The axe finally fell over the neck of Andre Villas-Boas, a young manager who got many tongues wagging due to his impressive record at Porto. Many were wishing that he would replace Arsene Wenger as the manager but it just goes to show that rebuilding a team and get instant results is not as simple as some like to make out, even when you have huge funds available to spend let alone if you have to

Evening,

Surely Carlsberg must be responsible for this weekend, that is the only explanation for everything working out so well. A double dose of smash and grab was on the menu. One at Anfield and one at White Hart Lane. The result of those two fixtures means that the gap between 3rd and 4th has shrunk down to only 4 points. My money is on that lead changing to 1 point after next weekend. A shaken Tottenham go to Everton and we face Newcastle United at home. It is strange to watch a smash and grab where the smashing, grabbing team were leading 3-0 until the final stages of the game. But that is why Manchester United are regularly consistent. They can defend well and take chances even when they are off their game.

The axe finally fell over the neck of Andre Villas-Boas, a young manager who got many tongues wagging due to his impressive record at Porto. Many were wishing that he would replace Arsene Wenger as the manager but it just goes to show that rebuilding a team and get instant results is not as simple as some like to make out, even when you have huge funds available to spend let alone having to balance the books.

I think it is madness that an owner would appoint a manager for a long term project, after having spent so much to free him from his contract to then sack him after 8 months. Surely when you appoint a manager in the first place you do enough of your homework to know how he works, what his ideas are. If you make the decision to appoint a manager for the long term then surely you have to have faith in that manager to complete the job if not then it reflects badly on poor management from above.

The situation at Chelsea is just a microcosm of what football has turned into in 2012. Over spending, impatience and egos. A club that threw money on players at their peak to win as much as they could and now they are left with players all reaching the twilight of their careers. With very little concern for tomorrow. Villas-Boas had to deal with aging egos who expected to be in the team and spat out their dummies when not.

Remove Abramovich’s cheque book, plonk a new stadium in West London, sell off the stars who were coming to the end of their careers before they were financially worthless, balance the books, build for the future and keep Chelsea consistently in the Champions League. It is only when you put it all in that context that you can truly appreciate the difficult work and overall difficult job that Arsene Wenger has and is currently doing at Arsenal.

It is easy to pick and criticise some of the managers decisions. Substitutions, tactical approaches and even the spread of the wage bill are some subjects often thrown in the direction of our manager as hard as possible. What isn’t often acknowledged is the amount of decisions that the manager has to make that are much more important than what minute to take off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The technical training, the individual development of youngsters, the attention to detail, the diet, the confidence he gives, the freedom of expression given to players on the pitch and so many, many more examples are taken for granted and we almost expect whichever manager is flavour of the month to come in and have those exact same strengths as well as improvements on Arsene’s weaknesses.

This is not to say that Arsene Wenger is the only manager capable of running Arsenal, that is not realistic. The law of averages suggests that there would be a number of managers somewhere around the world that would improve on what Arsene is doing but it is not as simple as plucking the latest hyped up name from Sunday Supplement and winning title after title.

Andre Villas-Boas, Owen Coyle, Ian Holloway and Roberto Martínez are a few names that have received glowing praise in recent times and now you would be looked at strangely if you called for any of those names today such is the fickle nature of this wonderful sport we love so much.

Changing the subject for a second before I head off into the Sunday distance. I am getting a little fed up with talk of our striker used as a means to criticise the team or manager. From the journalists, to your Tottenham supporting work colleagues. I am sure you have heard it many times already.

‘You’re a one man team’
‘Where would you be without van Persie’
‘When he leaves you will be a mid-table side’

Don’t get me wrong, it would be foolish to suggest that van Persie is not currently our jewel in the crown, it would be foolish to suggest that Robin van Persie isn’t the best player we currently have but that does not mean that we should ignore all the work of all the other players who have become regulars in this Arsenal team.

