Written by Wenger Boy on Tuesday, 18 October 2011 13:05

Good tidings to ye, fair fans of the Arse. Hope you iz all gud, innit.

As I commented on Twitter yesterday, Mondays just feel a whole lot better with an Arsenal win still fresh in the memory. Although I have no doubt that if/when Arsenal begin winning with more regularity the positive buzz on a Monday will diminish and the typical depression will recommence.

Still it’s a sacrifice very much worth making, as I am sure you will all agree.

So then to Sunday. A win, three points and some much needed confidence. You cannot really ask for more. You can, however, beg and pray, and if I were so inclined I would clasp my little handsies together, close my eyes and say:

“Dear anonymous, omnipotent entity,

I have been a good boy all week. I ate all my greens without being asked and I even gave that tramp outside my office a worn Weetabix token that I found in my old jacket so that he could save for the Rudyard Kipling box-set, educate himself in the ways of the English language and escape from the harsh world of homelessness and alcohol abuse that he has fallen into. 

In return all I ask is that you do a spell – or whatever it is that you do - to help my beloved Arsenal refrain from instilling stupid levels of confidence in morally weakened opposition and ensure that they don’t threaten to crumble every time they mis-control a throw-in or discover that their shoelaces aren’t the right colour. 

Thanks,

Wenger Boy”

A win is a win is a win, as they say, but it’s a shame that, despite winning, our games seem so often to exist merely to provoke further discussion about our flaws. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy about winning, I just think it would be nice to sit down after a win and spend our time enjoying the performance and not just infinitely analysing our seemingly incurable ailments.

One ailment, if you can call it that, stems from our biggest positive of all: Robin van Persie. RvP is so good that at the moment he dramatically eclipses every other player in our attack. 

Gervinho shows glimpses, Walcott shows his man too much of the ball, Arteta shows us his shiny hair and Rosicky will no doubt show us the way to the treatment room once you pat him a little too hard on the back for his good performance. Ramsey has already shown that this might be just a little too early for him and Arshavin, well, you just never know what you’re going to get with him. 

Robin ‘God mk. II’ van Persie shows us the lot on a very consistent basis. Passing, shooting, dribbling and, most notably, scoring. And though his form is an undoubted blessing, our over-reliance on him is undoubtedly not, and this means, sadly, that our biggest plus is also our biggest worry right now.

And not just now but for the foreseeable as well. If we don’t improve the team around him the chances of him leaving increase and the chances of us doing well diminish. That’s a scientific fact (as opposed to those other kinds of facts...er...naval and...um...culinary) and something needs to be done to address this issue pretty sharpish.

If we want Robin’s success to come with Arsenal – and note that Arsenal’s immediate future has little chance of success without Robin - then the key lies in giving him in return exactly what he already gives to us: we need to ensure reliable Robin feels he has others around him he can rely on.

The problem is that this essentially requires something that cannot be guaranteed – better performances from other players. Form is that intangible, mystical quality that can come and go in the blink of an eye, seemingly without rhyme or reason. It usually finds its roots within confidence but even the most consistently confident players can lose form without warning. 

Better players of course are less prone to losing form - or at the very least produce better performances when off-form than others do even with it - but since we cannot just magic up better players we have to rely on those we already have to improve, at least until January. 

We are lucky in some respects as we do have a fair few with the potential to step it up, but also pretty damn unlucky that basically all of them are playing below their capabilities at the same time. Walcott, Arshavin, Gervinho, Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky, Benayoun - all we really need is for two players from this list to pick up some real form and the burden on our captain will become significantly less. Diaby can also make a difference, and Jackie Boy of course, but we can’t really rely on either at this moment in time.

Unfortunately most of the above, even at their peak, are nowhere near Robin’s level – with the exception of perhaps Arshavin – but that’s really no sleight on their abilities whatsoever. RvP is the best striker in the Premiership at the moment and if this form brings him success he could be remembered as one of the best this league has seen. Matching that is always going to be difficult, no matter who you put on the pitch.

But we desperately need players who are consistent and on form to battle alongside our captain. Others who can be trusted to make the necessary step up when Robin himself can’t do it. And if those at the club can’t guarantee that between now and the end of December then I see no other option but to buy, and buy well.

In reality we should really be looking to buy even if others find form because Robin is just too special a talent to waste. His excellent form will mean nothing if the team around him is failing and yet with better players around him we may even find his peak is yet to come.  

But until such time as our team improves the biggest danger will always remain. If we don’t reduce our reliance on Robin we may soon end up with no-one we can rely on at all.

WB

@WengerBoy1

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Comments (9)

• 18-Oct-2011 14:28 | | AlexC
  

  Agree with every single word there. Great write up WB.

• 18-Oct-2011 14:39 | | Feeno
  

  We seem to be the only team that suffers these "flaws" every other team in the EPL never loses a goal, never gets a cross into the box against them, never lets a man get turned and have a shot on goal, these resolute defenders of the all the other teams in the EPL are doing a fantastic job it would seem im very suprised no one has tuned out because of all these nil nil draws, i mean the pools coupon folks alone must be taking an absolute doing.
  
