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International Break Has Me Looking to YouTube For My Arsenal Fix

I don't hate a lot of things in the world. I save that dark, evil feeling for only the darkest and most evil things.

Among that list, sitting quite merrily at the top of it, is the absolute worst thing in the history of things. The infamous international break.

Being deprived of my weekly, occasionally semiweekly dose of Arsenal most certainly brings withdrawal symptoms. The main one - the most agonising boredom a human being can possibly experience. No matter what I try and do to escape this dullness, it always manages to cling on to me the way Liverpool fans cling on to their history.

The only way for me to temporarily get away from the pain of enduring an Arsenal-less weekend is to scour Youtube for any scrap of Arsenal content. This means I usually end up watching compilations.

One time, I got so incredibly desperate that I sat through an entire video of Carl Jenkinson's best moments. I will never know why I did that to myself.

Fortunately, this international break has so far been soothed with compilations of Mesut Ozil reminding me just what he is capable of. While I'm still royally pi*sed off about Arsenal's utter stupidity in the transfer market, I've slowly started to regain a faint whisper of hope.

The videos of our German maestro that I watched showed the hard work that he does throughout the match to get in good positions and play inch-perfect balls through to our attackers. Watching these positions and passes being wasted on Olivier Giroud was painful. While I'm aware of his decent goal record for the club, in front of our midfield that should be the bare minimum.

The man, as gorgeous as he is, runs like the wind. In case you hadn't noticed, the wind doesn't run.

And though I still think we could have done quite a lot better than Welbeck, I do believe that he's good enough to outscore Giroud. If Wenger finally locates his shit and then gets it together by playing Ozil in the middle of a 4-2-3-1, Welbeck could flourish up front. While he may not have the greatest scoring record of all time, his pace mixed with a reasonable amount of strength make him a threat.

Welbeck has the characteristics of Sanogo that I admire, in his movement, hold-up play, and strength in the air, but he's also able to score a goal without having to be spoon-fed one. On top of that, he's shown he's not afraid to try and beat his man with dribbling.

The more I picture it, the more confident I become that he can be big for us. Even though he may not have that killer instinct that we've so badly needed since van Persie left, he's still got the traits and potential to thrive. Do I expect him to be a 30-goal a season striker? Not straight away, no. However, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him getting 20 or so, while Ozil's assist numbers rise.

Another compilation I watched to calm my anxiety had Theo Walcott as its focus. Oh, how we've missed that man. I keep forgetting about him, too.

For much of his time at Arsenal, he was a bit like Ryo Miyaichi. His pace was electrifying, but that was about it. He wasn't particularly special at anything else. Now, though, he's turned into Mesut Ozil's wet dream. That speed that made his name has now been met by a striker's instinct and winger's dribbling ability. I absolutely cannot wait to see him latching onto one of Ozil's sexy through balls again.

In a few weeks' time, when Theo returns, Arsenal will have one of the most interesting, if not exciting, attacks in the country. I'm really looking forward to watching them all link together, with Theo, Alexis, Santi, Ozil, and Ramsey all proven talents, and Welbeck, Chamberlain, Joel, and Wilshere all "wildcards." No one really knows what they're capable of yet, and that's what makes them so exciting.

Now, I should add that none of this masks the fact that we only have three central defenders. This horse has been dead for about a week now, and I don't really want to beat it anymore, but I still can't get over how ridiculous that is. While all this progress has been made on the attacking side of things, which is great, we still lack the infamous holding midfielder that I believe would solve so many of our problems, and a fourth choice centre back that isn't Nacho Monreal.

At the end of the day, while both are talented, the prospect of having he and Chambers play together in the middle of defense with Debuchy and Bellerin playing fullback is a terrifying one. All it would take for that to happen is for Mertesacker to pick up a knock and for Koscielny to do that thing he does where he gets a red card for no apparent reason.

I'm no fortune teller, but I have a feeling we'll see Isaac Hayden feature at some point this season, be it at centre back or as a holding midfielder. It'll be interesting to see how he fares, and whether or not he's capable of being our fourth choice centre back ahead of Monreal. Julio Pleguezuelo also signed a professional contract last season, so we could be watching him at some point.

Ultimately, I'm still disappointed. I still think our transfer business was irresponsible and badly thought out. I still think we'll face a struggle to make it to fourth this season. And I still think Wenger is treading on thin ice. However, I'm not going to give up just yet. There's still reason to look forward to this season, and I'll be screaming for the Arsenal throughout, just like always.

No matter what my logic tells me, I can't help but be slightly excited for what's to come.

Till next time, enjoy yourselves and don't do anything you'll regret in this brief lack of good football. Stay safe, kids.

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Tags: Arsenal FC, Walcott, Goonersphere, Özil, Arsenal Football Club, Welbeck

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