Thursday, March 24th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Walter Broeckx

The victory has many fathers, defeat is an orphan is a well know idiom in my part of the world.

So to pass the time a bit I thought it could be interesting to see with which team we started when we lost our 5 games in the league so far. So here they come:

Ars – Wba	Che-Ars	Ars-Newc	Ars – Tot	MU – Ars
Almunia	Fabianski	Fabianski	Fabianski	Szczesny
Sagna	Sagna	Sagna	Sagna	Sagna
Koscielny	Koscielny	Koscielny	Koscielny	Koscielny
Squillaci	Squillaci	Squillaci	Squillaci	Squillaci
Clichy	Clichy	Clichy	Clichy	Clichy
Eboue	Wilshere	Fabregas	Fabregas	Wilshere
Diaby	Diaby	Wilshere	Denilson	Rosicky
Nasri	Nasri	Nasri	Nasri	Nasri
Song	Song	Song	Song	Song
Arshavin	Arshavin	Walcott	Arshavin	Arshavin
Chamakh	Chamakh	Chamakh	Chamakh	Chamakh

Now these are the starting teams in those games. So we can imagine that at the time the game started those were not just the best available but also the fittest players to start. I remember the game at MU when we had Cesc and Van Persie on the bench just recovered from injury but not fully fit.

I then made a little table of some of the players missing the same games which would or could start any game when they are fully fit and then I came up with this

Djourou	Djourou	Djourou	Djourou	Djourou
Fabregas	Fabregas			Fabregas
Walcott	Walcott		Walcott	Walcott
Van Persie	Van Persie	Van Persie	Van Persie	Van Persie

If we look at our keepers we had 3 different keepers in our defeats. On two occasions I can remember a bit of dodgy goalkeeping costing us. Almunia at home against WBA and Fabianski against Newcastle.

In defence we always had the same 4 players. And maybe this is a bit worrying.  Because the player that is missing (apart from Vermaelen) is Djourou. And let it just be Djourou with whom we never lost a league game for a while now.  So his injury is a big blow for Arsenal.

Now most will point at Squillaci and say that he is the weak link in the back 4. And in a way this could be right. But when we look at Squillaci his career he has played in top teams in France and in Spain, won a few trophies in those years.  He still has cost a little bit of money, has experience. You know all those things people wanted Wenger to spend his money on.

So has Squillaci lost it? I think it is more down to the fact that Squillaci and Koscielny are not an ideal combination. Are they too similar? I think this is what is happening because when both of them play next to Djourou they seem to play better. So I will not go down the road of saying Squillaci is rubbish or is a waste of money. I think it is just down to the fact that to have a good partnership at centre back you need 2 different players. And this isn’t the case with both Frenchman for the moment.

In midfield we have lost 3 of the 5 games when Cesc was not available or not fit.  Not a big surprise I think. The best midfielder of the world is a player we need and certainly in big games.

But when we look at our attack it seems that missing Walcott and Van Persie at the same time is also a big loss.  And the absence of Van Persie is almost the same as with Djourou. In the 5 games we lost Van Persie was not starting or not fit enough to start. I think this underlines once more his importance for our team.

Also the fact that Walcott was not starting in 4 of  those games can be significant to underline the step forward Theo has made this season.  His goal scoring record has very much improved. His overall game has improved and his passing has also improved.   And he still is as fast as lightning. So let us hope he comes back after the break and can play the remaining games.

So if football would be maths we just had to make sure we put Djourou and Van Persie on the field at the start of the game to avoid defeat.

But football isn’t maths and we can have other factors involved in our games that can change the outcome of games.

But when we look at players we must have in the starting line up to avoid defeat the names of Djourou, Fabregas, Walcott and Van Persie stand out above the rest.  So it will be vital to get them back in the team or to keep them fit. Fabregas and Walcott should be coming back after the international break. If Van Persie remains fit we have 3 of those players we seemed to be missing in our defeats back in the team.

And finally I would like to say another word about Djourou. How many times I have heard fans proclaiming that Djourou will never be good enough. After his serious injury which made him lose a complete season many said he would never come good and he was injury prone. But since he returned to full fitness he was our main and strong player in defence.  He looked like the rock that Wenger saw in him all those years ago. So being patient can be a good thing at times. Don’t write some players off before you have given them a decent run in the team.

And now that he has proven himself to be a very good defender we know we have a very good and still young defender at our disposal for many years to come.

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