Will Arsenal bench stop us winning a trophy?

Does Arsenal have the worst bench in the league? by ATB Arsenal used to have the best individual players in the league in the likes of Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Sol Campbell. They were our starting players and a bench of the likes of Fabregas, Flamini, Edu and Reyes meant we had not just the best individuals but the best team squad as a whole. However somehow we have gone from that to this: Substitutes bench vs. Sunderland 21 Fabianski, 05 Vermaelen, 17 Monreal, 26 Frimpong, 31 Miyaichi, 44 Gnabry and 37 Akpom As you can see the transition hasn’t favoured us at all and we have dropped dramatically in terms of quality. We may have a very strong starting eleven featuring the likes of Cazorla, Wilshere, Ozil and Koscielny however when it comes to our bench a completely different story is told. That bench is truly appalling not just for a Premier League side, but for a side that supposedly wants to compete for not only the Premier League title this season but also in all three of the other competitions we will participate in during the course of the season. I can tell you for a fact that a team with that bench will not be successful because quite simply the only way it could, was if the first eleven stayed fit for the entire year and also didn’t fatigue. I may be coming across as a bit harsh because in reality if our squad was injury free the bench would look very different. It was recognised after the game that Arsenal have a total of 9 first team players currently ruled out with an injury or illness. If they were all fit and healthy I suspect the bench would look more like this: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Monreal, Arteta, Cazorla (?), Podolski and the Ox. Now that’s a strong bench full of a lot of different style players in a variety of different positions meaning we are covered for whatever the challenge may be. If this was our bench then there would be no reason to complain, however injuries make the other bench that featured vs. Sunderland a harsh reality. Is this down to being unlucky with injuries or is it more of a case of not being strong in squad depth? I personally feel it’s a bit of both.