Arsenal the central midfield

This is meant to be a first of a serie to assess the team. It’s still pre-season so faces may still come or go. I am starting with the central midfield as it is the most critical part of a team in general and ours particularly because of the serial loss of Edu, Vieira, Lassana Diarra, Flamini and Gilberto in three to four years.

The players who are believed to be occupying the central midfield are Cesc Song Denilson Diaby Ramsey and to a lesser degree Nasri and Rosicky.

Last year Denilson played there more than any other player. Let’s look back at his time in the team at that position though he did play as a winger a couple of times. He started the season brilliantly (West Brom, Twente, Blackburn, Newcastle, Bolton…). At this period he was by a mile the best overall player on the pitch for us. I believe his pre-season was a bit tougher than the rest almost playing 90 minutes of all the preparation games. That meant he was better equipped than most from the start but it also meant he was more likely to get burnt than the rest. But for whatever reason he lost form badly. The good thing about him through out the season was when he lacked confidence he had the presence of mine to play it simple with the passes and positioning himself very well to win balls with less efforts. The critics never rested on his case comparing his every move with Flamini. The lad lost confidence and only was it at the end of the season from his second half appearance against Chelsea in the league at home, did he get back to his best. He finished well in my opinion. With the statistics he got and the way he really stood in the games I mentioned, one has to agree that the kid has talent and though he will never play like Flamini he can offer much more than the Frenchman but only on his own way.

While Denilson was losing form during the course of the season Alex Song was going from strength to strength. I have always doubted the lad’s chances to make it as a central midfielder. I always thought he was only suited to CB. Because of his lazy air his weird running I thought he lacks the stamina to become a CM. But he showed so much urgency at some point of the season, marking well bringing the ball forward and even assisting and scoring goals. His assist for the outrageous goal of Eduardo in the FA cup was great but I prefer the back heel to Eboué against Blackburn at home if my memory serves me right.

While Denilson and Song showed a lot of promises one player that failed miserably was Diaby. He was favoured for the CM post alongside Cesc when Flamini left and it did look like it was his to lose during pre-season before he got injured missed the start of the season came back rusty and never could impose himself. He played more as a second striker or a winger but overall a part from some glimpses here and there he did little to convince the gunner world. His away performances against Fener, Newcastle and Aston Villa were the only times when he could hold his head high.

Ramsey is another player who has shown a lot of promises during the short carling campaign. He did well for Wales at under 21 and at senior level. But during his first team opportunities I had the impression he was trying too much to impress as shown in Cardiff though you have to consider the emotional effect of that game. I believe he will turn out to be an excellent player for us but I cannot say when that is more likely. And now is our time to deliver so he will need to perform at his highest best when called upon.

Cesc Fabregas is not just our best CM he is the player in our squad, he is the star. He will be mentioned every time the best players are talked up. Even though he did not perform last year at the level he consistently showed from day one he is undoubtly one of the best midfielder in the Premier League and in Europe.

There are also Nasri and Rosicky who could do a job sometimes there but these four are supposed to be the midfield core team. Now if you compare them to those of the top teams in Europe what do you get? Manchester has Fletcher, Carrick, Hargreaves, Scholes and Anderson. Liverpool has Gerard, Alonso, Mascherano and Lucas. Chelsea has Obi, Lampard, Ballack and Essien. Inter has Muntari, Cambiasso, Vieira, Stankovic and Zanetti. AC Milan has Flamini, Gattuso, Ambrosini, Seerdoff and Pirlo. Juventus has Cissokho, Melo, Thiago and some youngster. Barça has Yaya Touré, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Seydou Keita. Real Madrid has Lassana Diarra, Mouhamadou Diarra, Guti and Gago.

When you look at that Barcelona, Chelsea and AC Milan probably seem to have better options than the rest. While we, Man U and Liverpool are around the same level.

If you compare it to our invincibles when we had Vieira, Gilberto, Parlour and Edu you cannot say we are far as Parlour was getting old and Edu was injury prone. If Denilson and Song and it’s a big if can really step up and reach their potential we will be as fine as ever but if none of them get to the required level we are as good as dead.

So who’s ready for the gamble?

The big project

The good year with the questions

We are in May 2004. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal is crowned champion of England. Probably the best champion the league ever knew. Wenger has a strong army with lot of weaknesses at hand and at sight. The squad did not have much debt as highlighted by the cup exits, the team is building a new stadium while loaning heavy debts and consuming a big part of their every year incomes as the sponsorship deals were front loaded. I will use the economic situation but I mostly want to talk about the football. Wenger had Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Cole, Kolo Touré, Gilberto, Edu, Vieira, Parlour, Ljungberg, Pires, Bergkamp, Henry and Reyes as reliable players. That’s fifteen players plus the likes of Cigan and Pennant, Clichy or Aliadière, but fifteen! You don’t have money, your squad is thin, your players overachieved both physically and mentally and your fans are accustomed to success and greatness. What do you do?

The start of the project

Le Prof chose to go the young way. The likes of Van Persie, Eboue and Flamini joined the likes Cesc, Reyes, Clichy and Aliadiere. And the youth experiment began. With the inflated transfer market the big wages for players and the success of Fabregas things got accelerated. At start of 2004/2005 campaign, Cesc and Reyes delivered beyond expectation. With the development of Cole and Anelka at Arsenal and the likes of Trezeguet, Thuram, Weah etc at Monaco, Wenger knows he is in a field he masters. The 2004/2005 finished in disappointment but in no mean was it a bad season. The defeat at home against ManU and the CL exit against Bayern aside, it was a great season with the youngsters seemingly showing they can be trusted. And trusted they were when Vieira got sold following a rather average season and on a huge wage but most notably following the explosion of young Cesc.

