As Arsenal’s striking options take a dent with the news of Olivier Giroud’s injury problems, Joel Campbell might well be a candidate to the fill the gap, at least in the short-term.
With Yaya Sanogo having missed the last two games through injury, his participation in tomorrow night’s Champions League qualifier is uncertain, leaving Campbell and Alexis as the Arsene Wenger’s most viable options.
And the young Costa Rican is determined to make the most of the chances he’s given so he can prove his worth to the Arsenal manager.
Speaking to the official site, he said, “I performed well with my national team at the World Cup – the fans could see what I am capable of. Now it’s time for me to prove my qualities, I have to work hard during training and make the most of any single opportunity the manager may give me.”
Campbell, who scored 10 goals for club and country last season, is under no illusions that he’s got a big job on his hands.
“I’m at a very competitive club with many top-class players in the squad. You have to work really hard even to stay on the bench, let alone to get a spot in the line up.
“It has been three years on loan at different clubs but finally now I can settle in here. I want to prove what I am capable of.
“Arsenal has great players and the kind of football we play suits my style.”
Good luck. You’ll need it
The important thing tomorrow is no matter whoever takes to the field uptop against Besiktas is as supporters we support that man to the hilt throughout those 90 mins.
‘You’ll need it’ — what a dick.
Who is a bigger cunt??
Nasri??
Terry??
Maureen???
All a bit tedious this ‘XXX is a cunt’ stuff. We get it, you like getting thumbs up, but how about commenting on the actual story?
Hear Hear…
However
Maureen, Terry and then Nasri
This reply made me want to both up-vote it for the answer and down-vote it for the continued engagement in unrelated ‘banter’ if you will. What did I do? I’ll keep that to myself. 😀
He certainly says all the right things. Hopefully he can reproduce some of his WC form.
I wonder if Wenger will hold onto Podolski for Wednesday night and let him go after – I don’t think CL qualifiers count towards being cup-tied for another side…
i am pretty sure thay do…
I’m certain they dont count.
That became apparent when the Vermaelen transfer was being talked over.
Don’t count. Could still be moved if we’re able to bring someone in.
At least Campbell has Champions League experience and think he can hit the ground running. We still need to get someone in though
Go on son show them what you’ve gat. I always believe in you…COYG!
I don’t think Campbell is a very good option up top. We need a big strong and a mobile striker. Either someone young or at the last few years of his carrier to cover the 3 months. Someone like Conner Wickham or Samuel Eto’o could be a good option.
I’d take Campbell over both of them…
eto’o is a cunt and well past his best
Eto’o? No way. Would rather go with Campbell.
Deserves a chance, but we would be foolish to rely on a player so young and still raw at this for a prolonged period. Either way we have what we have for Wednesday!
No pressure on Joel, but think Fabregas and Courtois, these guys thrived under the pressure when they were given a chance early on. We need to give Joel a chance to find out what he’s made of. If it doesn’t work, Walcott and Alexis can do a job up front. Alexis will adapt, seems like he needs a couple of games to get his bearings.
“No pressure on Joel, but think Fabregas and Courtois, these guys thrived under the pressure when they were given a chance early on. We need to give Joel a chance to find out what he’s made of.”
Yes, it’s possible (but unlikely) to win the lottery if you keep playing.
I’m expecting a deluge of “NOT GOOD ENOUGH” diatribe headed his way before he even starts a game in anger. From the tidbits of him I’ve seen, he doesn’t look to have enough about him to warrant a future with the club, but I’m at least hopeful he’ll suprise me, starting against Besiktas.
Having said all that, I fully expect Alexis to get another start. Remember all that “easily one of the best forwards in the world” talk when we signed him? What happened to that?
Bergkamp and Henry were absolute cat (from an output point of view) in their first few games… both billed as flops…
Joel hasn’t had any kind of chance to show his potential – maybe that’s down to the managers system, his training, his attitude or simply his place in the pecking order of a star studded attack.
Henry…lol
In his debut, he was fielded on the left as a sub. He had the ball, and he did this dribble, looked up confused, dribbled again, looked up and the ball went out on the touch line. I was livid and wondered what’s wrong with Wenger etc etc (cut and paste troll speak)
But I ate delicious humble pie at the end of the day. So I will never sell Wenger short until I am absolutely certain.
Whoa, infectious determination!
Off topic but its nearing end of August so will Walcott be fit enough to be on the bench on Wednesday? I don’t think he wull make the bench before Leicester but I just wanted to know if there are any updates about Theo?
‘The Arsene Wenger’ as the article so graciously calls him said he will be back in full training end of august/early september. Probably won’t be match fit until october
yeah, especially considering that players like him who rely a lot on agility and that burst of pace, cannot perform well untill they are at their maximum physically.
He’s not back in training yet so no. I’d wager he’ll be in contention by the end of October.
