I wanted to write this article a long time back. But it got
delayed, as I couldn’t do much research. Here I would list all ex-Arsenal
players currently playing in EPL.
Right, so we start off with the list:
- Fabrice Muamba - DM (Bolton Wanderers)
- Ashley Cole - LB (Chelsea)
- Steve Sidwell - CM (Fulham)
- Philippe Senderos - CB (Fulham)
- Stuart Taylor - GK (Manchester City)
- Samir Nasri - AM/RW/LW (Manchester City)
- Gaël Clichy - LB (Manchester City)
- Kolo Touré - CB/RB (Manchester City)
- Emmanuel Adebayor - ST (Manchester City)
- Bradley Johnson - CM/LB/LW (Norwich City)
- Jay Bothroyd - ST (Queens Park Rangers)
- Armand Traoré - LB (Queens Park Rangers)
- Matthew Connolly - CB (Queens Park Rangers)
- Jermaine Pennant - RW (Stoke City)
- Matthew Upson - CB (Stoke City)
- Sebastian Larsson - RW (Sunderland )
- Leon Britton - CM (Swansea City)
- William Gallas - CB (Tottenham Hotspurs)
- David Bentley - RW/AM (Tottenham Hotspurs)
- Jerome Thomas - LW (West Bromwich Albion)
- Jamie O'Hara - CM (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
If you look
at the team you’ll find the demographics of the team area are:
- Goal Keeper - 1
- Centre Back - 5
- Left Back - 4
- Right Back - 1
- Defensive Midfielder -1
- Centre Midfielder -4
- Attacking Midfielder - 2
- Left Winger - 3
- Right Winger - 4
- Striker - 2
In total there are 21 players who were associated with
either Arsenal Academy or Arsenal’s first team. The count here shows 27, as I took
a leaf out of Boss and added utility position in my count above.
Now we can add players like Yossi Benayoun and Nicklas Bendtner in this list and you might
have a good enough team to play in EPL. Only drawback for me is that there is
no reserve goal keeper here. Also reserve Defensive midfielders are a miss and there is
only one Right Back. Well we can always loan Almunia or Fabianski for courtesy
and give first team experience to Frimpong. As far as Right Back discussion
goes, well I’ll make a Centre Back as Right Back ala Boss.
So my playing XI from
above 21 players would be:
First Team: Stuart
Taylor (GK), Toure (RB), Gallas (CB), Senderos (CB), Cole (LB), Britton
(DM), O’Hara (CM), Nasri (AM), Larsson (RW), Thomas (LW), Adebayor (ST)
Substitute: Clichy (LB), Upson (CB), Connolly (CB/RB), Muamba (CM), Bentley (AM), Pennant (RW), Bothroyd (ST)
In my opinion, this team has the capabilities to reach
Europa league. If I was there manager, then I would add 2 to 3 more signings
and I would be up and roaring to go. The main point here most of these players
are home grown and hence team fall under FA rules. Also the team size is less than
25!!!
Now I would like to highlight one and only one point. How
many players do we really miss? I think none. We
already have enough talent in our ranks and if I ever thought of having some
players from the above list, then I would have (not based upon our relation with them, just sheer talent) Adebayor, Toure, Cole and
maybe I could have taken my chance with Larsson too. All the other players are
good, but not Arsenal good!!!
If you like my article, then please follow me on Twitter
@OnTheGunPoint. Until next time, lets UTA!!!
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