Filed under: Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton, Premier League, Football
'If you can't beat 'em join 'em' seems to be Arsene Wenger's approach to the summer. In looking over at the campaign just gone, he has expressed his regret with his side's failures to win when the game gets "typically English".By English he means direct, of course. They may have beaten Manchester United and Chelsea, but Wenger believes it was the failure to overcome the scrappers of the league such as Birmingham, Stoke, Wigan and West Brom that put paid to their hopes of ending their six-year trophy drought.
He said: "We beat Man United, Chelsea, but we dropped points when the game became typically English. You put a high ball up and get stuck in. It's at that point where we lost points."
Wenger is right - Arsenal conceded a higher percentage of goals from headers than any other side in the Premier League. So to avoid a repeat, the Arsenal manager is thinking big - or tall, to be precise.
He added on the club's official website: "We conceded very few goals from open play, most of them were from set pieces in a way you don't want to concede goals.
"It's something that's easy to correct. We need to improve the size of our squad. We need a bigger variety in the height of our players. We need to be more capable of fighting against some characteristics than we have been this season."
If this sounds like Wenger is going all Sam Allardyce on us, don't worry. He is just looking to get in some larger people. To this end, Wenger has been linked with Lens defender Raphaël Varane - who for the record is 6ft 3in but only 18 years old - along with Bolton's Gary Cahill and Blackburn's Christopher Samba.
But apart from any potential transfers in the offing, to hear Wenger describe the frailties of his team over the last campaign will be heartening to Arsenal fans.
They have been ever-growing in their frustration and criticism of the manager's failure to make a big impact in the transfer market, which led to yet another barren season.
Because if Wenger admits he has made a mistake - which, it must be remembered, he hasn't done yet - then the problems affecting the team will be easier to solve.
The manager himself claims that the team are 95 per cent the finished article, despite seeing a fight for four trophies rapidy become a scrap for third place within a matter of weeks at the tail end of the season.
He added: We get it 95 per cent right, but we must gain that 5 per cent because it's so frustrating to flirt with success like we have done. The fans are unhappy that we didn't win the league, but we are close."
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