Many have forgotten that Mikel Silvestre joined Arsenal not fully fit, he had been plagued with injuries at Manchester United and was getting over his latest problem

A very good afternoon to you Arsenal supporters and any other supporters who happen to come on my blog to wonder and wish what it would be like to support such a wonderful club and team. Let us try and do the unthinkable for a moment, try to step into the smelly shoes of a Tottenham supporter. Looking across North London at a red and white team who play the most attractive football in the league have a squad full of exciting attacking young players who are getting better every time you watch their highlights on match of the day. You still try to believe what Robbie Keane said is true but you just are not seeing that on the pitch.

Your neighbours have won the double twice, FA Cup countless times and have even gone a whole season unbeaten whilst picking up the required number of points to win the league title at your own ground.

Then you look at your own team and only know of your side being the champions of England through black and white clips and the history books. You have spent a vast amount of money trying to close the gap whilst your neighbours offloaded all their greats and you are no closer in quality.

That in a nutshell is what the life of a Spurs supporter is like. No wonder they hate us so much and we mainly just laugh at them. God, I feel really smug now.

ok, I didn’t actually plan to write all that, the chance to laugh at them once again was too great. What I wanted to say was something a little different really. There is not much news happening today and I could pull one or two quotes out but it is not really worth it so I have decided to talk about something else altogether.

Inspired mainly by yesterday’s Your Vision article from DJ Dragonfly which you can view HERE.

Much has been said about the lack of defensive cover in our squad, many have pinpointed the central defensive Carling Cup duo as players who need to be poured down the drain. Both Mikel Silvestre and Phillipe Senderos have made mistakes during their time at Arsenal but so have many players.

Alex Song is the benchmark for improvement, a player many wrote off as not good enough is now becoming a vital member of the first team let alone the squad. Mathieu Flamini was an average squad player who took massive steps to become in my opinion our best player of season 2007/2008.

Many have forgotten that Mikel Silvestre joined Arsenal not fully fit, he had been plagued with injuries at Manchester United and was getting over his latest problem. He also had to adjust to playing for a new team with new team mates in a new defensive set up. He came in and found himself back on the treatment table again. After a long stretch back on the sidelines he came back in having to hit the ground running right at the business end of an inconsistent season. He was poor for many games and yes he did cost us at vital moments but Mikel Silvestre didn’t do himself justice.

This season he has remained fit and has come through a whole pre season. He did very well in pre season at both left back and central defence and when he has featured in the Carling Cup has looked very solid.

Senderos almost left the club in the summer and may still do so in January or probably the summer but he is a player who was chased by many big clubs for a reason. He is a natural leader who is probably the most natural defender we have at the club. Senderos was part of the defence that set a champions League record on our run to the final. I remember one outstanding display at home to Real Madrid where he was by far the best player on the pitch. He has been inconsistent during his spell at Arsenal but this doesn’t mean that he cannot iron out his flaws. Senderos has spent time on loan with some of the best defenders in world football and surely some of their experience would have rubbed off on the Swiss international.

At 24 years old Senderos is still very young for a central defender.

More than anything else the new stability of the team, the work ethic from the players would make a massive difference to the back up players who would come in for either Gallas or Vermaelen.

I guess, what I am trying to say is that it is time to wipe the slate clean for our central defenders because it is highly unlikely that we are going to see the Willy and Tom partnership during the whole season and in that time those players coming in will need self belief and I for one think that they will come through when we need them to.

Time to eat, have a good day. Back tomorrow.

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