Arsenal’s spine, allowing Cesc Fabregas the freedom to develop and express himself higher up the pitch. If Cesc was the effulgent Sherlock Holmes, then Gilberto was Watson, the diligent assistant adding methodical hard work to Holmes’ eccentric brilliance. It may seem uninspiring but it was a selfless act that allowed the team to play without fear of being exposed. With that in mind, it is interesting that so many people lamented the sale of Alex Song, a player who quite often ignored his defensive responsibilities to bound forward and join the attack. Whilst this worked great in combination with van Persie in his final year, many forget how often it left us exposed. His bundles of energy and his tackling often masked his naivety in the defensive midfield role. Song

On the 15th of August 2005, Patrick Vieira signed a 5 year deal with Juventus for a fee of £13.75million. His departure had been mooted for some time but as he finally left for the Old Lady’s pastures he left behind a conspicuously big hole. Vieira bombed from box to box, broke up play, stared down Roy Keane on the odd occasion and chipped in with the occasional goal over a wonderful 9 year period. He was a sensational player, one that is almost irreplaceable. You couldn’t have Matched Betting for an equal replacement.

Whilst there may be some merit in saying we never replaced Patrick Vieira, I don’t feel this to be the case; the holding midfield role has changed throughout the years and the attributes needed differentiate from team to team depending on their needs. Vieira left at the beginning of our fiscally reticent years and Wenger tried admirably to replace a player who was, in my opinion, one of the best centre midfielders of his era.

After Vieira, Gilberto Silva, the Invisible Wall, took on the defensive midfield duties. Gilberto was a great example of a player that you only noticed when he wasn’t in the team. He shielded the defence by taking up positions that cut out key passes, rarely straying forward and only playing safe passes. Veja Magazine conceived the analogy after the 2002 World Cup that he “carried the piano for Ronaldo and Rivaldo to play their tunes on” and it seems he did the same for Bergkamp, Henry, Pires and Ljungberg in the magnificent Invincibles team. As the Invicibles disbanded, he thankfully stayed to help safeguard Arsenal’s spine, allowing Cesc Fabregas the freedom to develop and express himself higher up the pitch. If Cesc was the effulgent Sherlock Holmes, then Gilberto was Watson, the diligent assistant adding methodical hard work to Holmes’ eccentric brilliance. It may seem uninspiring but it was a selfless act that allowed the team to play without fear of being exposed.

With that in mind, it is interesting that so many people lamented the sale of Alex Song, a player who quite often ignored his defensive responsibilities to bound forward and join the attack. Whilst this worked great in combination with van Persie in his final year, many forget how often it left us exposed. His bundles of energy and his tackling often masked his naivety in the defensive midfield role. Song was and still is an extremely talented and strong midfielder, he was robust and quick to the ball and was one of few who liked to get his hands dirty but his propensity for bombing forward was detrimental to the success of the team and subsequently he was allowed to leave.

When Song committed the Faustian sin of defecting to Barcelona many presumed Wenger had a successor lined up; after all why would we let one of our more valuable players leave for such a paltry sum? Some assumed we would go for a high profile name, with Melo and M’Vila touted, others believed we would pluck another player from our obscure scouting networks; but it seems Wenger had other ideas. After witnessing the machine that is Barcelona conquer Europe by keeping the ball, it seemed clear to Wenger that it was not necessary for a team to encompass a destroyer, much rather allowing the ball to do the work, ‘death by football’ as that exquisite philosopher Plato Brendan Rodgers once said. Wenger decided that Arteta had the natural discipline and range of passing to sit as the deep lying midfielder, intercepting passes and allowing other midfielders to bomb on. It was far from what the fans wanted but it seemed to work, helping to keep possession, thus nullifying the need for a terrier-like midfielder.

Arteta took to the role exceptionally well and he was arguably our most important component in our midfield last year; as our defensive record, second only to Man City, showed. Arteta was awarded the vice captaincy but spent most of the season wearing the armband as Vermaelen struggled with injuries, much like Henry and Gilberto in their season of captaincy. Arteta was the first option from midfield and began attacks from deep. However, as the season went on teams began to recognize our system and quashed Arteta’s effectiveness by playing a man in front of him; this forced our other midfielders to come deep to pick up possession which inevitably led to a shift in formation. His stewardship in the role helped us to acquire fourth spot when our attack was not clicking, stepping up to take penalties, again like Gilberto, and using his experience to educate our younger players.

This year with Arteta ruled out for the start of the season, Ramsey and Wilshere were partnered together in the double pivot and failed to compliment each other. Both wanted to drive forward and did not have the knowledge or tactical brain to break up play or sit whilst the other attacked. Fortunately for us, Flamini had been training and more importantly impressing at the Colney, and call it an act of desperation as some did or a chance by good fortune, but Wenger deemed his effort worthy of a contract.

Flamini has returned with vengeance, scrapping with opposition, organising the midfield, barking and doing that pointy thingy he likes to do so much and it’s working. Being content to sit in front of the back four has allowed our more creative players to influence the game higher up the field. We seem to have ditched the tika taka from previous campaigns and reverted to a counter attacking style that has been devastating. Whilst our change of style has come about from a more cohesive unit, a rampaging Aaron Ramsey and the introduction of the brilliantly intelligent Ozil; Flamini’s presence behind the scenes has allowed our protagonists a greater stage to perform.

Flamini has already proven his worth in the relatively short period he has been back at the club. Many people were calling for us to sign someone like Fellaini or Gustavo, a ball winning, defensive minded, shin kicking midfielder for £20+million. Instead we signed a ball winning, defensive minded, shin kicking midfielder for free who had had the benefit of training with the squad throughout preseason. His credentials had taken a small dip from his stint with Milan as he found himself in that unflattering utility role again; often shunted out wide to accommodate more high profile names.

In this current Arsenal team, he is playing in his favoured position, between defence and midfield. He is somewhat the antithesis of Wenger’s idea of a footballer, or at least contrary to the players we have become accustomed to over the past few seasons. He enjoys being destructive, delights in giving away fouls in just the right area and isn’t afraid to shout and scream at his teammates. Maybe it was a failure by Wenger not to convince Flamini to stay in the first place by not allowing him more time in his favoured position but at the time we were short at fullback and Gilberto Silva was preferred in that position in the season befo
re hand for his experience alongside a young Cesc Fabregas.

Whilst I don’t think this Arsenal squad is as fragile as it used to be, I’m glad we have someone with Flamini’s combative attitude and dogged persona. He may not win the Oscar for leading role but he is in with a shout for best supporting cast as he continues to turn in solid performances. He’s not as selfless as Gilberto, nor can he join the attack in the way that Song used to and he’s not the metronomic, ball playing defensive mid that Arteta is. Instead, he is effective and that’s all we need him to be for the time being.

Til next time,

JR

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