He is going to be the best addition. to Arsenal this season.
Unless it’s in a 4-4-2 setup, I fear he may struggle. As much as people moan about Giroud missing chances, he proved once again at the weekend how pivotal his qualities are to the current system. We’ve tried Walcott, Podolski and Sanchez in that role – it doesn’t work.
It worked briefly with Gervinho.
So well that he was sold a few months later. 2 Premier league goals in a drubbing of a newly promoted team isn’t conclusive. Especially when the next Premier League Goal takes 6 months.
You are assuming that the formation failed Gervinho which was why he was sold.
I am suggesting that Gervinho failed in that formation which was why he was sold.
You can disagree, but at this point we are just running past one another.
You have just reinforced my point that we don’t have, and haven’t had, another player with the qualities of Giroud to work in the current formation. Whether it’s the failure of the player or the formation it’s all the same result. It fails.
It’s much, much too soon to declare that playing Sanchez there doesn’t work. It may well work in the (near) future, once the team has gotten used to a smaller more mobile player there, and Sanchez has gotten used to the team. And it may well be that getting used to it is what we’re going to be doing over the next three months. After all, Wenger has clearly wanted to get a different type of forward from the big strong guy that Giroud is for a while now. He did try to sign Suarez last year after all, and… Read more »
IMO we’ve got a truckload of attackers who aren’t centre forwards, rather they’re all capable of playing, and would be better, in a Bergkamp No. 10 role. We really, really need a traditional No. 9 in the team. Sort that and I think the unbalance in the team (no real DM) will be overcome by the fighting spirit we’ve shown so far this season. COYG!
Giroud’s injury is not good news by any stretch of the imagination. Campbel is a squad player at best — though I believe he will develop under Wenger into a very good forward. However, in the mean time, we need to sign an out and out striker to compete. I watched the city game yesterday and the need for fire power was glaring. That was the difference between City and Pool. Alongside a striker, we also need a DM and another CB. In summary, we need a minimum of 3 signings between now and Monday to stand any chance in… Read more »
I play For my local pub team sometimes on Sunday’s and its always been my dream to play as a striker for Arsenal, but must admit at 33 i’d almost given up…but now I’m not so sure? the way it’s going I might be their only option, Arsene if your reading my number is 078303243**
If Arsene is reading the comments here instead of focusing on the game ahead, I’d be really worried
I don’t like saying this but the necessity for a striker addition has increased with Giroud’s injury. This is along with the DM addition. Don’t know how much financial layout has been set aside for the same. If it’s Carvalho (or Kadria or similar), it would be a big layout and understandably depend on the CL proper qualification. However with Giroud’s injury, we probably can’t make do with an understudy like Sanogo, we would need at a min a good backup (like Remy) or even an improvement on Giroud, which will need a significant layout. Hence, if Wenger is not… Read more »
We need to sign a player that can come in hit the ground running and score goals for us because if we seriously want to compete for anything we obviously need goals. As the blog said it doesnt look like arsenal players are used to the system of alexis as the CF and we have no walcott ATM either. Personally i dont really see cavani leaving P$G. Falcao seems to be keen on joining Real and if that means benzema leaves then ofc he could be a target and its been well recorded that arsene is a fan of him.… Read more »
Providing we qualify for the CL we have £70-80million per season of surplus revenue over each of the next 5 summers with around £120million available in the bank.
Sir chips has said we could buy any player.
Gazidis has said we could do some things which would excite you, but what excites you and what excites Arsene might be two entirely different things.
Arsene’s squad planning, indecisiveness, lack of ruthless edge and unwillingness to pay what needs to be paid to put us where we need to be is now holding us back as a club.
Everybody is entitled to his or her opinion. It would shock u guys Campbell will flourish in girouds absence and wenger would only buy a dm and cb
It would absolutely amaze me if Campbell came in and hit the level of Diego Costa, Dzeko, Aguero that cunt who used to play for us but now plays for Utd.
This is what we’re supposed to be competing with but no one’s told Arsene
I’ve got high hopes for this lad, wishing mr Wenger will play him more.
Can’t see Arsene buying a forward despite the injury to giroud or the fact we may sell podolski. It’s not about panic buying either we have needed another quality striker for the past two seasons so all this bolox about few strikers being available doesn’t really stand up. If no one comes in then this lad could well be a very good alternative if he’s given the time he will need. He worked his nuts off the other day and his first touch looked very good. I have more faith in this kid than I do sonogo just hope Arsene… Read more »
I don’t agree that Campbell and Alexis are Wenger’s most viable options for Besiktas….Podolski has more experience, more goals, more games, and knows his team mates so much better.
Poldi all day long.
I’m not sure Podolski has that much more experience, goals and games as a lone striker than Campbell to be honest.
