There is one thing about Nasri that may help him very much if he were playing in England. He has a Wayne Rooney characteristic in that he doesn’t need to dribble you cleanly like Ronaldo or Messi in order to get past

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By: Mohamed Hassan

Manchester United have done the Double but any talk of being the best team ever or the best team in the world is widely off the mark. How wide? Well they won the championship by a one game advantage from two challengers (and a lot of help from referees).

They won the Champions League on penalties after 120 minutes where they failed to dominate their opponents for more than 45 of those minutes.

However, as far as both competitions are concerned, it is important to say that they deserved it. They have been positive all season, they go into games to win and they have never been negative even during difficult periods. Manchester United played certain components of Arsenal football better than Arsenal this season.

For sheer positivity alone, they deserved it. As Arsenal fans, we are advocates of positive football and we are often frustrated by teams who have a negative approach. Football is frustrated by those teams too. If it was down to me, teams would get 0 points for a loss and 0 points for a draw of less than 2 goals. They would get 1 point for a draw of two or more goals and 3 points for a win. On that system, United would have had an even better points advantage. So well done to them.

Chelsea have a lot of experience but no shape and no balance. That’s what happens when you have too much money, you buy everyone you want and find that it becomes a problem to play all of them in a balanced way.

Michael Essien’s versatility has been used to lose two important games this year. In the African Nations cup semi-finals, a Ghanian central defender was suspended. Essien was put at centre-back and Ghana lost. Had Essien played in midfield, he would have protected the make-shift back four better and would have been so much more dangerous offensively that Ghana would have won.

In the Champions League final, he was played at right-back. In midfield, he would have been so much more dangerous and United would not have had the joy they had in the first half. That’s what happens when coaches have choices. Choices can sometimes lead you to do the wrong thing, especially with versatile players.

The airwaves are full of talk that Arsenal lost the championship due to lack of experience. Sometimes, I feel football punditry is lazy. Most pundits look at obvious stuff and repeat what each other say. I believe the experience factor has been over-rated. Ever since Juventus were beaten by Arsenal, I was convinced that there is something about modern football that requires raw, aggressive and athletic youth. I wrote an article about it here.

The great players of this season with a few exceptions are under 24. In Arsenal’s own squad, our best players were Gaël Clichy, Bacary Sagna, Francesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini. United and Liverpool you have Rooney, Ronaldo, Anderson, Carrick, Torres and the exceptions of Gerrard, Ferdinand, etc. who are older. Modern football is about pace, skill and movement and that package is easier gotten in youth.

Experienced players are important. Very important indeed! But their importance is for stability and poise. They are about exploiting mistakes better like Drogba and keeping clean sheets like Terry and Ferdinand. There are no players over 28 that will give you what Ronaldo, Messi, Clichy, Flamini, et. al give you. Experienced players give you what Fabregas and Gerrard give you so they are important but their importance is creating a stable structure for younger players to exploit.

Chelsea are a vastly experienced team. That makes them difficult to beat but it does not make it easier for them to beat others. A more youthful Makelele, Ballack and Malouda would probably have beaten United just like a more youthful Gattusso, Pirlo, Inzaghi and Maldini would probably have beaten Arsenal.

As far as I am concerned, should Wenger sign a 20-year-old Nasri to replace a 27-year-old Hleb, I would have no problems with that.

A friend of mine has been raving about Nasri for two years. He thinks Nasri is more like Cristiano Ronaldo than Robert Píres. I checked out Nasri on YouTube. Everybody looks good on YouTube. YouTube is like a mixed tape. You don’t make a mixed tape of bad songs.

I tend to agree that he is more like Ronaldo because he has a good dribble, he is fast, energetic and very direct. Like Ronaldo, he will probably have a rotten first season in the Premier League should he join. It he takes it badly, he will end up more like José Antonio Reyes than Ronaldo.

But there is one thing about Nasri that may help him very much if he were playing in England. He has a Wayne Rooney characteristic in that he doesn’t need to dribble you cleanly like Ronaldo or Messi in order to get past. If you win the ball or if the ball spills, he fights for it and tries to bulldoze his way. That would be more important than his dribbling in the first year should he come here.

In a way, I think Arsenal need a little more carelessness of youth upfront more than they need old heads. More Theo Walcotts with more confidence and slightly more rounded. We know Fabregas can pass the ball and we know we have had very few players trying to get in on the pass early enough or running early enough and taking a chance.

Youthful players will make those runs early and take those chances. It will make life easier for Clichy and Sagna because the decision on whether to go forward will be made early and decisively so they can defend better by not getting caught up front in meaningless drawn out attacks.