Some good work in the transfer window so far. Podolski and Giroud are definitely a step in the right direction.
The most important thing to get done over the next few weeks though will be to clear out some of the dead wood like Denilson, Chamakh, Bendtner, Squillaci etc.
Not too bothered by the Van Persie situation really. He’s played one full injury free season in the eight years he has been at Arsenal so they are well used to coping without him. I also think the signings of Podolski and Giroud earlier in the transfer window give the club a stronger hand than they had in the Nasri / Fabregas sales a year ago.
I’m definitely more optimistic this year than I was this time last year. Don’t really see Spurs as a threat going forward, they’re bound to lose a few players and I think they were mental to fire the manager that took them to 4[sup]th[/sup], 5[sup]th[/sup] and 4[sup]th[/sup]. Liverpool also no threat. That means a top four finish should be achieved with the minimum of fuss.
I too think they’re two good acquisitions and like you say the timing is almost as important because it doesn’t leave Arsenal scrambling for replacements late in the season. Still need to work on the midfield and central defence (two huge areas to work on obviously) but there’s plenty of guile in the team now and a few different attacking options. I think they relied on pace too much in recent seasons.
Somet talk this morning that Van Persie can invoke the Webster Ruling and buy himself out of his Arsenal contract. Now that would be a protracted legal case if he went down that route. The rule seems far from clearly established.
A lot of people were asking questions when RVP left and Arsenal failed to score at the start of the season but it was really only a matter of time before they started scoring. The big test will come against the better teams but it was the defending rather than the lack of creativity that cost them in some of the bigger games in recent years