Arsenal: The makings of a title-winning XI

Arsenal could introduce three crucial players into their starting XI ahead of next season. Suddenly, they have the bare bones of a title-winning team.

Last year, I wrote a piece questioning whether Granit Xhaka was what you might call a ‘title-winning’ player. My point was simple: Xhaka is a perfectly capable midfielder with a very specific and useful set of qualities, but will he ever be at the required level to anchor the central midfield of a title-winning team? And I think we all know the answer to that question.

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Off the back of that piece, I then turned my attention to the other players in the team. How many could you truly say are capable of winning a Premier League title by performing as one of the best in the league at their respective position? The answer was worryingly small.

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However, after their business this summer and the development of some key players last year, I think it would be fair to say that Arsenal are beginning to assemble the makings of a team that is capable of challenging for the top four and even the title — this, I should point out, does not mean that I expect them to challenge for the title next season. I do not. But the building blocks are there.

Take the front three. With Nicolas Pepe likely to start on the right flank, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off the left, and Alexandre Lacazette through the middle, the Gunners now boast one of the best attacking triumvirates in the Premier League, and even world football for that matter. Moreover, this trio might finally get the best out of the highly talented but largely unproductive Mesut Ozil.

Moving into the midfield, the personnel is less convincing, but there is a lot of young talent to work with that could develop into title-winning starters. Dani Ceballos is a terrific player who will link the defence and the attack, Lucas Torreira could develop into a league-leading defensive midfielder, while Matteo Guendouzi is still only 20 years old and has all the tools to be one of the best midfielders in the world. These are obviously more uncertain cases, and Arsenal will need them to break in their favour, but the potential is there.

However, defensively, the issues come. There is not one centre-back who is currently even hinting at being title-winning standard. Hector Bellerin, should he recover from his ACL tear well, is a very capable right-back, while Kieran Tierney would be a sensational acquisition at left-back. Those two should be of the required standard to play full-back in a league-winning team.

Arsenal are not going to win the Premier League. They are not even going to challenge for it. But with some excellent business this summer, they have assembled the foundations of a team that could, one day, challenge Liverpool and Manchester City at the sharp end of the league.

This is not a title-winning team. Not yet. But there are some wonderful pieces to build around, and Raul Sanllehi and his band of merry transfer men deserve credit for that.