I swear supporting a football team is not supposed to be as stressful as this, at least I do not remember this feeling in the past, well not as intensely as this anyway. Having those butterfly feelings swirling around days before a game is a little strange, I guess the fact that it is win or bust has something to do with it.
So it is increasingly likely that Mikel Arteta will be absent for the trip, just to throw in something else to make us unstable Gooners just that little more of a mess and Gooners have been talking about his replacement. Arsene has already pretty much revealed his Jack Wilshere suit card on the table, so Aaron Ramsey will drop back and play the role he performed so very well when Mikel Arteta was out through injury earlier in the season.
That for me, was the start of his huge leap forward this season but that is for another day. What I wanted to talk about was the idea that has become very popular amongst Gooners right now and that is centre back Thomas Vermaelen being moved into centre midfield to protect the back four. Tim Stillman as ever hits the nail firmly on the head in his weekly Arseblog column.
I can see why so many are intrigued by this idea. Vermaelen is good in the air, strong in the tackle and can ping long passes out to our flanks. When you look at it like that then I can understand the desire to see this experiment which is what it would be. You have to remember that Thomas Vermaelen has NEVER started a game for us in centre midfield and for good reason. I am not distancing myself from this type of talk, I remember back in the day I was championing Kolo Toure to be moved into midfield. I mean he could tackle, loved to drive forward and could have a strike. I understand now that whilst fantasising about what he could do, I avoided going into detail about what he wouldn’t be able to do. It was only recently that I had cold water poured over my idea that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could be our surprise attacking right back against bus parking teams.
A lot of us have a very 80s – 90s British mentality when it comes to footballers. A DM should get his boot in, show em who is boss slide into anything that moves. We need a wide man who will get chalk on his boots and whip in cross after cross. We need a little man along side Giroud to race through for the flick on’s.
There are many more layers about the 2013 Premier League. Mikel Arteta has been underrated this season and has done a far better job defensively than Alex Song possibly ever did for Arsenal, at least over the course of a whole season. Arteta is asked to position himself in areas where he can make continuous interceptions, follow runners off the ball and interchange with Aaron Ramsey. You could argue that Vermaelen could do a similar job but I would argue that his positional sense at the back this season hasn’t exactly been a positive has it?. But when Arsenal have the ball we would be asking a centre back to face his own goal, take the ball off the back four, often under intense pressure, turn past opposition players and keep the ball moving. He would also have to run continuously up and down the pitch for 90 minutes. Does Vermaelen really have the stamina for that?
It is one thing being the deepest player on the pitch minus the goalkeeper, having the ball at your feet then having time to pass it into midfield compared to the rush hour type nature of a Premier League midfield battle.
It wasn’t too long ago that many were suggesting that Vermaelen was ideal to play left back for Arsenal and he should be first choice, until injury forced that to be reality. I’ve never heard it again since.
We could all argue a case for a player being moved, for example Bacary Sagna as a holding player because he can tackle and win headers. I guess you could do the same for all defenders but in reality, they would most likely look like a fish out of water.
This article probably means that Tommy V will be our new defensive midfielder for next season.
One player that probably will not be is Francis Coquelin, he seems to have been frozen out of Arsene’s plans. Rumours have been passed around that he has had attitude problems but without substance I cannot really comment apart from to say that I would understand his lack of inclusion a lot more because as a player, I like him a hell of a lot. Had he been in favour as well as had some games from the bench in recent weeks/months then he would have been one that I would have felt very comfortable replacing our number 8 on Sunday. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him plying his trade elsewhere next season.
The axe seems to be quietly falling all over the place, almost unnoticed in some cases. Coquelin could be one, Arshavin and Squillaci are obvious choices but the youth players do not get an easy escape. 16 of the young Guns have been let go into the wild to fend for themselves. There are a few names there that were expected to do good things and I guess it shows that you really cannot be sure if a player will make the grade at such a young age because promise is hardly ever enough.
Speaking of young players, it seems as if we have all but signed promising French forward Yaya Sanogo. He is 20 years of age and is pretty highly rated in France. Injuries have been an issue for him in the past so it is one of those low risk gambles on a young talent who will hopefully grow out of any young growing pains like many have done before him, like Gael Clichy for example. It is a free transfer so not much to complain about assuming that complaining isn’t a favourite past time of yours.
And with that, I bid you goodbye.
’til the next time.
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