After a wonderful final few months of last season, Arsenal found themselves in some sort of a title race last season. Albeit a race where the other runner had a giant head start and was never in any danger of losing.

Next season, however, Arsenal will not be starting from so far back. After having put in some stellar performances last season - for example beating Man City in such a pragmatic display at the Etihad - Arsenal put to bed the ghosts of the early form that saw them start from so far behind Chelsea and Manchester City. They’ve made progress and have carved out their very own upward curve, and surely they’re still on that curve. They won’t be going back to the pre-Christmas Arsenal.

And that’s because they’re continuing to make progress. Petr Cech represents real progress at the club in an area where they’ve been lacking, pretty much since the departure of Jens Lehmann.

Wenger has quietly added strength in all areas of the pitch too. He has more or less two players for every position and there’s a lot of competition in the squad. Attackers like Welbeck and Giroud will battle it out for the strikers role. Welbeck can also play wide and has competition from Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain as well as Sanchez. Ozil and Cazorla will fight for the playmaker position. Ramsey and Wilshere face competition from Arteta and Rosicky. There are four good full backs vying for two spots and four centre backs battling to start too.

The only position where Arsenal still need to strengthen is in the defensive midfield position.

There was so much talk of Khedira and Schneiderlin to Arsenal. Khedira definitely won’t happen as he’s at Juve and Schneiderlin probably won’t happen either as that rumour has cooled quite a bit since last summer.

But in reality that’s not quite what Arsenal need. Khedira is a silky smooth player and would have fitted in really well. But he’s far from a midfield destroyer - he’s more akin to Ramsey and Wilshere than he is to Patrick Vieira for example. Scnheiderlin is a little more of a solid midfield force, but he too is a passer. Again, he’d fit in well with what Arsenal have already, but that’s not what they’re lacking as such.

What they’re lacking is steel, someone to help out the technical passers that they already have in their team. What Arsenal need is a new Patrick Vieira, someone to help out defensively but also join in the attacks with power and guile.

And if Wenger gets that then he’ll really have a team to be feared.

The talk of a marquee signing for Gonzalo Higuain or some great attacking name is laudable of course. Wenger seems to like making one big signing a season - Ozil, Sanchez - but this time he doesn’t need a striker. It’d be great to have one, but Giroud is one of the most prolific around and showed his worth a lot last season. He seems to have added goals - 14 Premier League goals after having broken your leg in the same season is no mean feat.

Arsenal haven’t been a million miles away from doing well over the last few years, and two trophies in two years - retaining the FA Cup - shows that they’re getting closer. The possess star quality and explosivity with players like Sanchez and Ozil, and they’re bringing in vast experience with their Petr Cech signing.

When you add that to the strength in depth that the Gunners now hold in their squad it’s clear that they’re only maybe one signing away from a full tilt at the league title. Next season could really be the year that Arsenal finally come out of the darkness of the last 10 years and become a team to be feared again.

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