Team Chemistry – what is it, how do you make it « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does
Arsenal and Team Chemistry – Something that money cant buy.
By Dark Prince
Team Chemistry – What is it?? It’s something we cannot touch, something we cannot artificially make and most importantly, something which teams like Man C or Real Mad cannot buy. It cannot be quantified or be measured by any man-made machine. But still it exists. So what exactly is Team Chemistry?
Team Chemistry is an understanding between players. It’s how players combine and act together to achieve the desired result. It’s like when Cesc looks at Van Persie and he knows where Van Persie will be in the next few seconds and accordingly he passes at the desired place. It is like a sixth sense flowing through our players. A sort of telepathy which cannot be expressed, but can be felt.
Team Chemistry depends not only on the quality of individual players but also on the experience a player has with his team-mates. Ever wondered why a quality player like Kaka flourished at AC Milan but could not show the same quality in Real Mad?? I can give you countless examples in case for Real Mad- Robben, Snijder, Van Der Vaart, Robinho, etc.
This has been one of the biggest reasons why Real Mad is having a hard time to win the Spanish league. Undoubtedly proving that even buying the world’s best players wont guarantee you winning anything.
If we have a look at Chelsea, we too have seen some examples like Shevchenko, Crespo and many other high profile players. Surely these players were quality, but were not given enough opportunity to gel into the team to see their true potential. You cannot expect a player to instantly gel into the team and the tactics applied by the team.
The next best example being Man City. They bought a truckload of superstar players last year. So what?? They couldn’t even achieve 4th place. Surely, even football pundits expected them to challenge for the title. So what exactly happened? Was it a lack of proper players? Or lack of proper Manager? Or was it something called ‘Team Chemistry’. Believe me, i doubt they still have found the right reason.
For a team like Arsenal, Team Chemistry is vital for their gameplay. The number of passes we make and the way we create goals shows the abundance of Chemistry within the team. We are not like other teams that go for a lucky bang-bang-bang shots to get a goal. How many times how you seen an Arsenal player going in for the long shot?? Not too often, isn’t it??
And that has a reason, a style of play built by Lord Wenger himself, which doesn’t rely on lucky 30 yard shots but on beautifully synchronised game play which truly bamboozles the opposition. Everytime we create a goal scoring opportunity, we can see our gameplay going through the ground like musical notes which soothes the eyes of the viewer. You can sometimes catch yourself staring frozen solid while Arsenal are building up towards the goal. Believe me, it has the same effect on our opponents.
All this possible only because of the enormous amount of Team Chemistry. We can see this Chemistry oozing out from our team with every pass. Something which is created by lots of hard work and training during training sessions which normally goes unnoticed.
A player, no matter how brilliant, requires a certain amount of time to gel into this Team Chemistry. A player like Song looks composed into our team since last season. This is the same player whom most of us wanted to dispose off few years back. Today he is one the best defensive midfielders in EPL. Same goes for many other players. Some may easily gel into this Chemistry while some others will take some time.
This same logic applies to Managers. Every manager has his own style of playing. They too should be given enough time to build up their own Team Chemistry within the squad. It wouldn’t have been surprising if Carlo Ancelloti was sacked if he hadn’t won the league last season. How many managers have Chelsea changed in the last 5 years?? Better still, would they sack Ancelloti if didn’t win a trophy this season?? Unfortunately, some owners as well as managers just don’t realise the quantity of patience required to build a Team Chemistry within a squad.
Fortunately, at Arsenal, with Lord Wenger at the helm, we are blessed to have our own Team Chemistry within our team. He has given each of our players the time and opportunity to gel into the team. He has created his own Team Chemistry which we can relate Arsenal to. And it has taken a lot of patience and hard work from Lord Wenger to create this Team Chemistry amongst the present generation of the Young Gunners.
As a die-hard Arsenal fan, I’m be proud of this Team Chemistry that we have. This Chemistry which is unique to us. And believe me, most other teams don’t even possess any type of chemistry. It cant be bought during transfer markets and It certainly cant be created overnight. And with all the youngsters coming through the Youth Academy learning the Arsenal Chemistry, I’m more proud to say that our future squad too will be playing with the same flair and Chemistry 
Gunners for Life!!