At about 5pm on Tuesday 31^st August, a post was brewing about what the closure of the transfer window meant for Spurs without the signing of a big name striker.  Less than an hour later though, with just minutes to go before the end of the window, hints about the signing of Rafael Van der Vaart started to filter through. Not a striker, but certainly a big name attacking player.

           

Last night Fabio Capello named his England squad for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Switzerland and Bulgaria, the first competitive matches since the farce that was England’s World Cup campaign. But, rather than focus on the players who under-performed so spectacularly at the World Cup, it seems that one of the key topics for discussion over the weekend has been a certain Spaniard who has recently gained British citizenship – Mikel Arteta.

Focusing on Capello for a moment – we all had such high hopes for the summer in South Africa following a convincing qualifying campaign. However, it seems that even a man who has won things everywhere he has managed (including the highly pressurised environments of AC Milan and Real Madrid) was doomed to succumb to the pressure asserted by the media and the fans’ expectations, that has contributed to the downfall of every England manager of recent times. Is this pressure on England managers unfair? At times yes, but you do have to question a manager who claims to pick players on form and then regularly includes Emile Heskey in the first eleven.

Playing for a national team based solely on the nationality of a parent or grandparent is a trait we are familiar with in English football, but it seems playing based on citizenship is not.  Yet, English cricket and British tennis have benefited from this, as have other international football teams. Everyone remembers a Croatia side featuring Brazilian-born Eduardo playing a key role in getting them to Euro 2008 at England’s expense.

I’d suggest a big question that needs to be asked instead is - ‘Is Arteta good enough to be picked for England?’ Maybe he is, but I would argue that he still hasn’t recaptured the form he displayed before his long injury lay-off last year, and midfield is probably the position where England are strongest.

           

Whilst Arsenal might be one of the greatest attacking sides of the last decade, anyone who knows anything about football knows that it’s their defence that hinders their title hopes year after year. Last season Arsenal scored 83 goals which measured up respectively well to the 103 and 86 scored by Chelsea and Man Utd respectively. This year though Wenger openly admitted that his side’s defensive problem is hindering their future title challenges when he said “...I believe you don't win the title when you concede 40 goals."

This summer Arsenal saw the likes of experienced heads such as Gallas, Silvestre and Campbell leave the Emirates leaving Arsene with just one centre back at his disposal. Thomas Vermaelen played his way into the PFA team of the year last season after a very impressive first season in English football’s top flight but now needs a regular partner to inject some solidarity into Arsenal’s back four. The arrivals of Laurent Koscielny and Sebastian Squillaci, the return of Djourou from injury gives the Arsenal manager an array of options that will challenge for a starting IX berth. But will this be enough to solve the Gunners’ defensive issues?

Firstly, the new centrebacks give Wenger different options: Koscielny was well renowned at Lorient for his intercepting, anticipating and game reading skills and it’s not very Wenger-like to spend a reported 8-10 million on a player and not play him. Squillaci brings a wealth of experience of both winning titles with Lyon and impressive European campaigns with Lyon, Monaco and Sevilla. Lastly there’s the forgotten man Djourou, who is at the age where he needs to be playing regular first team football and after being sidelined for almost an entire season will have a thirst and desire to step up and show what he can do. His height could provide the aerial presence Arsenal have been missing in recent seasons.