Transfer Target – Adrián López

Age: 24 (8th January, 1988)
Position: Forward
Nationality: Spanish
Current Team: Atlético Madrid

Arséne Wenger has been told that he has £35million to spend in January to strengthen his squad and with Olivier Giroud struggling to hit the ground running in the Premier League  it is expected that Wenger will splash out on another striker in the next transfer window.

Arsenal have signed two Spaniards in the last 18 months with midfield maestros Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta both joining the ranks and the North London side are persistently being linked with other Spanish star including lofty hit-man Fernando Llorente and starlet Isco.

Another Spaniard who has caught the eye of the Gunners is Atlético Madrid’s Adrián a player tipped to be “the new David Villa” according to Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

Following two loan spells to Spanish sides Alavés and Malaga CF Adrián moved to Atlético Madrid where he muscled his way into the first team following a string of impressive performances which saw him overtake ex-Arsenal player José Antonio Reyes.

His development from young talent to a refined star did not go unnoticed by the star-studded Spanish international team with López making 19 appearances for the countries U21 side and two for the senior squad, having scored for the senior side on one of those occasions.

Adrián’s excels at short passes, particularly one-two’s with his teammates, which paired with his impressive dribbling ability makes him a very dangerous player when it comes to both setting up his team and creating his own chances.

Another area in which Adrián is talented is his heading ability and aerial duels success rate, with a good amount of his goals coming from his head and not his foot.

Composure is another feature of Adrián’s game that makes him such a stand-out player, the ability to dribble past a keeper or through a maze of defenders to deliver a inch perfect pass or a shot into the bottom corner of the net can not be underestimated.

Versatility is another key component of the players game and this season so far the Spain international has played as a winger on both flanks, an attacking midfield and as a striker.

Adrián has a release clause of around £14million and would give Arséne Wenger an  incredibly versatile and different attacking option to the looming presence of Giroud, as well as giving Wenger greater depth in case of injury or lack of form.

There are few better options on the European market for such a talented and proven player at such a reasonable price (Crystal Palace expect £20m+ for Wilfred Zaha for example) and it’s the kind of move that has a money conscious Wenger written all over it.

López is one of Arsenal’s best options right now, hopefully Santi and Mikel can persuade the 24-year-old to make the move from Madrid to London in January.

Champions League Preview – Schalke 04

Arsenal will be looking to put their lackluster weekend performance against Norwich City behind them quickly as they take on German powerhouse Schalke 04 in the Champions League group stage on Wednesday.

The Opponent

Nestled in West Germany Schalke 04 are one of German football’s giants having won the Bundesliga seven times and finished as runners-up nine times in the clubs history despite being slightly overshadowed by Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.

Their current season is going particularly well as they sit third in the league having taken 17 points from eight games, distancing them from fourth place rivals Borussia Dortmund by five points.

As far as form goes Schalke are red hot right now, having won three of their last five games and only losing once in that time against league leaders Bayern Munich.

Schalke will try to build on their success at the weekend as they dominantly beat bitter rivals Borussia Dortmund 1-2 in the Revierderby.

Key Players

The obvious threat to Arsenal’s defense is the impressive Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, a player who scored 29 times in the Bundesliga last season and has continued his solid goal scoring record having scored three league goals already this season.

Huntelaar has an immense finisher who can seemingly produce scoring opportunities out of absolutely nothing, pair this with superb heading abilities and Huntelaar is a formidable attacking opponent.

Schalke 04 captain Benedikt Howedes has proved himself to be one of the clubs key players in the past few years and has recently broken into the German national team and could prove to be a thorn in the side of Arsenal’s forwards.

24-year-old Howedes is an exceptional interceptor of balls and a hard tackler who commits very few fouls, making his disciplined but effective approach to defending tough to break down.

Barcelona loanee Ibrahim Afellay has taken no time at all to get used to life in the German league, having scored twice in five starts.

Afellay excels on the ground with strong ball control and dribbling attributes that could prove problematic for Arsenal’s fullbacks if they are caught napping, what makes the Dutch international even more dangerous is the fact that he isn’t afraid to have a shot from range.

Injuries

Kyriakos Papadopoulos – Virus

Julian Draxler – Forearm

Sergio Escudero – Groin

Vassilis Pliatsikas – Knee

Arsenal

The Gunners will be frustrated following their disappointing 1-0 loss to relegation favourites Norwich City on Saturday and will aim to get back on track with a win against tough competition at home.

