Written by Omomo14
on
Thursday, 13 October 2011 09:53
In August this year we saw the departure of one of the greatest midfield player ever seen in the English league. Francesc Fabregas joined Arsenal as a 16 year old and broke into the team the following year after the sale of another midfield great in Patrick Vieira.
Cesc went on to become club captain, make 312 appearances for the club, scoring 62 goals and churning out 104 assists. The depressing part about his time is he only had one silverware to his name, the 2005 FA cup.
My favourite Arsenal player, Thierry Henry's departure wasn't as painful as Cesc. Cesc had so much to give us, he left at a ripe age of 24 and has started his career at Barcelona in blistering form scoring in the European Super Cup and his first 3 games in the La Liga.
While we knew he was going to leave for Barcelona at some point in his career, A lot of us prayed he stayed and played his best years at Arsenal and won us countless silverware.
Some would say he left because we couldn't guarantee him top honours and also compete with the top dogs in the transfer market.
So Cesc left and in came Mikel Arteta. A £10m signing from Everton on transfer deadline day. He made 208 appearances for Everton, scoring 54 times and churning out an impressive 41 assists.
The second he was signed, the media and their dogs, pundits and most Arsenal supporters started the Arteta and Cesc comparisons and felt Arteta was Cesc direct replacement.
Let's get this straight 1st, in today's transfer market it would be difficult to get a like for like replacement for Cesc. Cesc is a rare kind!
Arteta himself has come out to quash this talk;
“I am not here to replace Cesc and I would be wrong to try that.
Cesc was the best player at Arsenal and one of the top three in the entire Premier League.
I have no aim to become that. My target is simply to try to reach my highest level as a player and to help the team.
Cesc was at Arsenal for seven years. I have been here for a few weeks. If I try to be equal to or better than him, I would be confusing myself.
We're different personalities with a different style. I must find my own way to do well for Arsenal.”
Cesc and Arteta are 2 different players, where the comparisons starts and ends is that they are both products of the Barcelona youth system.
While you all know how Cesc operates, Arteta on the other hand is a midfielder who occasionally can act as an out and out Defensive Midfielder or a deep lying play maker who can burst into the opposition's half to score a goal or 2 or force the issue.
We saw in the Bolton game where he did the sitting and allowed our recognised DM in Song venture forward. Song eventually got a goal that sealed the 3 points.
In the Olympiacos game we saw him play the deep lying role and also help Frimpong in the defensive department, giving Ramsey the opportunity to venture forward and help out in the attacking third.
While Cesc was the player, our attacking play went through. Arteta would be quite different which could be to our advantage, predicting our attacking play becomes very difficult.
Arteta is strong on the ball, intelligent in his movement in and around his own half and times his runs into the opposition's half excellently. His passes are most times very simple but we can't understate what it brings to the team. I agree our transition from defence to attack looks laboured at times but improvement would come with games together.
Arteta would be a perfect fit in a 4-3-3 provided Wenger can get the combination right. As it stands the best midfield 3 combo is Song, Arteta and Jack. The question here is if we look sound in the creativity department. Don't get me wrong Arteta and Jack can pull their weight creatively what I feel they lack is the ability to do it on a regular basis like Cesc did reason I said we need a super quality player in my last write-up.
Arteta would also fit perfectly in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Him and Song acting has a double pivot would give our defence that shield which we have been missing for a while, our movement out of defence would also look effortless knowing we have a player who can pick a pass with calmness and intelligence.
Arteta can also adapt well into a 4-4-2 formation. A midfield him and Song/Jack is a mouth watering combination. The formation would give us defensive and creative balance in the middle and also give us pace down the wings.
Arteta comes into Arsenal at the right age, he won't hinder the development Ramsey and cancels the possibility of Wenger going into the Market for a defensive midfielder knowing he can fill in when needed and also seeing that Coquelin and Frimpong have also been impressive. He also gives us room to add that special talent in our creative department be it in January or in the summer.
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