Arsene Wenger says that Arsenal’s nine further Premier League games will decide who is bought and sold this summer.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed that the north London side’s transfer window plans are dependent on how they perform in the season’s remaining Premier League fixtures.
“What is important is we look at how we finish the season, how well we play and make the decisions who to buy and who to sell at the end of the season,” said Wenger to the Daily Mirror.
“This will be influenced by the way we play in our last nine games.”
The Gunners have only been in the top four positions after two weekends’ of top flight play have concluded this season, but retain a very realistic hope of reaching the UEFA Champions League places nonetheless – not least because arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur have recently started to slip.
Two losses in Spurs’ last two matches to Liverpool and Fulham have enabled Arsenal to claw back points, but Wenger knows that his team’s inconsistency has cost them often this season.
Much of that is down to poor starts to games.
If the Premier League table was based purely on second half performances, Arsenal would be top and with a six point gap to Manchester City in second place.
Based on first halves only, the Gunners would merely be twelfth, and for the remainder of the season it will be vital that they start quickly too.
The other critical factor in Arsenal’s struggles this season is individual errors. No team has committed as many mistakes resulting in goals as the north London side in the Premier League this campaign, but replacing captain Thomas Vermaelen with Laurent Koscielny in the starting line-up has immediately made Arsenal much more solid, and the Belgian has a hard task on his hands to get his position back.
However, the Daily Mirror do not name Vermaelen as one of the players under threat.
It is Bacary Sagna and Lukas Podolski who are playing for their futures at Emirates Stadium, while Andrey Arshavin, Sebastien Squillaci, Marouane Chamakh and Nicklas Bendtner are almost certain to depart the club.
Fortunately, this will free up funds to purchase some enticing names.
Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic remains the number one name on the Gunners’ list, with a more experienced goalkeeper than the erratic Wojciech Szczesny, Lukasz Fabianski and Vito Mannone is also on Wenger’s shortlist.
Freeing the side of the deadwood and replacing them with proven quality could result in a much more consistent – and ultimately better – season from next August.
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