Squad Analysis
Goalkeepers
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Overall: We have the goal really well covered, Cech was the best goallie in the whole Premier last year and Timo Horn's season in Germany didn't go unnoticed as he was a key factory in Köln's extraordinary league campaign.
We'll have quite a headache in distributing game time between them.
as for Luka Pavic, he'll be mainly in the Under 21 squad and only will be promoted to the first squad when necessary.
Academy: We've gone from having no decent prospects in this area to have three of them, the most oustanding of them being the already mentioned Luka Pavic, a young keeper hailing from Hajduk Split's academy and with the potential of being better than Cech.
The other two are Danny Owen, young American keeper who his country's media compare with Tim Howard and Minervino Peixoto, the current Portguese U19's squad starter keeper. Both of them have the potential to become a good Premier League keeper in the future.
Defenders
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Overall: The right back is once again perfectly covered with Bellerín as its started and it has Jenkisnon (who came back after an impressive season at West Ham and both Chambers and John Stones are able to play there in case of necessity.
On the center we got stronger compared to last year as we still got Mertesacker and Koscielny, but we also signed one of the best young defenders England has to offer: John Stones. To all this add Calum Chambers and we have a solidly covered zone.
The left flank is the zone it worries me the most as Gibbs is extremely injury prone and Monreal is already on his 30s, this season will be last one for one of them (as their replacement is already signed but he won't be coming until the end of the season)...The one leaving? It will depend on both of their performances.
Academy: Our best prospect in this area is clearly Emmanuel Mammana, who's currently on loan at Napoli where he's regarded as first team member for the Partonopei. Needless to say we expect great things of him once he returns.
Other notable mentions are Al Clark, a huge English-American centerback who reminds me of a young Mertesacker, Krystian Bielik (despite being able to play as a defensive midfielder), Màrio Andrade, a young Portuguese left back who could end up a good Premier League player should he develop properly and the interesting case of Jack Deal, a prospect we got from Leicester's academy. He's a right midfielder but if we retrain him as a right back, we might have competition for Bellerín for a decade or more.
Midfielders/Wingers
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Overall: On the midfielder it's pretty much the same we had last year but with some new additions here and there, Coquelin will still be our starter as defensive/ball winning midfielder and Ajer will be his back up anything happened to him. Arteta's role this season will diminish greatly I'm afraid but his physical conditon is plummeting really quickly, his retirement might be closer than we think...
As Coquelin's partner in the midfield we have Aaron Ramsey with will have as back up quite a few Jacks of all trades: Jack Wilshere, Lewis Cook and Serge Gnabry who earned a chance to prove themselves after their performances at Leeds and West Brom respectively.
As attacking midfielder our starter will be Mesut Özil with Cazorla and the already mentioned Gnabry as his back ups should something happen to him or his performance level dropped for some reason.
The left wing once again has Alexis Sánchez as his owner, his performances last year served to name him as World's best player and when he plays well the rest of the team pretty much does it aswell.
His replacement will be Jack Grealish, who last year proved to be a reliable option for the left flank and his progression seems to have no end.
On the right flank the starter will be for another year Walcott, who this season will focus mainly on this role (instead of switching between winger and striker like last season). As his back up we'll have Andrija Zivkovic, who will have to seriously level up this season and Baldé Keita, who has come all the way from Rome to cover the good ol' Ox's gap in the squad.
Academy: Plenty of talented prospects in this area like Rich Collin, one of our last homegrown kids, Andy Leigh, talented midfielder hailing from Crewe's academy, Krystian Bielik, Vlad Dragomir, Stefan Büchler and Alberto Mas among plenty of others.
For the wings our best prospect is Paul Kim hands down, the German-American winger already made his senior debut last season and I can't wait to see him become a first squad regular.
We've got plenty of other interesting prospects like Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Neil Kitching, a promising left winger who came from Newcastle's academy and Davor Lovren, Dejan Lovren's younger brother, among plenty of others.
Strikers
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Overall: We're extremely fortunate to have at our disposal both the Premier (and Europe to boot) and Champions League's golden boots. It will be a tough choice to determine the starter for this season, Aboubakar has a slight lead but I'll be relying on Giroud aswell, specially by the time Aboubakar forcefully misses a month of competition thanks to the African Cup of Nations.
Charlie Austin will have the same role as last season: trusty back up player and solid choice as our #12 player.
Richairo Zivkovic will be used in the same way Welbeck was last season: back up striker and jack of all trades... Do we need a deep lying forward? Richy's on it. Do we have a winger injury crisis? Richy's got it covered.
Academy: Our best prospect is probably Ryan Wright, a versatile lad we got from the Saints Academy... after they snatched him away from Guincamp's (An English player emerging in a French academy? I've seen it all now), he could develop into an impressive deep lying forward.
Then we have some homegrown talent like Kaylen Hinds, who keeps doing impressive performances in Scotland and Keith Blake.
And we also have some good foreign talent like Donyell Malen, Przemyslaw Macierzynski, a promising Polish striker hailing from Lechia Gdansk, and Mohamed Houbaine... who's a peculiar case, a striker who can also play as attacking midfielder and midfielder... I'm having a hard time to determine how to develop him...