This is really largely based on my trust of Wenger to always put together a great team. Well, that and the fact that I think Fabregas (still only 22!!!) might be the second best player in the premiership. But losing both Toure and Adebayor would seem to hurt them, even though Eduardo will in theory be healthy this season. In all honesty I expect a season fairly similar to last season where on any given day they could in theory beat anybody, but with inconsistency and losing/tying games against worse teams. Regardless, they should once again be the youngest and most enjoyable team to watch the in premiership. In defense they’ve added Ajax defender Vermaelen (I had to look a few times to make sure I’d spelt it correctly) to go with Gallas, Clicy, and Sagna – the two wide defenders are still more forward-looking than actually good at defense, and as always if you can actually stop Arsenal from scoring then you should be able to win the game, I don’t expect that many clean sheets even though I rate Almunia fairly high. I feel like a team with good wingers would have a lot of fun against this defense, though the defenders must see it in practice every day because Walcott and Arshavin are both kind of awesome. I’m not sure which one I like better but I would take either at Liverpool in a heartbeat. In the middle I’d guess that Samir Nasri, who looked good at the end of the season when Liverpool were busy throwing away their title hopes, will end up starting over Denilson who I’ve never liked much as a player. Either way, fairly obviously the midfield is great and attacking and will play gorgeous football. What will be interesting is how the strikers play. Eduardo and Van Piersie will likely score plenty of goals, as will the team as a whole I expect. I doubt arsenal will drop many points at home this season but it doesn’t seem like they’ve done much (or aged enough) to improve on their record last season. When you play the nicest football in the league and have one of the better coaches then sure there probably is always a little bit of hope. Since I don’t really have much else to say I just wish I were also writing previews for La Liga because it would be fun to write preview of Espanyol right now. Like, “I’m watching their preseason game right now and they look pretty good and … Oh no. This isn’t good. Captain Daniel Jarque looks like he’s having a heart attack on the field and… yes, there he goes. He’s dead. That is NOT a good way to begin a season, losing their captain to heart attack on the field is really going to hurt them this year.†BM
