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We only had one Song

766 comments August 20th, 2012

Alex’s Song is Sung.  The Cameroon international midfielder has worn the Arsenal jersey for the final time.  At the end of an extraordinary journey, the player once so dreadful he was booed off by his own fans will join arguably the greatest club side in the game’s history: FC Barcelona.

On the face of it, it’s a strange transfer for both clubs and the player.  Song is not a typical Barca player, so why have they bought him?  He is a vital part of Arsenal’s system, so why have we sold him?  And why has the player left a guaranteed first-team spot for a place on the Barca bench?

I suppose we could deal with those questions one at a time.  Barca want Song because he is atypical, not in spite of the fact.  Having lost Seydou Keita in the summer, they want a player with similar physical presence.  His versatility also appeals: last night they lined up with Javier Mascherano in defence; Song has both the defensive attributes and the ball skills to play as an adventurous centre-half when required.

The question of why Arsenal have chosen to sell Song is far harder to answer.  For several years now, he’s been a vital cog in our system.  After the loss of Mathieu Flamini, he stepped up to become an integral part of the midfield.  His improvement has been dramatic – and boy did it have to be.  When he first stepped in to the side as an awkward, shuffling 17-year old, he looked to lack even the most basic technique.  However, a loan spell at Charlton and the odd Carling Cup run-out dramatically improved him, and he evolved in to a competent and occasionally creative midfielder.  Last season his progress saw him frequently playing in a more advanced position, providing assist after assist for Robin van Persie.  Song is arguably Arsene’s greatest developmental success, so why sell him now?  As far as I can see, there are three main reasons: economics, tactics, and attitude.

Economics: £15m for a player who cost just a couple of million from Bastia is very good business.  Song’s agent was demanding exorbitant wages, and perhaps Arsene felt that salary budget could be better invested elsewhere.

Tactics: As the manager has been so keen to point out this week, Arsenal have an abundance of central midfielders.  If Abou Diaby stays fit and Jack Wilshere’s comeback remains vaguely on schedule, we can add them to a list that also includes Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Emmanuel Frimpong, and Francis Coquelin.  Over the past two seasons Arsene has shifted the formation slightly to go with two deeper-lying midfielders behind one more advanced creative player.  With the news that he’s set to replace Song with the significantly less physical Nuri Sahin, it’s clear he now feels he can afford to go without a physical, ‘destroyer’ type, opting instead for a more mobile, possession-led midfield trio.

Attitude: Arsene has admitted that Song made it plain he was keen to go.  If rumours are to be believed, his attitude on the Asia tour was poor, and the manager was left in little doubt about the player’s desire to move on.  It’s worth noting that after the departure of Robin van Persie, Song was the final remaining client of one Darren Dein.  Perhaps the club wanted to take this opportunity to wipe the slate clean and rid the club of any disruptive influences in one fell swoop.

As for Song himself, he’s not a guy who lacks confidence or self belief: if he’s joining Barca, it’s because he believes he can play an important role in one of the sport’s greatest teams.  Good luck to him – he’ll have to step it up another notch or three all over again.

So thats the whys and wherefores taken care off.  Now on to the thornier issue of whether or not it’s a good thing for the club.  From an economic perspective, it certainly is.  From an attitude perspective, it probably is.  But I do worry about it from a tactical point of view.  Just a few weeks ago many fans were clamouring for Arsene to bring in Yann M’vila as potential support and competition for Song.  Now we’re likely to enter the season with neither.

I believe it may have been me who originally said: “Song is not a defensive midfielder – he’s just our most defensive midfielder”.  A neat quip, but now our most defensive midfielders are either relatively untested prospects like Coquelin and Frimpong, or guys like Arteta, Diaby, and Wilshere – midfielders who aren’t very defensive at all.  Arteta is our most disciplined midfielder, but he lacks Song’s considerable physical clout.

It may not be a problem.  Arsene is doubtless inspired by the way the Spanish midgets hypnotized the competition during the European Championships.  A midfield containing the likes of Arteta, Wilshere, Sahin and Cazorla could prove impossible to dispossess.  But I can’t help worrying about the fact that one of the weediest midfields in the Premier League just got a whole lot weedier.

Song’s departure also puts a slightly different spin on our summer.  A few weeks ago we had brought in Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla, and still had Van Persie.  Now we’ve lost the Dutchman and, to most people’s surprise, Song.  Earlier in the summer, that trio of signings looked like a considered statement of intent: we were finally loosening the purse strings to improve the squad.  By selling Song and Van Persie, we’ve actually covered those costs entirely.  Once again, Arsenal head towards the end of the summer in profit.  It’s almost as if we planned it like this.

We only had one Song.  And I can’t help but feel a little alarmed that Arsene doesn’t look in much of a rush to replace him.

For your consideration: Thoughts on Cazorla, RVP, & Song

39 comments August 11th, 2012

Hello all. I write this from the Edinburgh festival, where I am making my way through a mostly fun but occasionally torturous month of work. I have been meaning to sit down and write this blog for some time. Finally, having pretended to be meeting a fictional family member by the name of ‘Gavin’, I have found the peace and quiet required to do so.

Let’s begin with the most exciting news of the past couple of weeks: the signing of Santi Cazorla. I was rather deliberate about not talking too much about the Spaniard’s potential signing. This was in part because I had no substantial information to add, but also because it all sounded a bit too good to be true. A Spanish international midfielder for just £12.6m? Surely not. Even now that the deal has gone through, I won’t really believe it until I see him run out in red and white.

It’s clear that Arsene has been a long-time admirer of the player, and now he’s got his man, twelve months later than originally intended. I’ve bored you before with my observation that Arsenal never signed a replacement for Cesc Fabregas last summer – the deeper deployment of Mikel Arteta made him more of a stand-in for the injured Wilshere. Now, in Cazorla, we have one: a playmaker with experience, class, and match-winning ability.