Indeed. If Poldi doesn’t start tomorrow, he’s definitely either injured or leaving, as he is the most obvious choice. I really hope I see him starting up front. He hasn’t been all that great there in the past, but like you said: He is still the best option we have, given our current list of injuries.
50 plus games….The numbers don’t add up when you look at what we have up front, unless Wengers plan is to rely on midfield to find the back of the net. As much as I hate the puss Mourinwhore is spot on when he states to get through two cups and the bel you have to have 3 world class strikers on board?
Campbell is a wee bit lazy…..i have observed he doesn’t like to be in these deeper areas defending! he would rather be upfront waiting to launch an attack ( is that lazy or over-zealous?)
Also gets irritated when his teammates don’t pass to him when he asks for the ball ………otherwise the boy is going places
From the footage I have watched he has a lethal left foot reminds me of robbie fowler and rvp. Plus he is faster than either of them. When he came on at Everton I noticed from the stand that straight away one of the everton players tried to get physical with him and bounced off him, with campbell looking down at them lieing on the floor. So strong also.
Hoping for more signing in the window.
Standby for Wenger telling us that L’Oreal has just a ‘small small problem” which means we don’t need to buy anyone. So small, he doesn’t play again til the end of November
Gonzalo Higuaín was the only reason we didn’t win the PL last year.
And as much as I hope Campbell ends up scoring a lot of goals for us we can’t rely on hopes and wait for players to develop forever. If we do, we’ll end up selling Ramsey to a winning team as we’ve been doing for the past century with van cuntsie, cesc and even Thierry.
That being said, I don’t know who I’d sign.
Good luck to him. Hopefully he can step up and have a big impact in the coming weeks. I very much enjoyed watching him score in the champions league last year. On transfers.. I have a feeling Arsene will buy someone like Reus or make a similarly unexpected addition that nobody thinks we need, but who will lift everyone at the club, very much like Ozil did last year. I think the calibre of players available will have more of an impact on who we end up with than where they play. An arguably strange approach but I think that… Read more »
to be honest, old as he is, if Eto’o was floating about looking for a club I’d give him some serious thought. He’s an experienced and clinical goal scorer. Having a bit of EPL football under his belt will benefit him. He did, as most do, take a little time to get anywhere with the Chelskis.
I’d put Pods there tonight, but give the kid a shot on Sunday. Can’t be worse than ‘Sanogood.
CONCACAF thunder!
I understand Wenger’s reluctance to buy a striker. Cavani and Falcao would cost 50+ and are on enormous wages. He just spent the last two years shedding the squad of mediocre players who were earning too much like lord bendtner. He doesn’t want to be saddled with another mediocre player he can’t move. Jackson Martinez would seem a like-for-like replacement but Porto are asking waaay to much for him.
Falcao may not cost as much as you think as Monaco have to shed.
Depends on whether RM are in the market.
Alternate challengers for him in Juventus cannot match us.
Also with regards wages, at 200K per month, it is 50K over our maximum on our wage scale.
Extrapolated over a 3 season contract, that is 2m extra which could be worked into an up front fee to player that will keep our wage structure intact.
A lot really depends on Madrid.
Cavanni looks a no go bc of injuries at PSG.
Also if RM does buy Falcao, they may be tempted to off load Benzema who has never been popular at the Bernebau.
We will beat Bekistas. Then we’ll sign Carvalho.
Stupid priority.
We need a Cback and a striker not a DM.
For the reported price of 22m quid, we could get other options that cost less plus it will deny us money needed to get a Cback and a striker of quality.
Really muddled reasoning. Dm is safe with Flamini and arteta. With a new Cback, Chambers will also be pushed into midfield which is what wenger has announced on at least two seperate ocassions.
Campbell should be played up top. Alexis is frankly not a CF and wasted in the position as he is better running at players and given more liberty in movement. The CF role is restrictive for him and does not afford us his best benefits. Campbell has played for Costa Rica in the position to good effect. he is able to hold the ball back to goal and has a good first touch plus he can add pace on the break. I think if Wenger does not find any quality for price in the market, he may risk Sanogo or… Read more »
… Yes, everyone agree that we need the Magic 3 … The CF, DM and CD but guys being realistic we might buy 2 of those, so I’ll prefer the defender and DM … That said just see the market and u will realize that Carvahlo guy at 35M is exaggerated (he’s not 1st choice in the national team yet, too raw ) … And the defender ? The Manolas guys is having a medical at Roma and was the half decent player out there … Don’t look so promising this week on transfers … But hey ! ..this is… Read more »
Joel deserves a chance in the first team. He has lot’s of CL experience, has been shunted all over the place and never once complained.
Besides even with Olly out, if we can’beat Besiktas at home with the rest of the team we don’t deserve to be in the CL anyway!
Campbell does have vital United beating experience… Mind you we could also just recall Afobe from his loan for that now