  We have faults but we are the only team that every single time something happens the commentators cream themselves "same old frailites" pish, its a game of football it happens

• 18-Oct-2011 23:20 | | sabregas  - cheers
  

  good article mate. agree wholeheartedly

• 19-Oct-2011 00:38 | | richie  - Right On Brutha! good read
  

  Not to blow my own trumpet but this article reminds me of something I wrote back in the day. In 2005 still at Highbury I thought we were way to over reliant on Thierry Henry. I wrote if he "TDH" gets any sort of injury or suspention who will score the goals we need? We ain't got no one else.
  
  After I wrote about my fears I was lucky enough to get an invite to watch the next game from the Nike box. A few of the old guard joined us after the game and I put my fears to Rice-ie (Pat Rice). And I'll never forget what he told me, and why I'm reminded of it now. He said we thought we had addressed that problem a young Brazilian wonder kid striker was on his way to us, but a complication had just cropped up.
  
  The kid had signed a pre contract arrangement with Arsenal that when his contract at Santo ended in 06 he'd come to us. The problem came in the shape of Real Madrid who had offered the kid €25Million for himself and another €25Million to Santos even though their player only had a years contract left with them. I said so whats gonna happen?
  Rice-ie said he's gonna go to Real Madrid and put the €25Million in his bank account, we tore up the agreement we had with him. Even if he never plays again he's set up for life! Shaking my head I could only agree. That young player's name was Robinho.

• 19-Oct-2011 05:02 | | Spectrum
  

  It's true that we rely far too much on Robin.While he's fit, he's our biggest asset, our most steady source of goals. But as the perceptive ones on Le Grove point out ; " We're only a Van Persie injury away from disaster." Why a disaster ? Because WE HAVE NO WORLD CLASS BACK UP TO CALL ON.
  
  Chamakh is the latest of Wenger's flops, which is why we're shipping him out. Park Chu Young was ( supposedly ) meant to be the "big name" striker brought in to address this very situation. But he's been the invisible man since we got him.Makes you wonder if he was Wenger's preferred signing in the first place. Who else have we got ? Vela ? Out on permanent loan, it seems. Theo ? Stop gap measure. The rest are either ( yet more ) wingers, or kids.
  " ******************"

• 19-Oct-2011 08:12 | | MeanLean
  

  Finally found the time to sit down and respond. Great writing WB and I found myself nodding away with everything above.
  
  Clearly van Persie is miles apart from his team mates right now and has been ever since he stayed fit for the first time in ages. It seems quite apparent that a huge Cesc sized hole is missing right now and to be honest that name could be replaced by a handful of players unfortunately these are players wanted by so many other clubs, including the teams that already own their signatures.
  
  The creative attacking midfielder to give passes to Robin, to run beyond Robin and exchange quick decisive passes around the opposition penalty area, was the one position I badly wanted us to fill during the summer and we didn't manage to do it.
  
  Gotze's agent revealed that we had a large offer in around £30m rejected and having read that he has created the most amount of chances so far in Germany, I can't help but feel that we lost out massively there.
  
  We have so many good players in our squad as you say, need to raise their game but none are near the consistent level of RVP as yet. I hope that the current players can continue improving and that we manage to sign that special creative player.
  
  Difficult task but if we want to keep hold of our players then we need to give them the quality they need to move Arsenal forward.

• 19-Oct-2011 08:15 | | MeanLean
  

  Not so sure that it takes a perceptive person to tell you that if our best striker (probably the best in the country) gets injured then you suffer badly.
  
  Rule Rooney out for a length of time and the current Champions would also suffer.
  
  As for Park, going by history I would say that it takes certain players longer to adapt to the Premier League than it does others. Eduardo took a while even Henry, Bergkamp and co took a number of games to get used to the pace.
  
  There are not a huge amount of Korean players in the PL and with such a cultural difference, I imagine that he is going through plenty of work on and off the pitch before we get the best out of him. Time will tell I guess.

• 19-Oct-2011 11:54 | | Spectrum
  

  Mean Lean - "Not so sure that it takes a perceptive person to tell you that if our best striker (probably the best in the country) gets injured then you suffer badly."
  
  Then that begs the obvious question if it's so clear to us, why didn't Wenger see it ? We could do with a QUALITY, WORLD CLASS player in the Van Persie mould to either partner him ( if Wenger ever comes to his senses, and reverts to 4-4-2 ), or act as a backup, couldn't we ? Reasonable enough conclusion ?
  " ******************"

• 20-Oct-2011 01:45 | | richie  - reality checks and re-education for all
  

  ML I can't bring myself to keep answering dumb questions, so I'll let you do it for me. How many strikers of RvP's quality can you name? How many are available? How many if any can we realistically afford to buy? Bearing in mind the new reality that finally seems to be sinking in post the summer transfer bebacle. i.e. Our board ain't gonna buy unless we sell first because the golden rule is all wages have to come from the ticket sales budget. They ain't gonna pull up any money from their own pockets and profits made on sales are banked (for a rainy day) rather than reinvested on players.

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