Tomorrow Arsenal play their neighbors Tottenham in the North London Derby. As of late the Gunners have been up and down. At the start of the season Arsenal jumped out to a commanding lead in the Barclays Premier League. Players like Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey were on fire scoring most of the teams goals. The addition of German Midfielder Mesut Ozil opened up plenty of opportunities for his teammates. For the first time in a while Arsenal's higher ups decided to open their purse and make the team better instead of letting their top players get away like Robin Van Persie and Samir Nasri.
Looking at the what seemed to be a dominant roster, I noticed the striker position was a weakness. In England with all the tournaments whether it be the FA Cup, Capital One Cup, or the BPL, lots of minutes have to be covered. I felt relying on Nicholaus Bendtner and Yaya Sanogo didn't quite add up to back Giroud. Even the best goal scores would tire out with the demanding schedule.
When the winter transfer window opened I thought for sure Arsene Wenger would bring in a talented Striker to the Emirates. Two deals that were on the table that fell through was acquiring Lazio's German Striker Miroslav Klose and Schalke's Julian Draxler. Maybe the numbers didn't add up or the other teams didn't want to part ways with their players. This definitely hurt the Gunners squad.
Another weakness was the Centerback position. Per Mertesacker while being a solid defender would have to endure the rough schedule and i believe his fatigue has slowed him down as of late. Laurant Koscielny is a great defender and if Arsenal would have went out and picked up another Centerback to rotate with Mertesacker and Vermaelen the defense would stay fresh.
The biggest downfall of the Arsenal Gunners has been health. Ar the start of the season Podolski and Oxelade-Chaimberlain went down early. Then a big knock on their goal scorer Aaron Ramsey who to this day is still out. More recent injuries occurred during an England friendly where Jack Wilshere fractured a bone and during a Champions League battle with Bayern Munich, Mesut Ozil pulled his quad. Placing him on the long list of injuries for a few weeks.
If Arsenal win tomorrow they can keep pace with the other top of the table teams. That in itself is a positive outlook for a team with such bad luck this season. It is time for the secondary players like Lukas Podolski and Matthieu Flamini to rise to the occasion and keep the London based club in the race. Only time will tell when the game begins from White Hart Lane.
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