Mikel the anchor man in midfield « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

——————————————–

By Walter Broeckx

Let us move on in midfield and take on what I think was the most influential player from last season: Mikel Arteta.

His presence or most of all when not present was the most important for the team results last season. He started in 29 games. And if you can count a bit you will notice that he couldn’t play in 9 games. Of those 9 games he couldn’t play, Arsenal could only win one game! Tell me, is he important or not?

If I can be critical about one thing than it is the fact that well, we should have bought him earlier. But then again he is no Cesc and would have been stopped by Cesc in a way. Maybe we should have sold Cesc earlier?  Just kidding of course but I must say that Arteta has performed beyond my wildest expectations.

Come to a team that has just lost Cesc and Nasri. Coming in to a team that had just lost Jack Wilshere with an injury. Coming in to a team that had just got the worst defeat in ages. But from the moment he stepped on the pitch you could see that he was going to be a big influence.

I have had the pleasure of seeing him play live on a few occasions and I must say that I have been very impressed with the way he played.  Always making room for himself, passing the ball to other players on the right side, scoring a few screamers, defending when needed, attacking when required, bringing balance to the team. Very rare are the times he loses the ball. I have seen statistics during the season and they were very impressive about his % of succeeded passes.

Sometimes you see players coming from a lower placed team (with all respect to Everton) and when they have to make the step up to a top team they suddenly fail. This surely didn’t happen with Arteta. After a while you just forgot that this was only his first season for Arsenal. It looked as if he had been with us for years. No transition problems, no adapting to a new team problems. He had a perfect integration at Arsenal.

And he also was always very humble in his comments. Never putting himself in the spotlight but always praising his teammates. I think this also played a big part in the fact that his performances didn’t get the headlines they deserved.

When he was bought I wrote that he was a player that could have a big and positive influence on the upcoming youth like Ramsey and Wilshere. With Arteta now being 30 he has the experience in the PL that is very important. And he can teach the younger ones how they should play. Of course every player is different and has his own character but the way to see the game, to foresee what can happen next and to anticipate on that is something that you can learn from being on the field. If you have a player like Arteta in your team you have the perfect role model to learn from.

I do hope that he takes Ramsey and Wilshere under his wings and learns them a bit of the things he has learned. And I hope that both of them accept his leadership and the lessons he can teach them. They would benefit a lot from it. And so would the team benefit from it.

Because as can be seen from the numbers if he wasn’t around we suffered a big quality loss. At the end of the season Ramsey couldn’t do it any more as he was suffering after having his first real season after his injury. And Wilshere was injured so couldn’t play at all. I really do hope that this season one of them can step up whenever Arteta is not available and fill his boots.

If I can throw in some spectacular numbers: With Arteta on the field we won 20 games of the 29. A win % of  75%. If we would have done the same in the 9 games he was not available we would have won 6 or 7 games more. The number my calculator gives is 6,75 games.  Now we only could win one. Just add 15 points (or even 18!) to our total and look at the league table once again. Yep, amazing isn’t it.

By the way our overall % of winning games was 55% for the whole season. And with Van Persie in the team was 56%. So it is amazing that the player who made the biggest impact on us winning or not winning was Mikel Arteta. If you really want to talk about a one man team… Forget Robin Van Persie. It was Mikel Arteta who really was our most valuable player on the pitch.

So what do I expect from him? More of the same please. More of his experience, more of his goals, more of his assists, more of his defending, more of his attacking, more of him keeping the ball in the team, more of him doing the work in the shadow that nobody really notices but is oh so very important in any football team. More recognition also for his hard work.

He is no Cesc and he never will be a Cesc. He is Mikel Arteta. A by me very high rated and influential midfielder. Let him show it how it has to be done in midfield. So the younger ones can take over when he is injured and when he gets the weight of the years we will have his successors ready to take over in the long run.

Let us hope for a fit Mikel Arteta from start to finish and he will be pivotal for how the system works and to keep the balance in the team.

Latest: