Have Arsenal been reduced to an average club now?

I didn’t get to watch too much of Malaysia XI Vs Arsenal on Tuesday. I was busy working; then I was in traffic and finally I went in to shoot Simba Super Soccer. When I went into the shoot the Gunners were down 1 – 0 but when I came out the game had ended 2-1 in favour of the Gunners. I have super analysts on @CarolRadull on twitter and they reliably told me that Arsenal had not played a good game at all. Of course new signings Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud have not travelled to the far East because they’re resting after the Euros.

Jack Wilshere is also still not fit enough to join the squad. I am still worried by how the Gunners are looking. Podolski and Giroud are both great players but are they likely to make the difference that Arsenal needs? No. We had 22 players take part in the Malaysia game and we were average; according to reports. Average is not going to cut it in any league next season. An article online last week had critics challenging Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal bosses to come clean and admit that Arsenal are now an average club competing for positions and not titles; just like the Evertons and Fulhams.

Harsh but not too far from the truth based. The positive though is that Wenger admits he isn’t done yet in as far as signings are concerned. I also think he shouldn’t be done in as far as dropping excess baggage is concerned as well. I will give my team the benefit of a doubt right now since the Malaysia game was the first real pre-season match so I’ll consider a warm up. We face Manchester City at 3pm Kenya time this afternoon and for me this will be a true test of our ability and of what to expect when the season starts. As for the Robin Van Persie saga; I just want it to end; either way, so that we can all move on. I don’t want this to be another Cesc Fabregas. If RVP is going, he needs to go now so that Wenger can re-arrange the front-line properly.

Manchester United and Liverpool haven’t been any more special in their pre-seasons though. They too are missing some players who participated in the Euros but a lot of new faces have been touring South Africa, China and the United States. And they too have been having a hard time with both clubs having drawn with South African and Canadian clubs respectively.

My question though is how seriously should we take pre-season games? Are they really to warm up or just to market your brand? I think the latter; and Manchester United are doing really well. Sign Shinji Kagawa, go play in China and selling a ka-billion jerseys. So smart. Why can’t Wenger be creative like that and get money to buy more top players or pay them better? We only seem to sign French and African players – no offense – but we don’t buy as many original jerseys as the Chinese do.

Either way let’s enjoy the pre-seasons as we await the start of the main event on the 18th of August. There is the little matter of the Olympics beginning today although women’s football began two nights ago. I am in Johannesburg hosting a show for the weekend; infact check it out tonight on Supersport 4 – the Gold Channel. I’m banking on either a Spain sweep or a Spain Vs Brazil final.

Talk to me on @CarolRadull on twitter