Our man of the match against Liverpool according to Sky Sports was Robin van Persie, had his last minute shot hit the post instead of into the net, van Persie’s name would not have been considered. That again says a lot about football in 2012. The man of the match was clearly Wojciech Szczesny. For some crazy reason I selected Thomas Vermaelen on my match review, it must have been the last minute nerves and watching our vice skipper power away important headers when crosses came into our box that grabbed my attention. I am as guilty as Sky Sports for not seeing the woods from the trees. After having viewed the game again it was clear that our goalkeeper had won us that game. His form had dipped a little in recent weeks but his heroic saves were standard procedure earlier in the season.

Laurent Koscielny reminded us that he was actually human at Anfield. He had looked a bit shaky at times for the first time in some while. The observant viewer could tell you that he has been arguably our most consistent performer all season so much so that even his detractors in the media have had to admit to nibbling on humble pie. It takes a lot for that to be admitted.

Alex Song who is part of a rotating midfield has 11 assists to his name so far and has the most successful through passes in the league to date. Mikel Arteta is badly missed when he is not in the side because of his ball retention and his defensive intelligence in midfield. We also have players like Bacary Sagna and Thomas Vermaelen who are in the top bracket in their positions.

All those players are very good at their jobs and for the most part are very successful at doing said jobs. Robin van Persie is one of the best in the world at his job and his job is putting the ball away into the back of the opposition net. He has worked on his movement, he has improved his finishing because as a central striker his job is to score goals and that is what he is very good at.

Removing van Persie’s goals and then placing us in a position based on our goals scored is misleading at best. An injury or suspension to van Persie wouldn’t make us start with ten players [insert joke in here] This was certainly not the case when Chamakh started the season for us in 2010/2011. His contribution to goals, assists and team work was pretty impressive for a first season. So much so that even those who moaned at our late win at Anfield lost their tongues.

Let us get one thing right, Chamakh is not van Persie and a lengthy absence to our star forward would impact on our results but that is because van Persie is one of the best in the world doing a job that he does best. What makes the one man team line even more annoying is that without the work of his team mates, van Persie wouldn’t have scored a majority of his goals.

Robin van Persie cannot do what Lionel Messi can do, he cannot pick up the ball on the half way line, beat five or six players and then score, he needs his team mates.

A few pieces of brilliance aside, Robin van Persie’s goals have come from the six yard box thanks to wide forwards Theo Walcott and Gervinho. Or from through passes from Alex Song. Think back to Blackburn (h), Norwich (a), West Brom (h), Udinese (a), Stoke City (h), Chelsea (a) 1st goal, Wigan (a) and many more. Usually Song or Ramsey slipping a pass to the wide forward to cut the ball back to van Persie to stab home from close range.

The argument should be the need for our other attackers to contribute more to scoring goals. That is absolutely correct, we need to add to van Persie or any other central strikers goals but here is the difference.

Our first choice attackers are van Persie, Walcott, Gervinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain. What is obvious is that Robin van Persie is 28 years of age, roughly the age that is commonly known for the most part, as the peak of an outfield footballers career.

Theo Walcott is 22, Oxlade-Chamberlain is 18 and Gervinho is 24 and playing his first season in English football and Arsenal. The argument about us losing van Persie’s goals without him is very real but also currently irrelevant as we are not without him and haven’t been so. Good luck finding a player with an equal goals to game ratio in world football. Correct me if I am wrong but only Ronaldo of Real Madrid beats van Persie on that statistic.

If the rumours are correct then Arsene is already trying to address the need for added goals by trying to buy Lukas Podolski.

There are goals to come from other players in this squad, given their age I would expect that to improve as the weeks and months roll by but we are not a one man team, we are a team who have many players performing in their roles very well. We just happen to have an exceptional center forward that has been developed and coached from a young age.

I will let Robin van Persie have the last say on this.

“I have scored this many – and 25 league goals, it is just insane.
‘But I have to thank my colleagues because without them I am nothing and they are a massive help.’

Not sure about nothing Robin, but I get your point.

Back tomorrow.