The most watched, and adored soccer league in the world is ready to kick off tomorrow, on August 17th...the first game staring here in US at 7:45 an: Liverpool vs Stoke City. Following this match, at 10 am there will be multiple matches airing- listed as followed: Sunderland going against Fulham, West Brom and Southampton, West Ham and new English club Cardiff City, Norwich city and Everton, and finally, Arsenal and Aston Villa. Surprisingly, this year’s English Premier League received a colossal American stage to air matches: NBC. Reportedly, for the first time in history, all 380 premier league games will air and be televised on a U.S network; so soccer is becoming, and heading to be a big thing here in US. Is it a risk for NBC? The popular network is willing to take its chances, and make the bet; confident the games would attract many viewers (which will most likely happen, considering the millions of football fans in USA). So that’s that for this year’s Premier League, and now let’s get to the individual premier league clubs progress- starting with my favorite team, Arsenal, who have received only one new addition to the team, ex Auxerre striker Yaya Sanogo, a 20 year old French player who came to Arsenal as a free transfer. Now let’s discuss what’s going on with Arsenal in more depth.
Yaya Sanogo
When it was mentioned that Arsenal have technically not bought a single player, you have to take this literally, because they haven’t spent a single penny on a signing for their squad (besides Sanogo, who like I said came in for free from AJ Auxerre). This was a summer where there was enormous potential for Arsenal to make World-Class signings; where fans anticipated multiple quality players to join the squad to push them up tables, and up to championships. However, the potential didn’t even get close to its pinnacle. What exactly is wrong? The budget is not the problem. Arsenal has attempted to acclaim players such Gonzalo Higuain, Lars Bender, Luis Suarez, Jovetic, Bernard,and now Luiz Gustavo; however they didn’t reach far enough- and so slowly, and painfully, every record bid by the club was rejected. On top of that, the depth of their team has gradually been decreasing, with the departure of multiple players such as Chamakh, Andrei Arshavin, Squillaci, Gervinho, and multiple loans, such as Ignasi Miguel, etc. There 70 million euro budget this summer has been left untouched… so don’t expect to see too much of anything innovative from the club.
On top of that, the team has been hit and shattered with numerous injuries, which are certain to bring the team down…Mikel Arteta, one of their most essential Defender/Midfielders, is out for 8 weeks with an injury. Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger stated "I understand every frustration, you have so many frustrated people, but what is important is the quality of what you do on the pitch so let's not create a crisis from nothing”. Ok, so let’s just keep with Arsenes story, that there is still quality on the field ( which is true; thanks to the likes of Cazorla, Podolski, and couple other players) however how does he expect to play a full game where he has only 4 functional defenders (Gibbs, Mertesacker, Koscielny, and Jenkinson; who is naturally a midfielder)? According to Wenger, Arsenal are still not done pursuing Luis Suarez, who will definitely make an impact on the team’s offensive play. All fans can do is hope...and complain.
Most probable squad for tomorrows match against Aston Villa.
