ansene wenger

By winning the prestigious English FA Cup in May, Arsene Wenger silenced some vicious critics that accused Arsenal of putting the financial health of the club ahead of winning trophies.

Even with the FA Cup trophy in the bag, some still mocked, saying the win was just a flash in the pan.

At the weekend, Wenger led his troops to victory over League champions Manchester City in the season opening Charity Shield at Wembley Stadium by an emphatic 3-0 margin. It was rated a five-star performance by the experts.

Note must be made though that Manchester City fielded a practically experimental team due to absence of their World Cup players, but Arsenal too were missing their German World Cup stars.

So, what can we expect from this Arsenal this year and is their hope for more trophies?

Wenger was relatively aggressive in the transfer market this year, nabbing the highly rated Chilean international and Barcelona winger Alexis Sanchez. In my opinion, a very good buy and a player that will add more steel and bite to Arsenal's attack.

Sanchez just seems to love playing in England. For those who are unaware, not only did he show class over the weekend against Manchester City (in my opinion he was one of Arsenal's best players on the night) but he practically ran rings all around the English national team's defence as Chile beat England at Wembley in a World Cup preparations friendly earlier this year.

Arsenal fans should expect more from him and we dare not forget that Theo Walcott is gradually working his way back to fitness. We can only salivate at the danger and problems this duo will cause rival defences when they play together.

Defensively Arsenal lost Bacary Sagna to Manchester City, which propelled Wenger to go shopping and he bought French international Mathieu Debuchy as replacement.

Having now officially lost Thomas Vermaelen to Barcelona (though he was no longer a fully-fledged regular in the last campaign) Arsenal need to do something defensively or they could struggle...

Although Arsenal's defence shows some promise, I still feel there are frailties in their set-up. I am not convinced that Mikel Arteta can effectively give cover to the central defence all alone without constant help -- even more so when the offensive minded Mesut Ozil comes back into the fold.

The central defence also has a speed 'worry' and either Wenger will have to adapt to compensate for this or, who knows, since he is in a rare buying mood, we might not be wrong to suggest to him a new acquisition in this sector.

Winning titles, no matter what kind of title, is a great morale booster for any team as it builds huge confidence in a team, the individual players, fans and, most of all, the technical crew.

Having added this season's opening trophy to their shelve not only gives fans much sought-after bragging rights, but we should expect it to also make them more patient in their exigencies towards Arsene Wenger and the club. The eventual serenity can only offer us a much better Arsenal.

In all we should expect, if their defence is improved, a more audacious and ambitious play from Arsenal this season with optimism for better results.

The season could not have started any better for Arsenal. The Premiership is back!

MANCHESTER UNITED NEED MORE THAN AN ANGEL

Just two games into the English Premier League and Manchester United are five points (synonymous to two competitive league games) behind league leaders Tottenham, Chelsea, Swansea and Manchester City.

It is official, Manchester United, who are in desperate need to stop the freefall that has befallen their season debut, has agreed to buy World Cup 2014 Argentine star Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid for an English record fee of £60 million.

When a top team struggles, it is mostly either due to philosophical deficiencies (ie who does what, when, where and how) or personnel problems (lack of quality players in certain key positions).

The worst scenario is when a team suffers from both deficiencies. Is that the case with Man United? Is it too early to know? And is the purchase of 'Angel' Di Maria enough to stop the freefall?

Just weeks ago as Man U marched on in style at their pre-season matches, few would have thought the present situation possible as they beat the likes of Real Madrid and Liverpool to win the pre-season US tournament.

Unfortunately, I feel the premature success at this pre-season tournament helped mask the vacuums and weaknesses in the Man U set-up and did not help hammer in the desperate need for personnel reinforcement.

The situation is far from unsolvable and, in fact, we should take caution in shouting 'fire' as we have seen teams that started the season with as much as nine points behind still come back to win it all!

So far Man United have lost points to relatively smaller teams (even though Swansea are joint first at the moment) and one cannot help but wonder how Louis Van Gaal's wards will manage competition from the big guns like Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City.

Angel Di Maria will definitely give them an extra bite up front; he is fast, technical, eliminates opponents with ease, takes on responsibility, is left-footed, scores goals and is physically good enough to effectively do attacking and defending duties on a world class level. He is also coming off one of the best periods in his career (Champions League success with Real Madrid and an exceptional World Cup in Brazil).

He is definitely worth every penny to a team like Man United who today, though they have one of the best coaches in the world in Louis Van Gaal, lack creativity.

However, unfortunately after losing top defenders like Vidic, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand, Angel Di Maria's arrival will not solve this defensive crisis that currently haunts Man U.

Defensively Man United are wanting and for a team to be top and dominant, it needs to have a very solid defensive framework, strong enough to not only withstand all kinds of attacks thrown at them but inspire fear in the opponent. Enough fear to discourage attacks and give the whole team enough confidence to attack without fearing what happens when they lose possession. At the moment they fear!

Manchester United fans must be worried that they will have to once again relive the dreadful season that they had last season under David Moyes (albeit that some fans chanted "we want Moyes Back" as Man U drew with Sunderland at the weekend).

However, in Van Gaal they should be rest assured that they have a better manager than last season but let's just hope that the marriage and his philosophy will work out...

Manchester United need to improve their personnel. They need to add more defenders to the Di Maria transfer and maybe tweak their defensive team philosophy to have a better network when not in possession.

Yes, Man U have both philosophical and personnel problems and that is a sign of disaster waiting to happen.

Angel Di Maria is here to strengthen Man United, but to run up the ladder in a hurry as Man United need to do, they need more than just this "Angel"!