Gervinho had his medical at Arsenal recently and is expected to be announced as the clubs newest signing very soon.
I think that a majority of the Arsenal faithful will feel that his reported £11 million move from Lille was a good piece of business done by Arsene Wenger, and hopefully a lot more players will follow the Ivorian forward through the Emirates doors this summer.
Speaking on the 2nd of July, Gervinho stated in the Metro:
‘At Arsenal the team is young and I will be able to integrate easily. I will be able to flourish over there.’
He has dismissed suggestions that he would struggle to force his way into the first-team that includes Robin van Persie, pinpointing Moroccan striker Marouane Chamakh as someone whose position he expects to usurp.
‘Marouane Chamakh is not a worry for me, so why compare? I am going to the Gunners to play. I will be in the game. I am going to play to the maximum and not to be on the bench. Arsenal love to play, and I love teams that love to play. The best risk to take is to look to score goals. In football you have to take risks if you want to win. I’m going to Arsenal to win.’
In my opinion the competition for first-team places will be a good thing at Arsenal, and I have a feeling that we will see Gervinho and Chamakh up front together at some point during the upcoming season – especially if, or should I say when, van Persie picks up an injury.
Will Gervinho be ahead of Chamakh in the pecking order? I guess this depends on how both players do during pre-season games, but my gut feeling suggests that he will be ahead of the Moroccan striker.
Written by Iain Culverhouse for Gunnersphere.com. Like what you read? Then follow me on Twitter – http://twitter.com/UKVampire
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Gervinho can play at the wing to! Gervinho is a player who could play RW, LW and Striker. This season he played RW for Lille and scored 15 goals and had 10 assist. His a player who creates alot! But he will play RW when Van persie is not injured I bet.
It seems that Gervinho is a competitor to Walcott. Maybe we see Walcott up the middle and Gervinho from the right.
he say’s chamakh is not a worry for him because he isn’t a central forward, he’s predominantly a right winger. Talk from france say’s that this is his prefered position. It doesn’t mean that he’s trying to usurp chamakh. I personally think the fans attitude to chamakh last season was disgraceful. He came in a helped in a big way while van persie was injured, and he put everything into his performances from the start. Which was y he burnt himself out. If he had taken time to integrate into the team, he would have been behind van persie when he found form. Guarantee he will be good next season.
well i believe Chamakh is also a good team player a player that know how to penetrate but lack the fifnishing instinct of the game he is slow but with Gervinho coming in to chalenge him we will raise his game so that he will not be beach warmer.
spot on matt….chamahk is million mile from his true abillity…he will be a machine goal for us….robin is more a lone striker,he can play more efficient if we play one central forward but chamahk need a partner, he cant create chances for himself so when gervinho came in,they will be a deadly partnership!!