As Arsenal are about to embark on another Champions League season, their first match of the campaign will force them to put on a lineup we haven’t seen from the before, as Arsene Wenger has to deal with injuries to Santi Cazorla, Mikel Arteta, Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tomas Rosicky, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby and Nicklas Bendtner.
Worse news? Olivier Giroud isn’t completely healthy, and that is a real problem, as Arsenal simply don’t have strikers in their squad to cover him. It’ll probably force them use Theo Walcott as their front man or simply go with a striker-less formation (Even though Walcott is, in a way, a striker-less formation), while relying on a midfield of Ozil, Wilshere, Ramsey and Flamini to carry the load of both offense and playing on the wings.
I’m concerned the squad is looking thin. From now until Christmas we will play every three or four days; and we cannot play for the next two months with the squad we have at the moment. It is important we get some players back.
So while Wenger has been getting plenty of praise for finally making a big signing and bringing in Mesut Ozil, he didn’t do enough to improve his team’s depth, especially up front. Olivier Giroud went into the season with only one striker to backup Olivier Giroud, and it didn’t take long for him to suddenly feel like he could have done more in order to avoid this situation.
Arsenal started out the season with a loss on the opening day, but three consecutive league wins followed, as Olivier Giroud leads the league (sharing it to be exact) with 4 goals so far. Arsenal’s dependance on him is quite great, even if a lot of their attacking fortitude has been coming from the midfield and especially Aaron Ramsey and his ability to come from behind. However, if Giroud doesn’t play against Marseille, finding goals or even creating chances is going to be very difficult.