The leaderless team

By losing Vieira the team lost a big leader and strong character on and off the field. There were still people that could be called to help out on leadership and mental strength with the likes of Campbell, Lauren, Bergkamp, Ljungberg, Cole and to a lesser degree Henry and Pires being around. But the 2005/2006 season was known for the injuries the old heads suffered Campbell was injured physically and mentally for good parts of the season, so were Cole and Lauren. Without those, the Vieira loss became even bigger. A bad league campaign was saved by a great CL campaign the best we ever had in our history setting a defensive record on the way with Eboue Senderos Toure and Flamini in front of Lehmann.

The new home

The 2006/2007 was the first season at the Emirates. The start was marred by the departure of Cole for money with Pires and Campbell leaving as well while Denis Bergkamp had retired. Henry was the only one the youngsters could look up to and he is not such figure and was injured for most part of the season. Van Persie who was showing tremendous form was also injured and we finished without any good striker. Adebayor was clumsy at best but Gilberto step up and saved the day in many occasions. While the season was not great at all, the only source of joy came from the younger guns who reached the carling final and gave Chelsea a real game of football. That also meant they deserved more trust and some chances to make it here.

The almost year

Although a couple experienced signing have been made (Hleb, Eduardo and Rosicky), most of the Wenger buys since 2005 are very young to say the least. With Henry and Ljungberg gone, Gilberto relegated on the bench alongside Lehmann, Touré was the only survivor from the invincibles. 2007/2008 is the year where the youngsters are all alone exposed in front of the world to show what they can do, trusted as they are by one the best managers of the game. And from august to march it seemed they would deliver they exploded. Some injuries some luck or lack of it and some weaknesses all coming out at the very wrong time meant the greatly announced year was another disappointment at the end.

The failed year

After coming so close to clinching success, Wenger saw again the core of the team slipping through his fingers losing almost the entire midfield of the team. If Hleb Diarra Gilberto and Flamini left, Rosicky injured the whole season, Cesc missed four month along with Theo Walcott. Sagna Clichy Cesc Flamini Adebayor and Hleb were the top performers of the “almost year” but they all disappointed through their absences or poor form or combination of the two. Because we were so closed the previous year and fell away from that level the sentiment of failure is zoomed to maximum. Some players become scapegoats (Adebayor, Silvestre, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue etc) and Wenger becomes subject of strong criticism from pundits and fans.

What next?

When you work so hard and come so close to success but fail what do you do? You need to take some distance and assess the situation. You need to know what went as planned and what did not go so well. They say experience is the sum of someone’s failures. Though we have failed quite a lot since the invincibles but you can’t deny the fact that we are learning and the reasons of our failures seem to be the same, they sure are very different. I still believe like many that this is the make or break season for this project, I think even if we failed and have to rebuild from scratches every gunner should be proud of it. A lot of great projects have died but that does not take away the fact they were great project indeed!

Pre season on going!

Arsenal are currently in Austria preparing for the upcoming very decisive season. Two friendly games have already taken place but honestly I haven't watched any not even a highlight to say anyting about them. At this period, only the money grabbing low class clubs are trying to make these games look serious. Thank GOD we are not one of them. Arsenal are known for their rather traditional approach to pre-season. We usually gather at Colney with the kids and some first teamers then we play with Barnet before heading to Austria/Hungary for a couple of weeks and then back to some tournaments (Amsterdam or Emirates plus another friendly or two).

I love to think of Arsenal as the ideal student at school who is always on time, does his home work, respects the teachers and the rules and gets the best marks. They won't always be the most successful in life afterwards but they will always get a decent living and pride from what they did and how they did it. At the other end you will find the cheating, coward, selfish and opportunistic ones who may end up with a lot of money and power. I know which one I would prefer my son to be.

Enough with the philosophy and pictures, let's talk about the football even though there's little of it for the time being. The transfer window has been opened for over six weeks now, we have signed one defenderr Thomas Vermaelen that is, from Ajax for 10 MP. We have also sold Adebayor to Manchester City for 25 MP. Armand Traore and Philipe Senderos are back from loan. We are linked to a host of players and every man and his dog seem to know who Wenger should buy, who he should not buy, who he should sell who he sould not sell...

Unlike many supporters I tend to believe the man knows what he has and what he can get. I think in this climate that's more important than knowing what you need. The simplistic one will tell us we need a central midfielder they call defensive minded midfielder more than anything and that we have been needing it since the Flamster and Lassana Diarra and Gilberto left the club. The importance of knowing what you have and what you can get is that it allows you to distance yourself from going crazy looking for every player that looks like one. You need to assess if the tareget player is going to fit in your team and is better than what you have and can add something subtancial.

Wenger has gone into a road in which it is so important to get really good players and no average signings. Look at Sylvestre, here is an average experienced player we bought. Compare him to a player like Djourou who is an inexperienced potencially good defender. With his inexperience he is just as average as Sylvestre and while he can progress to become a very good defender Tweety will stay average. Tweety was at a big club so we knew he was average but if he was at Fulham or Stoke we would think of him as good. No offense to Silvestre, Fulham or Stoke, it's just an example.

When you want to buil a young team you only should buy super players. I would rather buy an Arshavin for 20 MP than a Cana + Upson + Scott Parker for 10MP.

In the last january window we got Arshavin and there were a lot of eyebrows raised. He wasn't something we needed apparently and look at what he did and how he is now looked as one of the positive things at the club by those who were crying for their DM.

If I have a swipe for le Boss it is the way he failed to hold on Lassana, Flamini and Hleb. Even if I can understand the situation with all of them it is not forgiveable to lose them all in the same year as far as I am concerned. For Flamini he was on his way out before blossoming but we needed to tie him up in January at least before letting Lassana go.

Abdoulaye NDIAYE