Arsenal: A big January is absolutely necessary

Arsenal were thrashed 5-1 by Liverpool on Saturday, with their rather depleted and deficient personnel exposed. A big January is absolutely necessary for a top-four finish and beyond.

Well, where do we even begin? From a defensive point of view, Arsenal were an absoulute shambles. And for a while, it seemed for a moment that we had gone back in time and we were watching a defensive performance in the latter years of the Arsene Wenger era.

Find the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here – Assessing Unai Emery’s first term

Granted, the defence under Unai Emery is still poor. But with his aggressive defensive style, you would never have expected the Arsenal defence to capitulate as bad as they did in the first 45 minutes at Anfield. And that is even with the luxury attackers that Liverpool have.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

One thing is for certain, though, a team with a defence like Arsenal’s will not win the top trophies, and if the defence is not improved substantially, then they are going to fall further away from the top four, and I’m including this very season too. As a result of this personnel depletion, there can be zero excuses from Arsenal not to utilise the upcoming January transfer window and bring in some replacements.

I have read in the last couple of weeks some of the players that the club has been linked with. I’m afraid they just don’t cut it. Firstly, for me, Gary Cahill is a big no-no. A club with top-four aspirations should not be signing a 33-year-old centre-back who has hardly played in the last 18 months because his current club doesn’t think he’s good enough.

Putting this into perspective, the only other club that is interested in Cahill is Aston Villa. Fernando Calero, for instance, would be a much better option. He might be untested in the Premier League but, at 23, he is only going to improve and will be affordable with his £10 million release clause.

Keylor Navas is another player that has been linked over the last few weeks. Again, it is a transfer Arsenal don’t need to make. I don’t see Bernd Leno as being a problem, at least not a problem that needs addressing immediately, and he is a competent goalkeeper who will look better with a better defence in front of him.

Ever Banega would be a good bit of business as a shorter term option. He is one of the better midfielders in La Liga outside of Real Madrid and Barcelona and his combative style would fit in well in the middle of the pitch. If reports are to be believed, Arsenal also had a £35 million bid rejected for Christian Pulisic. The club, therefore, is aware of what needs to be done next month. Also, if the bid is true, that means that there is money to be spent in January, despite the outlay in the summer.

In my opinion, a winger is not a major priority the options in that position are going to be limited and we are not going to get our top targets until the summer. On the attacking side of things, the team has coped well without an out-and-out winger for the first part of the season. Even with Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s injury, they can manage until May without investment at the position. What money that is there should be used to improve the backbone of the team and bring some real steel into the defence.

I am hoping Saturday’s defeat was just a blip and the team can bounce back quickly. However, the negativity has already started amongst the fans and, as ridiculous as it sounds, the Emery-out brigade is already in full swing. Arsenal need help, and they need it quickly.