Jonathan Woodgate
Before signing for Tottenham in January, Woodgate checked with
Arsenal to see if Arsene Wenger wanted to follow up his
long-standing admiration with a firm bid. The cultured central
defender clearly fancied a move to the Emirates.
The only trouble was, Wenger had other ideas. Either
the Frenchman didn't really rate Woodgate or he believed his squad
contained enough quality centre-halves already. That didn't look
the case at Anfield on Tuesday, Phillippe Senderos proving once
again that he doesn't quite measure up at the top level.
Igor Akineev
It would be unfair to point the finger at Arsenal's goalkeeper when
trying to work out where things have gone wrong. Almunia, after
all, has proved fairly steady since taking the gloves off Jens
Lehmann. That's not to say that he inspires and reassures his
defenders or that he will win you 10 points over the course of a
season to turn challengers into champions. Akineev's displays for
CSKA Moscow were good enough to attract Wenger's attention last
year and have secured his status, at 22, as Russia's number
one.
Franck Ribery
It didn't need a man-of-the-match performance against England the
other week to tell us that Ribery, once of Marseille and at Bayern
Munich since last summer, is a bit special.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and but for Tomas
Rosicky's injury problems we might not be talking about Arsenal's
need for an intelligent wide man with pace and a goalscoring
threat. Ribery gives you that and he would have offered so much
more class and composure than, say, the temperamental outpourings
of Emmanuel Eboue.
