to move on.No use in complaining about "what could have been" or "what should have been."

So what position are we after yesterday's defeat?We are at 7th with 9 points.Chelsea are of course 1st with 16 points.Already, the gap is of 7 points!Second placed Everton(surprise!) are at 13 points. No need for us to panic just yet.Chelsea will eventually drop points.The table is not as much a concern to me as the Arsenal squad is at the moment.We lost "glass-ankled" Diaby yesterday.A pity really, he could have given so much to  our team.But it is evident that he is too injury-prone to be playing or for that matter staying at Arsenal in my opinion.Van Persie too was injury prone,he played at least 15-20 games per season.

Another concern for me is that the players looked so down at the final whistle yesterday.The media and the fans alike, before the match predicted the first loss of the season for Chelsea, which might have raised expectations in our players that they could(or maybe would) win the match.But, they were to be disappointed at the end of the day.This might also have had a negative effect on some of our players who seemed so confident before the match.I wonder if this will have longer impacts on our play?I hope it does not and hope the players will pick themselves up after the defeat.

After the match, Arsene said about the missed chance by Giroud at the death, "He should have scored." Well Giroud has been a total flop for me so far.I don't think the manager thinks he is a hit too.He did not start the last too match,did he?And not counting the minor chances,he missed two very important chances, one against Stoke to win the match and the one against Chelsea yesterday that would have given us a point.
Arsene does not and has not criticized his players in the past.But in case of Giroud, it seems even Le Boss is finding it hard to keep quite!Yet,I hope Giroud does well although I am not sure this season will be a season to remember for him in all honesty.