With that said, mention has to go to Theo Walcott for his first ever hat-trick for Arsenal on Saturday. Coming into the season, many had written Walcott off after he was dropped from the England World Cup team. I had thought that this would effect him as his moral would be low but he seems to have picked himself up well and delivered a great performance on Saturday. But let us not get carried away, he is still not a world class player in my opinion but he has the potential. Before his hat-trick I heard many Arsenal fans say that Walcott just has lots of pace and at time does not know what to do with the pace. He will beat a player but then put in a poor cross or woeful finish.

So my question to you fellow Gooners today, what do you think of Walcott as a player? Does his hat-trick on Saturday make him world class? Do you believe he has what it takes to be out key man this season?

That had been suggestion that Arsene Wenger would be interested in signing Joe Cole. When I first heard that, I thought “not a bad move”. We could really do with a player of his abilities and he is an English player which we need if this UEFA rule comes into effect. But when I heard the kind of salary Cole wants, I was put off.

Now reports suggest Cole wants to join Manchester United and not Arsenal when early Cole was thought to want to come to Arsenal because we wants to stay in London.

What do you make of all this?

Deep down, as much as it hurts me, I think that Cesc is going to leave and join Barcelona this summer. If he does end up going we are going to need a new playmaker and reports suggest that Juan Roman Riquelme would love to join The Gunners.

Now, there is no doubting the natural talent Riquelme possesses. At one point, he was right up there with the best players in the world. He is 31 years old now and is currently playing for Boca Juniors. He may not have made the Argentina world cup squad but he is still a quality player in my opinion.

Now we know that Arsene is not a fan of buying players over 30 years, but I feel he could make an exception with Riquelme. We love to pass the ball at Arsenal and our style of play would be perfect for Riquelme. Riquelme may not have the fast legs to launch counter attacks but his passing will be the launch pad of our fast paced counters.

As Juan Roman Riquelme would be a free transfer, I am sure that there will be a host of Premiership squads who would be after his signature. But I am pretty sure that if Wenger says he wants Riquelme then the player would be more than happy to join Arsenal ahead of any other Premiership team.

Arsenal has to play in FA Cup, Premeir League and most favoured Champions League with some tough oppositions and with some not so tough. One thing that bothers me are the back to back matches against Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. I think it’s synonym for Arsenal to swim through a lava pool. Most of the Arsenal fans are suggesting Wenger to bring a striker to further strenghten the attack to make it easier for the gunners to pass this stage easily, but Wenger may have something else in mind. I won’t mind a new striker joining us who might be well experienced than Bendtner. Hope to the Arsenal that they pass this month with charm.

This post was submitted by mian.

Player ratings:
Almunia: 5.5 (Inconsistent form from this guy.)
Gallas: 6 (The way Tim Cahill escaped from him made me lose confidence in the defensive line.)
Vermaelen: 6 (Not his usual best.)
Traore: 6 (You can’t ask more from the third left back.)
Sagna: 6 (Most of the game he was in a battle with Pienaar.)
Denilson: 6.5 (Scoring a goal is the only good thing he did. I hope the injury is not serious.)
Diaby: 7 (The only player who was alive in the team.)
Ramsey: 5 (Good but needs more experience.)
Nasri: 5.5 (Bad passes, slowing the game down all the time.)
Arshavin: 6 (Woke up only the last 15 minutes.)
Eduardo: 7 (He had a good game.)

Subs:
Vela: 6 (Did okay the left side.)
Rosicky: 6.5 (Thank god he was not injured in this game!)
Merida: N/A

This post was submitted by MNB.

1- A new Goalkeeper:
Most of the season Almunia has failed to impress with his inconsistent performance, we did concede 10 goals from 20 goals as Goalkeeper mistakes, this is really a big percentage for a Top 4 goalkeeper. I don’t know if David James has these numbers but anyway my point is we need to do something about the goalkeeper. We have to sign a new one or maybe if Fabiansky can make the step up or maybe Almunia starts to show improvement before the end of January transfers. So if we are going to sign a keeper, I can see that Arsene Wenger prefers the goalkeeper to be old and have plenty of experience so in my head one name and that is Shay Given if he is available.

