By ROBERT WALKER – News Writer
It has been five years since Arsenal Football Club won the Barclays Premier League championship, England’s most competitive soccer league, and that’s rather upsetting. Arsenal has a long history of doing a lot of winning, with such English soccer hall-of-famers like Thierry Henry, Tony Adams and Denis Bergkamp.
It also stands to reason that because they had league’s top scorer last year, Robin Van Persie, that they should have finished in one of the top two positions, however, they fell short and finished third behind Manchester United and Manchester City football clubs.
This year, since the tragic loss of Van Persie to Manchester United, the team is lacking a strong forward to score crucial goals. The main scorer for Arsenal this season is Theo Walcott, who, last season, only scored eight goals, as opposed to Van Persie’s 30.
To an Arsenal fan that has been paying attention to the team for the last few years, it is insulting to see eight-year veteran Van Persie move to the same team as the Shrek look-alike that is Wayne Rooney. Due to the Dutchman’s late departure, the team did not have time to obtain a striker to fill that gap.
The Gunners, as usual, have a good amount of very young players that will be good enough to start in a year, like 21 year-old midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. In the meantime they are sitting on the bench watching Mikel Arteta miss goals.
Arsene Wenger, the current manager for Arsenal, is considered by many to be “tenured” and will not be replaced anytime soon, which does not bode well for the club because job security will not make Wenger to have a successful club.
With rumors that Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid’s super successful manager, considering leaving this summer, Arsenal might feel the need for a change, which would not be a terrible thing. Although Wenger may have won the league trophy in 2004, but that was an awful long time ago.
Unfortunately, this year will most likely be an underwhelming year for the pride of North London, and they will most likely finish this season, like the past few, without any trophies. If Wenger’s position of manager is threatened however, it may encourage him to strike a deal for a forward that can lead the team to a Premier League title.
