Is it time for Arsenal fans to panic on transfer deadline day?

Does Arsene Wenger have a deadline day signing or two up his sleeve?

Two steps forward and two steps back; that would seem to be the lot of Arsenal fan these days. Fast on the heels of a gritty, hard fought win against archrivals Chelsea in the mostly inconsequential Community Shield, the Gunners began the season laying a perfect egg against lightly regarded “derby” rivals West Ham. Oh, it came on home turf at the Emirates.

This was supposed to be the coming-out season for Arsenal. The second home game was no better, with only Pete Cech’s turnaround heroics saving us from defeat to top 4 rivals Liverpool. If the Gunners keep this up, the Emirates may soon become the most hostile ground they will be playing at. Sandwiched in-between were two uninspiring wins away to Crystal Palace and Newcastle, the last against 10 men for the last hour. So far, the Gunners have scored exactly one goal, albeit a spectacular setup from Mesut Ozil and finish from Olivier Giroud.

The reaction of almost every expert is to scream for a “world class” striker. There are only three strikers who fall into that category – Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez. Perhaps Zlatan Ibrahimovic may have an argument. With less than 24 hours to go, Ibra is still available, though the offense would have to be retooled completely for him. Besides, it is very doubtful he can stay healthy for a season.

To some extent, the Gunners have just been unlucky on the scoring end, with defenders getting in some lucky blocks on goal-bound strikes and linesmen getting in the way of others. The problems have been inability to move the ball quickly (every time we do we create chances) and the lack of players moving to the box in anticipation of a cross. Still, at some time the shots will begin to go in. Our main woes are still at the defensive end.

Do Arsenal need to sort out the defence?

Let us start with Cech in goal. From Arsenal – The Wait Begins: “Cech is still very good but is potentially on the downward side of his career. David Ospina and Wojciech Szczesny are not at the level of David De Gea, Manuel Neuer or Hugo Lloris. But they are pretty much at the next level down. Besides those three, it wouldn’t be worth spending our tightfisted club’s money on any other keeper.”

From Arsenal – Winning by Losing: “We did acquire Cech and, on paper, that is a step up from Ospina or Scezney. However, our defensive woes have primarily stemmed from those playing in front of the goalkeeper.”

Every expert commenting on the game put both West Ham goals down to goalkeeping errors by Cech. While this is true from a shallow analysis, I actually think it is “our defensive woes have primarily stemmed from those playing in front of the goalkeeper” that is still our primary problem. If you look at a replay of the first goal, all of the defenders closest to the origin of the free kick are trailing the attackers, leaving them a free shot at goal.

Cech tries to bridge the gap, definitely an error on his part. However, the original sin is with the defence in front of him and even more with Steve Bould on the training ground for getting the spacing wrong. Fast forward to goal two, where Cech clearly baby hops toward the far post and is beaten easily toward the near side. However, if you look at the lead up to the shot, Alex Oxlade-Chaberlain has lost the ball, but there are several defenders within a few yards of the attacker. Not one of them closes on him.

Cech is looking at a clear shot and makes the error of trying to anticipate. Again, the original sin is with the defence in front of him. This was painfully evident when the Cup central defence (Chambers and Paulista) played against Liverpool. Cech made up for the West Ham errors with a stunning performance, giving us hope for the future.

Is Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel Paulista Arsenal’s best defensive pairing?

The point is that you can fool yourself into thinking you can acquire a player and your problem will be solved – Cech at goalkeeper. You can then turn around and blame him when he makes an error that costs you the game. Meanwhile, the root cause of the problem, a poorly organized defence remains. Some of the vulnerabilities can be decreased by acquisitions.

The big weakness is on the right-hand side, with the flank patrolled by either an inexperienced Hector Bellerin, Mathieu Debuchy recovering from two successive injuries, or a slow footed Calum Chambers. Inside them is my favorite target, Per Mertesacker. He is a skilled defender, but you only have to look at the number of offside calls against Loic Remy that could easily have translated into goalscoring chances.

You can either get replacements or shuffle the lineup to match the opponent. Chambers, who looked so good at the start of last season, seems to have had his confidence shattered since Wenger fiddled while Montero burned him. However, I liked Paulista’s performance, especially the recovery speed he displayed on several occasions against Liverpool and Newcastle. Since we like to play a high line, that pairing might just be the ticket.

Are Arsenal an injury away from losing the initiative?

Newcastle’s physicality saw Arsenal fans holding their breath when Francis Coquelin was at the receiving end of some nasty fouls

There has been a lot of debate about this season’s red cards though the referees have actually been spot on with all but the Adrian one. It took television replays to convince the commentators that Mitrovic did indeed deserve his red. For me, all I could see was Arsenal’s entire season flash before my eyes. The victim was Francis Coquelin and it could very easily have been a season-ending injury.

If Coquelin gets injured, we are back to the infamously named Flarteta (Flamini and Arteta). With hours left for the deadline and a stubborn Wenger still looking for a bargain, one nasty tackle is all that stands between a deflating top 4 hunt and a long drop down the table. Sunday gave me the faintest glimmer of hope, with the news that Victor Wanyama had been left out of the Southampton squad after handing in a transfer request. He isn’t quite a Viera, but who is?

Plus, last I heard, Carvalho was still on the table. For the few hours left in the transfer window, I can still dream of Arsenal with a midfield enforcer at long last – pairing with Coquelin to strangle the midfield against stiffer competition, while spelling each other against the rest. Will this window shatter in my face like all the others?