2- A new Center Back:
With Djourou out I can see we have three defenders (Vermaelen, Gallas and Silvester) because the fourth is useless (Senderos). Even when the three others are starting in the first team line-up, he can’t make it to the subs bench. I don’t know if he can make it to the reserves team seriously! I don’t know what is he good for? The best option is to sell him and bring someone else. I think Sol Campbell who has been training with us for last 3 months will be useful as a free agent.

3-A new Midfielder:
As a replacement to Song who will be out in January. Fabregas and Denilson both are injured so we have to see when they will come back and asses them how much the injuries affected them. In the worst scenario, we will buy but I really doubt it since Ramsey, Merida, Diaby, Song and Denilson have all improved and that they are quality players. The candidates that we might sign are: 1- Matuidi who we did chase last summer but Arsene Wenger decided to give Song, Denilson and Diaby a chance to prove their quality and they did it. 2-Felipe Melo, the player that we went on war with Juventus to sign. The good think about him is that he can play also as Center Back so it will be very good for the depth of the team. 3-Patrick Vieira, no comment about our old ex-captain because we don’t need one! This signing will help him so he can retire with us. If it comes down to me, I will choose Vieira even if he is not the same but he is the cheaper option and his presence will motivate the players. Also all we need is a player who will fill the gap until Song comeback.

4- A new Center Forward:
The Arsene Wenger dilemma, with RvP having a long term injury, Walcott and Bendtner out to half of January and Eduardo and Carlos Vela not performing well, it is obvious and clear that is the position we are suffering the most and we need to fix it very fast but meanwhile we are the best scoring team with 51goals from 19 games. There are a lot of candidates but still till now no names and nothing is clear. The best option is to wait for the return of Bendtner and Walcott to see how they are going to perform and also wait and give Eduardo and Vela more time. But I think either Henry or Carlton Cole should join us.

Arsene Wenger has never signed four in one transfer window so I don’t think the four signing will happen together but mostly it will be two signings and a striker is absolutely one of those two signings, and the other one maybe it is going a center back.

This post was submitted by MNB.

Player ratings:

Almunia:7 (Calm night for the goalkeeper not to much to do.)

Gallas:7 (Strong in the air and on the ground didn’t let anything happen.)

Vermaelen:7 (As usual consistent performance.)

Sagna:7 (Hard working in defence and offence.)

Traore:6.5 (Good performance overall. He looked much better than before.)

Song:8 (He had his own song and he scored his first goal of the season. What a way to end a year.)

Diaby:7.5 (Another great performance from the Frenchman. I hope he keeps performing great.)

Ramsey:8 (Wow, very pretty goal and one assist. Very good game from the 19 year old.)

Nasri:8 (Another great performance, an assist and his first goal in the league.)

Eduardo:6.5 (He is coming back but slowly. He looked much more confident after his goal.)

Arshavin:5.5 (Very tired. Had a great moment but he looks in another dimension.)

Sub

Rosicky:6 (Good game from the injury-prone player.)

Vela:N/a (Not enough time)

Eastmond:N/a (Not enough time)

This post was submitted by MNB.

This post was submitted by mian.

Edin Dzeko:
Age:23 years old
Nationality:Bosnian
Height:192cm
Club:Wolfsburg F.C.
CL:Cup-tied
Price:£25 million

Marouane Chamakh:
Age:25 years old
Nationality:Morrocan
Height:188cm
Club:Bordeaux F.C.
CL:cup-tied
Price:£7 million

Andre-Pierre Gignac:
Age:24 years old
Nationality:French
Height:187cm
Club:Toulouse F.C.
CL:not cup-tied
Price:£15 million

Carlton Cole:
Age:26 years old
Nationality:English
Height:191cm
Club:West Ham united
CL:not cup-tied
Price:£10 million

Adriano:
Age:27 years old
Nationality:Brazilian
Height:190cm
Club:Flamengo
CL:not cup-tied
Price:Free

Huntelaar:
Age:26 years old
Nationality:Dutch
Height:186cm
Club:AC Milan
CL:Cup-tied
Price:£10 million

This post was submitted by MNB.

This post was submitted by mian.