Following on from my article on Arsenal's situation back on the 12th August, I thought it was only right to give my opinion on Arsene Wenger's eventual business in the transfer window and the games that have taken place since.
Firstly, it has to be said that the club came through what was their most important challenge, defeating Udinese to qualify for the Champions League, impressively. Udinese showed themselves to be a very good team across the two legs, but when it mattered most, in the second half of the second leg, Wojciech Szczesny, Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott all proved that the Gunners still have some big characters in their team.
However, it was the league matches that meant the alarm bells were constantly ringing for the Emirates faithful. A dire 0-0 draw with Newcastle followed by an even worse 0-2 home defeat to Liverpool were bad enough, but the panic button was finally hit with an unbelievable 8-2 drubbing at the hands of Manchester United.
Arsenal's biggest defeat in 115 years really did force Wenger into action in the transfer market, and in my opinion he has bought wisely. Three weeks ago I wrote that he needed to add a goalkeeper, two defenders, one midfielder and another forward to the squad, all of which need to be experienced and not youth players.
Apart from the goalkeeper (and to be fair Szczesny looks like he could make the grade), Wenger had done all this and more, bringing in not one, but two midfielders. Per Mertesacker at 26, Andre Santos at 28, Mikel Arteta at 29, Yossi Benayoun at 31 and Park Chu-Young at 26 are all experienced professionals, and just what Wenger's squad was in desperate need of.
Chu-Young is captain of a successful South Korea team and has taken the number 9 shirt at Arsenal, while he is no prolific goalscorer he has the potential to be a great foil for van Persie. Arteta and Benayoun have both performed in the Premier League well for years. The concerns would be that Arteta has been injury prone during his time at Everton and Benayoun has just come off the back of an injury-hindered season at Chelsea. However, if both can stay fit then the young Arsenal midfield of Alex Song, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey will have some experienced midfield team-mates to look up to and learn from. At the back, arguably where Arsenal needed strengthening the most, Santos and Mertesacker look to be just what was required. The former has won trophies with Flamengo, Corinthians and Fenerbahce as well as caps for Brazil, while the latter has amassed an impressive 75 caps for the ever-consistent German national team.
While the Arsenal squad is still by no means capable of winning the Premier League title, it now looks competitive enough to challenge Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur for 4th place, and I would in fact reinstate them as my favourites for the position. In the immediate aftermath of the massacre at Old Trafford, I believed without serious strengthening, they would struggle to even make 6th place. However, while Wenger certainly left it very late, he has strengthened the squad sufficiently, with not just talent, but experience. The club certainly still have a number of issues to overcome, including the indiscipline which has seen three red cards in as many league games this season, and a steelier style of play may be required to get the team through certain away fixtures. Mertesacker, for one, should be able to help in that department.
Elsewhere in the transfer market, Chelsea's late move for Raul Meireles, in addition to the signing of Juan Mata may well see them challenge the Manchester duo for the title after all, although their squad still appears to be one very much in transition. It may well be the 2012-13 season when we see Andre Villas-Boas really show off his ability as a manager.
At the other end of the table, some shrewd signings from QPR certainly make them a much stronger team and the additions of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Joey Barton amongst others would certainly give them a better chance of survival than had previously been expected.
Fulham were also active on deadline day with the additions of Bryan Ruiz and Zdenek Grygera which should see them pushing for a top-half finish.
It will be interesting to see how Nicklas Bendtner settles in at Sunderland after a spell in North London which has never matched the size of his ego. Stoke City will also be hoping their additions of Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios and Cameron Jerome see them finish comfortably in the top half, all three players would appear to fit Tony Pulis' style of play.
Tottenham did well to sign Scott Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor, but their biggest victory was in keeping Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart, all of whom had been linked with moves away last season and throughout the summer. Whether they can hold on to Modric, in particular, longer than January may well depend on their league form between now and then. A repeat of the 5-1 home defeat to Manchester City will definitely not be on Harry Redknapp's agenda.
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