if arsenal end up in the top four, it's only because the rest of the teams quite bad (which they kind of are).
unlike last season, however, arsenal don't have a goal scorer like rvp anymore. sure, he never scored more than thirty goals before last season, but he would usually score one goal in every two matches he played at arsenal; he's always had a good goal scoring record. plus, he had been at arsenal for years already and thus had been completely adjusted to premier league football.
giroud, on the other hand, doesn't have rvp's goal scoring record, and this is his first season in the premier league. he might score 10-15 goals this season if he's lucky, but i wouldn't count on it.
who else can score goals? gervinho can't. walcott perhaps, and he might even be arsenal's topscorer for the season, but that'll only be due to the quality of the rest of the strikers. i doubt he'll score many goals, anyway.
arsenal are fucked. ;_;