A stat that works in the favour of Arsenal is the fact that the Gunners are unbeaten in 16 Champions League home matches and have not lost at home to a foreign club in an astonishing 45 times, since 2003.

What makes the matchup even more sweeter (statistically) is the fact that Arsenal have not lost to German visitors in their last six games, having recorded nine victories against Bundesliga sides.

Key Players

One of Arsenal’s newest recruits Lukas Podolski brings with him a huge amount of experience against German sides, including Schalke, and has a good history of goals against the club having scored four times against them.

Podolski will look to expose the Schalke 04’s frailties with a combination of long shots, short passes and of course his phenomenal direct free kick ability.

Arsenal’s lofty German defender Per Mertesacker will bring even more experience against Schalke to the Gunners squad on Wednesday having made 12 appearances against the side in his time at Werder Bremen.

The in-form defender will be aiming to build on his strong start to the season, despite having made only 9 tackles in eight appearances for the club.

Finally, Arsenal’s number 24, Vito Mannone, will make his third Champions League appearance of the season between the sticks and will face one of the biggest challenges of his young career so far.

Schalke have no shortage of attacking options and the young Italian will have to be at his best if he is to guide Arsenal to nine points from three group stage games.

Injuries:

Theo Walcott – Lung

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – Hip

Tomas Rosicky – Tendon

Abou Diaby – Thigh strain

Laurent Koscielny – Back (*Edit* Now Available) 

Kieran Gibbs – Thigh

Wojciech Szczesny – Ankle

Lukasz Fabianski – Back

Olivier Giroud – The Misfiring Gunner

Olivier Giroud ended last season as Ligue 1’s joint top scorer with 21 league goals and was signed by Arsenal in the 2012 summer transfer window for an initial fee of £9.6million to bolster the sides forward line.

At first there was no pressure on the 26-year-old to settle into his new life in London as a member of Arsenal, why would there have been? Robin van Persie was still an Arsenal player and although transfer negotiations looked frosty, Arsenal were quietly optimistic.

As we all know, this optimism soon changed to an empty feeling that Arsenal fans have become frustratingly familiar with. The Arsenal board felt that despite the key departure the team for next season was fine and that no reinforcements would be brought in (despite funds being available).

It was time for Giroud to step up to the plate as Arsenal’s number one striker, having never played in the Premier League or with his new teammates in a competitive match before.

Whether you believe Olivier was originally signed as a replacement for Robin van Persie or if he was signed as reinforcement for a depleted, and if I’m being honest, poor, crop of strikers, something has not clicked for the Frenchman in his Arsenal career so far. Why is this?

‘Replacing’ Van Persie was never going to be easy and it would have been foolish to have expected Giroud to do so immediately, but of course Arsenal is a big club and playing for a big club means big pressure from the fans who demand goals.

Although Olivier told reporters he was “not worried about the pressure” it was clear that the weight on his shoulders was huge and it was visible to see in his first few Premier League games.

The first day of the season should have seen the France international score his first goal against Sunderland, but instead he knocked the ball just wide. At Montpellier a year earlier he would have buried that shot and from Giroud’s facial expressions the pressure and frustration was there for all to see.

It was a similar story at Stoke City a week later, one clear cut chance which ended in the Frenchman driving a scorpion kick into the ground before it plopped over the crossbar, and of course that wonder strike that so nearly launched his Arsenal career on a positive note.

The talent is there, there is no question about that. Olivier’s movement off the ball is stunning and his supporting role in assisting his teammates is another key area of his game that is commonly overlooked by fans and pundits with the player racking up three assists this season already.

But he was not signed to assist teammates, he was signed by Arsenal to bury the ball into the net courtesy of his colleagues hard work, something which is not currently happening.

Having recently watched Arsenal’s latest abysmal performance against Norwich City, one part of Arsenal’s game clearly stood out. A lack of crosses into a lofty Giroud waiting for balls in the box.

Arsenal are trying to work the ball through into the penalty area, while this is a great tactic at times, Giroud thrives off of his strong aerial duel attributes and although Carl Jenkinson launched a few balls into the Norwich box, there were not enough similar balls for Giroud to truly shine.

The last two goals Giroud scored, for France and Arsenal, were both from crosses outside the area which found Giroud lurking in the middle waiting to pounce. If Arsenal utilize Olivier’s obvious talents then he will score a lot of goals, there is no doubt about that.

It is unfair to be putting so much pressure on Giroud so early in his Arsenal career, especially with his strengths not being currently addressed by the direction of his teams tactics, and with mounting pressure from not just Arsenal fans but taunting chants from rival fans the pressure will only grow.

