Maintaining the Perfect Balance

Arsenal is financially stable is a well known fact to the footballing world, it probably is one of the very few sporting organizations to make profits and upgrade itself in all aspects to next level, and yet be stable competitively. And it is no co-incidence that during this period of financial turbulence Arsenal has seen a major trophy drought, which, is getting itchy to the fans and giving clubs without class reasons to point fingers out at a club which oozes class in all aspects.

The slump and the drought which has become a part of Arsenal, and hate to see us getting stereotyped with trophy-less seasons. But, this drought has followed us since the move to Emirates stadium, which people call Emirates-Jinx, lets analyze it sensibly.

Since the move to the new stadium, Arsenal had to cut down on a lot of expenses, which included hefty wage players in the likes of Pires, Vierra, Henry, etc.

A great manager moves on with the available resources to make a team good enough to fight the battle with new stars and new heroes, and this team falling for the greed of few in the likes of Adebayor, Hleb, Gallas, Nasri, etc.

Facing challenges and betrayals (hate to say it, but, read: Cesc Fabregas) and after a disastrous start to the season, we are, competing for the second place (too optimistic), while clubs which have spent 100 times more than us (no exaggeration) have become a joke. (Read: ManC, Liverpool and Chelsea)

Bounce after every fall [pic: www.skysports.com]

Looks like the time when Arsene Wenger's trust on his policies are returning favours, since later Feb, we have:

1. Covered 13 points from our North London's little successful club which forever remains in our shadows.
2. Dramatic comeback over Milan at home. A little more luck and we could have been on the path to Bacra revenge.
3. Won Eight, and Lost only one game on the bounce.
4. Late comebacks in most games in the period, which never looked possible in last couple of seasons at Arsenal.
5. Less reliant on the Captain's goals.

The future looks bright, but with only if Wenger manages to hold on to each of these following players:

ROBIN VAN PERSIE
TOMAS ROSICKY
THEO WALCOTT
MIKEL ARTETA
JACK WILSHERE
BACARY SAGNA
PER MERTESACKER
THOMAS VERMAELEN
WOJCIECH SZCZESNY
ALEX OX- CHAMBERLAIN
ALEX SONG
KIERAN GIBBS
ANDRE SANTOS
FRANCIS COQUELIN

And an addition of Podolski will be magical. Its not long, Gunners will be blazing to the unimaginable heights again.

I'll keep gunning on twitter: @asimgunner

The Journey of Kos - the Boss

If the Journey from being a player to be made fun of by own fans along with the fellow signing, Sebastian Squilacci, to Arsenal's most loved defender since the Invincible's, is not dramatic enough. Lets have it in his own words.

"I don't believe any French player would have refused to come and play for Arsenal. It took me four years to go from the bench of Ligue 2 to Arsenal so it is a great achievement."

Kos-The Boss (Image: www.sports.fr )

Always being #ArseneKnows guy, I hate myself to, at a point, have criticised Laurent Koscielny and not have noticed his steady rise and getting carried away by one or two mistakes, which did cost us a lot, but, definately has given us a defender to be proud of.

From being branded as Kosher to Kos- the Boss. The quick thinking, agressive, and lightning fast defender without a doubt is within 3 places for Arsenal's player of the season and best defenders this season.

From the above table its evident that Koscielny is one of the top defenders this season with the likes of Terry, Kompany and Agger.

But, what pleases me the most is the way he has matured to take up the defensive burden in the absence of Vermaelan, and hasn't committed the mistakes like the Carling Cup final. Its also noticeable that Koscielny gets booked a lot compared to other top-defenders and with time when he improves that we are up to what could get us back the glorious days.

Hope to see opponent strikers getting Kos-trated every match day.

Will keep gunning on twitter @asimgunner