Tomo

Cahill was only that cheap because he had 6 months left on his contract at Bolton, couple of years prior to us getting him Bolton were quoting teams £20m, factor in inflation and the fact Cahill never had the potential ceiling Stones has, that's a lot worse. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/5311603/Arsenal-told-by-Bolton-Gary-Cahill-will-cost-20-million.html

Of course he would want that, he is a hungry individual who would never settle for what he's got if that makes sense and of course if he can get to 25/15 that would be amazing factoring in everything else he does. But even if he stays on the 15-20 barrier for the rest of the career it shouldn't detract from what a great player he is, which sadly is the case in some quarters. Another example with Eden is Swansea at home last season, he didn't score an assist but single handedly turned the game around for us, we were awful for the first 20 and Hazard took the responsibility upped his game and turned it around for us, if he has 10 of those games every season then even 10 goals from him would be great.

He had 17 and 19 in his last two seasons, he averages 1 in 2 and a bit games, for a wide player who is asked to track back a fair bit that is very good, even including pens and especially including what else he does. The sheer amount of chances he creates with his dribbling skills is insane, only Messi beats him in that regard.

I didn't even realise it was him, I just saw the words 'needs to score more' and that was it

He's a winger, why does he need to "score more".Hazard isn't going to score 40 goals a season because he isn't that type of player, he isn't going to shoot when someone else is in a better positionlike almost every top player does these days and I personally hope he never changes. And before you say well goals are goals, well Hazards way gets goals in situations were a shoot wouldn't have, take United in the COC in his first season, Ramires goal to seal the game, Hazard ran with the ball got into a position outside the box were a Bale/Neymar/Sanchez/Ronaldo would have almost certainly shot and more than likely missed, instead Hazard rolled it into Rambo and sealed the game. It's quite a sad predicament of the modern game that to get the credit he truly deserves Hazard will have too strip himself of a lot of his attributes that made him get this far and turn into a shoot on site merchant, in fact it's criminal.

That's why I would welcome Stones, Witsel and Pedro with open arms, the wing positions are the most alarming right now, injuries to Hazard and Willian at the Same time and we are stuck with Cuadrado and Moses, throw an injury or suspension to Matic in the mix and is the line up we would field in that circumstance much better than the team that finished 6th in 2012? Its a very thin line were treading.Eva and co need to pamper the first Xl and then some.

We have no depth, one or two of the squad players can fill in for one game with no issue but beyond that were be back to the problems we were plagued with through our transition. That's why Jose goes "boring" sometimes, because he likes a settled Xl we can't go hammer and tongs at it every week.

Hes not perfect for the squad role of a team looking to compete on all fronts, he is a serial bad decision maker and is widely inconsistent. He is capable if good games but a player of his ilk is good for mid table, or even a squad player for a team chasing 3rd like us his last time here, however not now.

I'm not saying he is or isn't but the selections of Roy Hodgsdon is hardly conclusive evidence. This is the guy who thought Pirlo played for AC Milan against Arsenal when he left for Juve the previous summer.

Let's not exaggerate.

Seeing Drogba live is quite a sobering sight, if you think he's massive on the T.v.......

He did, but it was not enough to reject the offer we got for him. My big question next year us Cesc in the big game's, now don't get me wrong I'm by no means in the group of he's a big game bottler, but if we sign a Witsel/Aranguiz he might be sacrificed, Matic, Witsel and Oscar would give us great balance in the big game's and we might see the 13/14 big game displays return.

In 12/13 he was a decent squad player for what we needed at the time, we were aiming for 3rd and a cup as a bonus so Moses as a squad player wass ok despite his flaws. Now it's different, we are aiming to win everything and that means the demands are so so so high, any dropped points are borderline disastrous and a player of Moses inconsistency just doesn't have a place in this squad. He is capable of good games, very good infact but just doesnt have the consistent level demanding of a top top level player, too often he kills counter attacks with beyond awful decisions, he's even worse than Torres in that regard.

Willian is absolutely fine, he may be a bit frustrating in terms of end product but brings a lot to the team. Cuadrado (unless he improves) and Moses as back up wingers I have to say is giving me sleepless nights right now however.

He was quite an awfully frustrating player with us, he was good to have at that time because in the season (12/13) we had a 60 plus game season and our expectations were relatively low for our standards. Now we are looking to win the lot and a player like Moses who has the football brain of a hyena will only serve to handicap us, even as a squad player, he's good for Stoke and Wigan but was average- ok for us first time round and utterly abysmal for Liverpool.

I think its a lot deeper than manager instructions, they have not helped in some cases (PSG especially which was completely on Jose) but the main crux of the problem was the CM issue, which is why I would love to sign Witsel and Aranguiz. In 13/14 we controlled all the big game's nearly, City should have been a bigger score, we absolutely smashed Liverpool at The Bridge, Arsenal and United too, the away games vs those two were cautious affairs by both sides and I think the CM played a big part in helping us dominate games, Luiz-Matic was ultra effective as was Lamps with either of them, we let 2 of them go for Cesc which created a problem in big games because any combination we played had flaws. Matic-Cesc was brilliant for flat track bullying but the latter's defensive weakness was apparent vs any half decent team, Matic-Mikel is too defensive and Cesc as #10 didn't help either and Ramires with anyone and his lack of footy brain handicaps us, as good as the Luiz deal was we really missed him in the big game's. Ps, did we really only have 2 shots vs United? BBC are saying 7.

There always seems to be one random player in our squad that gets overhyped beyond extremes every pre season, and this time its Moses's turn.

For sure, its his off the ball movement that gets me the most, he's so clever with it it causes absolute mayhem, like vs Arsenal when he dragged Metresaker wide leaving Koscielny at Hazards mercy. I honestly believe he can get near to 40 goals with an injury free season, if not hit that number.

Fabregas (rightly) got credit for helping us improve vs the lesser sides but Costa is just as big a reason if not bigger. Remys a good back up option but Diego is streets ahead of the Frenchman.

He shone at Stoke but was inconsistent for us and abysmal at Liverpool. He's a good mid table level player but for us he's not good enough, even as a squad player.

The last time Arsenal played beautiful football consistently was 10/11.

Not really true, the only games that have really been a "park the bus" job are..... Leti and Liverpool away, depleted side, heading to the two most in form teams in Europe, anyone who doesn't do defensive under those circumstances is an idiot, even Brendan "defending isnt important" Rodgers did at Real away. Liverpool and PSG away season just gone. I'm not having any of the other games as the opponents in those were just as cautious as we were, if not more. The park the bus is a media sensationalist spin, I mean no one batted an eyelid when Wenger turned up to The Bridge last season packed the midfield and came with a game plan of sit back and frustrate us.

There was never any doubt about it.

I honestly believe he will hit close to 40 in all comps with an injury free season.Utilise him right and he is unplayable. However he will probably not get the credit he deserves even then due to the obsession with technical game in the average footy fan.

But Costa leading the line has proved successful in terms of his teams winning league titles, Falcao not so much, and its team first. Furthermore Costa is criminally underrated due to not being as pleasing on the eye footballer but he's an absolute incredible striker