Yes, he should have scored a few more goals than he already has but there is an extreme amount of pressure on the player, but have faith in Olivier, he is a proven goalscorer who is currently not being utilized to his full potential

The £35million Question – Will Arsenal spend big in January?

If yesterday’s loss to relegation favourites Norwich City told Arsenal supporters anything, it’s that reinforcements are a must in January if the team are going to challenge for anything above fourth place in the Premier League.

Various reports have suggested that Arsenal’s board have handed Arsene Wenger a war chest of  £35million to spend in the January transfer window, with players already starting to be linked with the club.

Unfortunately for Arsenal fans, there have been rumours that Wenger may not delve into this hefty sum of cash and bolster his squad in the winter window, however I believe this is untrue.

Wenger appears to have lost some faith in new signing Olivier Giroud as a short term replacement for Robin van Persie and now sees the Frenchman as his long term successor, while pacey winger Theo Walcott looks destined to leave the club in the window with Liverpool showing increasing interest in his services.

This points towards at least one or two players coming into the team in January, with another striker and another wide player the priority.

Atletico Madrid’s out of favour forward Adrián López has been hotly tipped as Wenger’s number one target for the January window, a player that I would personally welcome to the club with open arms.

Having played at left wing, striker, attacking midfield and right midfield already this season Adrián would in fact cover both a replacement for Walcott and a backup for Giroud (who would offer a different playing style), and with a reported buyout clause of around £14-15million he would be an absolute bargain.

Many fans are calling for Wenger to chase Athletic Bilbao’s towering striker Fernando Llorente, however with his playing style very similar to that of Giroud’s, paired with the fact that clubs like Juventus, Manchester City, Chelsea and Real Madrid interested it would be unlikely that Arsenal would enter into a transfer dogfight for the Spaniard.

While much of the transfer speculation is focused on the search for another striker another area that Arsenal need to find more competition for is goalkeeper, with Wojciech Szczesny’s only competition for the role of first choice keeper being the unpredictable Vito Mannone.

An experienced keeper or another young talent (think Borussia Monchengladbach’s Marc-André ter Stegen) who could challenge Szczesny for the number one role would be a wise investment and promote stronger displays from a young crop of goalkeepers.

It would be foolish for Wenger not to spend the funds made available to him and although the side has some immense talents in the shape of Podolski, Wilshere, Cazorla and more there is a lot of room for improvement.

If Arsenal want to challenge for trophies in the second half of the season then reinforcements are needed, whether these reinforcements will arrive is a different matter altogether.

Gervinho – Wenger’s latest work of genius.

Arsenal’s versatile Ivorian forward Gervinho struggled to hit the ground running in the Premier League last year, but this season has been a completely different story for the 25-year-old.

One of the most attractive parts of Gervinho’s game is his ability to play across the entire front line, this season he has played at right-wing, left-wing and thanks to a lot of hard work in the offseason, at striker too.

This ability has given Arsene Wenger a very dangerous attacking force at his disposal with Spanish ace Santi Cazorla, German powerhouse Lukas Podolski as well as Gervinho all  able to switch positions on the front line throughout the game, terrorizing defenders.

Initially signed as a right-winger Gervinho has made a name for himself at striker this season with the player netting three goals in three appearances at the position, conversely on the right-wing this season he’s appeared twice and scored once.

It has to be said that with Santi Cazorla’s genius in the midfield is making the rest of the Arsenal forwards look phenomenal, but Gervinho’s ability is starting to speak for itself.

Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta are the pass masters of the Arsenal midfield, but surprisingly Gervinho is not far behind them. With a pass success rate of 87.3% so far this season, Gervinho is statistically a better passer than Lukas Podolski and Abou Diaby.

It would seem that Gervinho’s only problem so far this season has been nerves, particularly in front of goal, these nerves have led to his unpredictable performances that often bring a lot of criticism from Arsenal fans.

A great example of these nerves getting the better of the Ivorian was his poor first touch against Manchester City which would have almost certainly led to a goal.

Despite his mistake, Wenger was so impressed by Gervinho’s performance against Man City that he told Arsenal.com: “I liked what he did and it was in the back of my mind. It is interesting because he is such a great mover and he is so quick so when he is central,

“Once he gets ahead of the central defender it is difficult to catch him back.”

Gervinho is developing into an exciting striker and has definitely adapted to the style of the Premier League, Theo Walcott should be worried because it looks like his colleague on the wing has made the transition to the lead forward role and he is impressing more with every game he starts there.