Gunners No Longer Have To Rely On Robin

It's fair to say that last season was a campaign to remember for Arsenal and Holland striker Robin van Persie.

The frontman found the net a remarkable 37 times in all competitions for his club, many of his goals being match winners which propelled the Gunners into the Champions League places after an atrocious start to a season which included an 8-2 defeat away at Manchester United.

van Persie has been in the form of his career

Manager, Arsene Wenger will be looking to tie down his talismatic forward to a long term deal; the likes of Juventus and Manchester City are reported to be interested in the player who has just 1 year left on his current contract.

Wenger, renowned for buying unknown players or not spending much money on players has brought in reinforcements as the north London side look at a possible assault on the Premier League after over 7 years without a trophy.

German star Lukas Podolski has joined from Cologne along with highly rated France international hitman Olivier Giroud  from Ligue 1 Champions Montpellier - Wenger seems to be finally using money from the sales of Cesc Fabregas (below, left) and Samir Nasri (below, right) last Summer to add reinforcements to his Arsenal ranks.



Podolski is an attacker that can play on the left or just behind the striker(s) and has got a goal or two in him as England found out in the Fifa World Cup 2010 in South Africa as Podolski scored the second goal in the 4-1 thumping at the last 16 stage.

THINGS LUK-ING UP: Podolski joined Gunners

For Giroud, it was only four years ago that his career really took off; a 1:2 goal ratio for Ligue 2 side Tours alerted the attention of clubs before Montpellier snapped him up for a mere £1.8m.  It proved to be a worthy investment for the French club as two years and one French League title later, they cashed in on the player that finished Ligue 1's top scorer with 21 goals,  a £12m deal was struck between the two sides.

Will Giroud be up front with or without van Persie?

With the likes of Gervinho, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also staking their claim for a place in the Arsenal attack, Wenger finally has options up top.

Gone are the glory days of "The Invincibles"; Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires and Co have all moved on but possibly, the next bunch could be just around the corner?!

ALL SMILES: Wenger could re-live the success

Maybe that seven year trophy drought will be over soon...

Until next week...