Goalkeepers
Manuel Almunia has recently been in strong form, but his overall performance throughout the season has been lacking. The main issue is a lack of confidence from his defenders in the man between the sticks. Almunia's is a remarkable story: rising from a lower division Spanish team to become the number one for one of the biggest teams in the world. Perhaps Wenger is a little too enamored with the romance of it all. Fabianski and Mannone both look promising but do not seem to possess the anchorage of calm that an Arsenal team that can be occasionally nervy requires. This may eventually be delivered by the much praised Wojciech Szczęsny, currently on loan at Brentford. Szczęsny needs to develop however, and throwing into him the deep end of the Premiership is likely to frazzle his confidence and endanger the team's performance. Wenger's priority has to be a goalkeeper that is able to allow the defenders to believe that when a long ball is played into the box towards the end of a match it will be dealt with. I think the answer to this problem is Hugo Lloris (pictured above). The French international would fit in perfectly with Arsenal's psyche (for starters, he's French) and Wenger has already expressed his admiration, calling him "A fantastic keeper who will be a fantastic keeper in the future." When pressed on his desire to sign Lloris, he commented "I don’t know. At the moment we don’t need a keeper." Arsène, I beg to differ.
Defense
Arsenal's defense is currently a bit of an enigma. The stats show that the back four have conceded the 6th least goals this season. Not terrible. The experience of watching the matches shows that the defense has been fairly solid, except when dealing with set pieces. Looking forward, the return of Djorou should allow Wenger to possibly say au revoir to all three rusting battleships: Gallas, Silvestre and Campbell. Djorou and Vermaelen could build an excellent partnership; both are young, powerful and calm in possession. Left-back is four-deep with talent: Clichy, Gibbs, Traore and Tom Cruise all hoping to fly wingman to the center-halves. The issue comes on the other side of the pitch. Sagna is a great player and works extremely hard but his crossing is not great (keep an eye out for the SSC = Sagna Suspect Cross next time you are watching). His willingness to press up the pitch often leaves the defense exposed and when playing with Walcott they seem to cancel each other out. Were Sagna to be mangled by a hired thug (otherwise known as Stoke/Hull/Burnley player) at some point there is little cover other than Eboue, who is the definition of unreliable. The cure to the problem would be César Azpilicueta (pictured above left). Last year Arsenal had an offer rejected by his club Osasuna, but this year may see renewed interest as Manchester City step up their own pursuit. Azpilicueta might allow Walcott to have a greater presence in the game, and being right-footed would allow another aspect to the crossing game, important with the arrival of Chamakh. He would also top the highly competitive list of Arsenal players with surnames most likely to be misspelled in an MBM.
Midfield
Fabregas, Nasri, Arshavin, Rosicky, Ramsey, Diaby, Song, Denilson, Merida, Wilshere, Emmanuel-Thomas, and a host more of talented youngsters like Barazite and Ozyakup who could make an appearance in the first team make the midfield an extremely congested place for Arsenal players. If Wenger decides to add anyone they will have to compete hard for their place against players determined to break into the first team like Jack Wilshere (pictured above).
Forwards
It is no secret that Marouane Chamakh (pictured above) is on his way to Arsenal. He can play at the front of a lethal arrowhead, flanked by Arshavin and Van Persie. Wenger has done his work, now it is time for the fans to start their work on Chamakh chants. The obvious direction here is the rhyme 'smack' for 'Chamakh'. I personally would love Arsenal fans to adopt an adapted Akon chorus:
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