The new look Arsenal: could this team win a trophy?

Arsenal have been active in the summer transfer window, and with the likelihood that a move for Spain's European Championship-winning midfielder Santi Cazorla will be closed in the coming days, the Gunners have added a valuable piece to their trophy-chasing puzzle. talkSPORT take a look at the Arsenal side being assembled to try and win a title...

Defence
Wojciech Szczesny retains his place as Arsenal's undisputed number one and it looks like their back-line is going to remain largely unchanged for the coming season. Kieran Gibbs is gaining more and more experience and Arsene Wenger will be looking for the best of the young left-back. Should Bacary Sagna recover from his injury he'll slot back in at right-back and Laurent Koscielny has come on leaps and bounds, forming a potentially solid pairing alongside captain Thomas Vermaelan.

Midfield
Mikel Arteta's consistency last season is enough for us to include him in this XI, while Jack Wilshere is likely to force his way into the team upon returning from his injury in October and we've placed the England international in the team at the expense of Alex Song (although he is likely to play a key role in Wenger's plans). Arteta and Wilshere can pull the strings from deep while a wealth of attacking talent make the moves in front of them. Should he stay at Arsenal, Theo Walcott will have a field day with the new attacking talent alongside him, particularly Malaga's Santi Cazorla, who is exactly the kind of player Arsenal have missed since the departure of Cesc Fabregas. The skill and elegance of Cazorla would be complimented perfectly by steam-rolling Lukas Podolski and the German will pick up his fair share of goals too. Arsenal would be more than capable of holding their own with the best the Premier League has to offer if they can field this much talent.

Forwards
In Olivier Giroud, Arsenal have found the power and physical presence they've lacked up front at times in recent years. The Frenchman wins just about every ball played to him in the air, and in the box he's as deadly as they come. Giroud is deceptively intelligent in his movement, and the closer to goal he gets the more difficult he gets to track, so with Cazorla, Walcott, Arteta and Wilshere all feeding him passes, Arsenal could hit big figures in the goal charts if they can get their players to click. Lukas Podolski is also capable of playing as a striker should Arsene Wenger choose to put him there, and even from a more midfield-based position, the German has an eye for the net, as he has shown in a similar area with the German national team.

Conclusion

When it comes to playing attacking football, Arsenal would have as good a team as any in the league with the names above, but football isn't just about scoring, it's also about stopping the opposition from doing the same. Defensively, the Gunners look a bit light-weight, so perhaps Arsene Wenger needs to concentrate on defending from the front better if he's to stop his back-line leaking goals. Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott are both more than mobile enough to press the opposition well, and if Arsenal can make sure they keep the pressure on their opponents for ninety minutes, they'll reap the rewards from winning the ball back quickly, particularly with the abundance of ball-players in their team. Should the Gunners stay injury free, that elusive trophy may not be far away, but how many times have we said that in the past?

Will this Arsenal team be enough to win a cup, or even better, challenge for the Premier League title? Comment below...