Is Cech what Arsenal need to win the Premier League?

LONDON –It’s happening already. In the red zone of North London, they’re starting to believe. It has been 10 years since Arsenal last won the title, but none of the usual excuses apply anymore. There are no complaints about a lack of spending now. According to Transfermarkt, Arsene Wenger has splashed out £150 million over the past four transfer windows. There are no fears over the retention of players, either. Manchester City continue to circle Jack Wilshere, but the club are confident that he’ll sign an improved contract shortly. And now, for the first time since the decline of Jens Lehmann, they have a world-class goalkeeper too. But is that enough? The imminent transfer of Petr Cech is a curious one. If it weren’t for the development of Thibaut Courtois, there’s no reason he couldn’t have continued to play for Chelsea for another three years, or maybe even more. He’s a goalkeeper without weakness. Cech is fine at shot-stopping, excellent in the air, focused, professional and influential. It is only the fact that Courtois is also all of those things, but 10 years younger, that has forced the move. Jose Mourinho has made it clear he wanted his goalkeeper to be honourably discharged as far away as possible. But Chelsea’s hierarchy, in a disconcerting act of kindness, told Cech he could go wherever he wanted. Unless this is some kind of devious Mourinho trap and Cech actually lost his hands in an industrial accident in June, this doesn’t make much sense. “I remain highly suspicious of everything Chelsea do,” said Andrew Mangan, editor of arseblog.com, with a laugh. “But I think what Arsenal need to do, perhaps even more than sign players -- and I’m not saying they don’t need to sign players -- is find consistency over the course of the season. Last time, we had a really good second half of the campaign. The season before that, we were top of the table for longer than anyone else and then fell away in the last two months. What you want is a marriage of the two seasons, a good start and a good finish. Then we’ve got a chance.” “If Arsenal can keep Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and, hopefully, a new top striker fit all season, I genuinely think they have a realistic shot at winning the title. To close the gap on Chelsea, the Gunners must also defend as consistently well as they did towards the end of last season. When Arsenal focus on their off-the-ball work, they are a surprisingly difficult team to beat, and let’s face it, they will always create and score plenty of goals.” One of Arsenal’s weaknesses in the past has been a lack of squad depth. The Gunners went into last season without significant defensive cover and paid the price quickly as the injuries mounted. But now they have Gabriel behind the first-choice centre-back partnership of Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, with Calum Chambers able to help in a tight spot. Mathieu Debuchy and Hector Bellerin have the right side covered, Nacho Monreal and Kieran Gibbs anchor the left. There is an embarrassment of riches in midfield, where Arsenal could field a first-choice three of Ozil, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin, a second-choice trio of Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini and still not have room for Mikel Arteta or Tomas Rosicky. You might say Rosicky could play wide, but who would he replace? Sanchez? Theo Walcott? Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain? Perhaps even Danny Welbeck if he’s been shifted to the left to accommodate Olivier Giroud. Yet it’s the central striker role that remains the biggest conundrum. The jury is still out on Giroud, who returned a healthy 14 league goals last term in 21 starts but lacks the volcanic presence of Diego Costa or the genius of Sergio Aguero. He can act as a pivot and bring others into the game, but it’s hard to see Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich making a move for him any time soon. It is to this level that Arsenal must aspire. Welbeck is unselfish, intelligent and hardworking, but he hasn’t yet proved himself as a top-level striker either, and while injuries might have hampered his first season at the club, four goals in 18 starts is an insufficient return. A new goalkeeper is one thing; a stronger squad is another; the promise of consistency still more. But nothing would fire this squad up like the arrival of a class-A goal-getter. Until then, it’s only natural that there are doubts over Arsenal’s ability to compete for the most prestigious trophies. But strange things can happen over the course of a season, and it’s always unwise to place too much faith in what has gone before. The rise of Coquelin is a reminder that talent can develop in unexpected places. Superb in the FA Cup Final and one of the main reasons Aston Villa were so easily defeated, Coquelin gives Arsenal the ability to break up other teams’ play. If he played for Lille, the supporters would be begging Wenger to splash out £20 million on his services. If Giroud or Welbeck can step up as he did, then maybe Arsenal really will have a chance. Arsenal are not going to be favourites for next season’s Premier League title. But they’re a far more realistic proposition than they have been for several years.

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Is Cech what Arsenal need to win the Premier League?