As far as recent shocks go in Premier League history, Arsenal’s opening day defeat to West Ham United at home was up there.
Not only because the Hammers don’t typically fair well against the Gunners but simply born out of the fact that many were believing Arsene Wenger’s men were the real deal this season – or they were meant to be.
Still of course capable of going toe-to-toe with the early pace setters Manchester City with 33 Premier League fixtures left to contest this season, the 2-0 loss was rather strange for any Gooner to comprehend.
With Wenger’s men having enjoyed a fine pre-season, having signed Petr Cech and at the time looking like they might go on to sign a few missing jigsaw pieces with the window still open, not to mention having beaten Chelsea in the FA Community Shield, the West Ham loss totally took the wind out of Arsenal fans’ sails, leaving them feeling well, empty.
In fairness to the Gunners, they’ve managed to grind out some important away wins at Crystal Palace and Newcastle United since that forgettable day while easily dispatching of Stoke City at the weekend but a few of our neutrals are questioning today just how far Arsenal can go this season.
Starting a fresh Champions League campaign tomorrow evening, Arsenal will know they simply have to get further than the round of the last sixteen this campaign having fell at this hurdle for the last five seasons in a row.
For a club the size of Arsenal, succeeding on four fronts will depend on the majority of the squad staying fit and only today, we heard that Jack Wilshere has suffered his umpteenth injury setback in his career.
With Arsenal needing to dig deep to fight on four fronts again this season, they can’t afford to carry any passengers and that’s why we’re using today to list five Gunners stars who we think are deemed overrated.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 most overrated Arsenal players in the current squad.
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Kieran Gibbs
Nowhere near the opinion splitting levels of Olivier Giroud, it is still true that Kieran Gibbs is another Arsenal player who divides thoughts amongst the Gunners fanbase.
Seen by the vast majority of Gooners as one of the many success stories of the Arsenal academy, Gibbs is often held in high regard with few being so willing to criticise his performances but since making his professional debut back in 2007, has he really progressed at the rate he was expected to do so?
Now firmly a second choice at left back behind the now extremely consistent Nacho Monreal, Gibbs will need to impress whenever he gets an opportunity in order to get back into the team but to sum it up, Monreal seems to give far less away than Gibbs who is at times a bit too lightweight.
Having only won eight senior international caps with England to boot, this tells you all you need to know about the player not being deemed better than the likes of Leighton Baines and Luke Shaw by Roy Hodgson.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
You often hear Arsenal fans, pundits and over excited England fans absolutely raving about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain but in reality, he still isn’t one of the first names down on Arsene Wenger’s teamsheet, week in, week out.
Don’t get us wrong, he’s a supremely talented young footballer but he’s never really achieved a consistent run in Arsenal’s first team as an indispensable cog simply because he struggles to find consistency in his own performances.
The former Southampton man can be sublime one week and totally anonymous the next it seems and when talking to people about their opinions on Oxlade-Chamberlain, many seem to overlook the fact he really seems to struggle with consistency in his game.
Mesut Ozil
Arsenal fans will immediately tut at the fact that Mesut Ozil has undoubtedly improved in the last six months or so after a slow start to life at Emirates Stadium but be honest, when you forked out £42.5 million for the German international, did you really expect him to take so long to adapt to English football?
The likes of Alexis Sanchez have proved that bedding in periods are only for those players who aren’t determined enough to find their best performances much quicker.
In Ozil, Arsenal fans usually wax lyrical about him because lets face it, he is a huge star in world football but when watching him on a week-to-week basis, like Oxlade-Chamberlain he is simply scintillating one week and a passenger the next, and how frustrating is this?
He is becoming more consistent as time goes on but being Arsenal’s all-time record signing, we just think Ozil should be delievering for the Gunners most weeks – and in the big top four battles to boot – given his age and experience.
Joel Campbell
This man is a controversial choice in this countdown given the fact that some claim Joel Campbell is underrated given Arsene Wenger rarely chooses to give him an opportunity in the first team.
Nevertheless, we’re going with overrated because you often hear Arsenal fans claim that Campbell worked wonders in the World Cup for Costa Rica – which he did – with these same supporters often choosing to end their conversations about the player right there.
In truth, Campbell has barely figured for Arsenal at club level since last summer’s tournament and this must be for a reason other than simply being unlucky at not being picked by Wenger.
If anything, Wenger sometimes trusts his players a bit too much and having been such a staunch advocate of giving younger players a go in his first team, we think Campbell must simply not be up to scratch in training otherwise the Arsenal boss would’ve given him more game time.
Of course, he plays on the flanks where Arsenal have an embarrassment of riches but considering he was all set to move to Turkish football ahead of Arsenal not managing to sign a striker this past transfer window, we think Arsenal fans still rate him a bit too highly.
Jack Wilshere
We all know about the talent Jack Wilshere possesses; just unfortunately enough for fans of both Arsenal and England, we haven’t seen as much of it as we would’ve liked.
The question to ask yourselves regarding the Wilshere debate is whether the player himself has really gone on to develop and progress much beyond that performance against Barcelona back in 2011.
Still the most memorable solo performance in his Arsenal career to date, that was a long time ago now and due to his repetitive injury troubles, he hasn’t been able to get back to those levels again.
Arsenal fans naturally gravitate towards their number 10 because he is one of them, an Arsenal supporter and someone who is a bit of a cheeky chappie but with his injury troubles worsening – as we heard earlier today – we think Gooners might have to readdress their kudos paid to the player who is now missing too many games each season.