Most independent observers of last year’s La Liga will tell you that Cazorla was the best Spanish midfielder outside the top two. When I’ve watched him, the thing I’ve most been struck by is how genuinely two-footed he is: at first glance, it is almost impossible to tell whether he is right or left-footed. Inevitably, this makes him a dangerous prospect in the wide positions, as he can go both inside and out. However, I expect he will start his Arsenal career in a less familiar central role. Not only are we already well stocked in wide areas, but Tomas Rosicky is injured and will not be fit for the start of the season. Cazorla should be able to slot in beside Arteta and Song to form an impressive midfield triumvirate.

Whilst Malaga’s financial plight made the fee far from extortionate, it’s still a massive signing for Arsenal. When you add his arrival to that of Podolski and Giroud, it’s even bigger. So much so that fans seem far more relaxed than previously about the future of Robin van Persie.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Dutchman intends to leave Arsenal this summer. The recent comments of Alex Ferguson convince me that he has probably arrived at some sort of provisional agreement with Manchester United too – they wouldn’t risk the embarrassment of going public with the bid if they thought there was a chance RVP would reject them.

From the outside it looks as if Arsenal are waiting for a bidding club to hit a trigger point – probably somewhere around the £20m mark. If that happens, Van Persie will go. If it doesn’t, he’ll stay and see out his contract. The latter option is feasible: I don’t think he’s the type to kick up and fuss and refuse to play if he doesn’t get what he wants. However, my gut instinct is still that he will be gone by August 31st. It might go all the way to the wire.

I made my peace with Van Persie’s probable exit a while ago, but I am a little worried about the reports of Barcelona’s interest in Alex Song. Whilst I admit he has flaws, I’m a big fan of the Cameroon midfielder, and unlike with Van Persie I cannot see an obvious replacement within the squad. Ironically, if Barca do get Song, they are likely to field him as a centre-back rather than a midfielder. Arsenal remain in a strong position: Song has three years remaining on his deal. However, We know that Barcelona like to do their business in the newspapers, and this one could get quite ugly.

For now, though, I’m not going to dwell on the negatives. We face FC Koln tomorrow afternoon, and it’ll be a first chance to see Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla in an Arsenal shirt. The new season is just around the corner, and there’s cause for optimism. I’ll have a report on the friendly for you on Monday.

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A. Song For Europe

65 comments November 24th, 2011

Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

When the Champions League draw was made, a lot of hullabaloo was made about the perceived difficulty of Manchester City’s group.  So much so that our treacherous passage passed almost without mention, which was even surprising considering that, lest we forget, we were a club ‘in crisis’.

As United and Chelsea geared up for predictable processions, a shaken Arsenal side were set to face the Champions of both Germany and Greece.  City’s ‘group of death’, it should be noticed, does not contain a single domestic Champion.

And yet this morning, Arsenal are the only English side qualified for the knockout phase.  Not only that, but we can play our final group game away to Olympiacos safe in the knowledge that whatever happens, we will win the group, thus avoiding the likes of Bayern, Inter, Madrid and Barca in the last 16.

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling tremendously proud, which is something that was difficult to envisage in the dark days of August.  So much credit is due to Arsene Wenger and the team for the way in which they’ve turned things around.  Hopefully reaching this milestone will provide a significant confidence boost as we chase our goals for the rest of the season: principally, making sure we’re back in the competition next season.

Dortmund started brightly, but their plans were disrupted by two injuries in quick succession.  First, Sven Bender launched a tackle at Thomas Vermaelen.  Against a mere human, Bender would doubtless have walked away unscathed.  After tangling with The Verminator, however, he found himself with a jaw that was broken in two places.  Ouch.

Moments later, Mario Götze came off worse in a clash with the imposing Alex Song, and limped off.  The playmaker had started brightly, and was naturally a big loss to a Dortmund side whose work ethic and incisive passing had made them a real threat early on.

Arsenal didn’t manage to carve out any clear-cut chances in the first-half, but within four minutes of the second they were ahead.  Alex Song seemed possessed by the spirit of Thierry Henry, who was looking on from the upper tier, as he picked up the ball on the left-hand side and waltzed past four defenders before looping a wonderful cross to the back post.  Predictably, the man there to meet it was Robin van Persie, who planted a firm header beyond the goalkeeper.

It was a fantastic piece of individual play by Song, and a telling contribution towards his man of the match performance.  It’s somewhat ironic, however, that his most memorable moment was a piece of attacking play, because it was on the defensive side that he really excelled.  He played deeper than usual, and did some superb work covering the forward forays of Andre Santos.  It’s no coincidence that on a night where Song patrolled in front of the back-line so effectively, Santos had his best game in an Arsenal shirt.

The same should have been sealed shortly after.  Aaron Ramsey, inventive and industrious in midfield, played in Gervinho.  However, the Ivorian is clearly yet to find the shooting boots he mislaid so spectacularly at Carrow Road, and he rounded the keeper only to hesitate and allow the chance to go by.  His finishing simply has to improve: at some point, misses like this will cost us.

Not last night, however – thanks again to that man, Robin van Persie.  I had pleaded in my preview for someone else to step up to the goalscoring mantle, but it wasn’t to be.  The Dutchman just cannot stop scoring.  The goal that clinched the game typified the groove he is in – stepping away from his marker early to reach a Thomas Vermaelen near-post flick on and tap in to an unguarded net.  He now has more than four times as many goals as our next highest scorer.  And, at last, we’ve managed to score from a corner.

There was a late consolation for Dortmund, with Kagawa side-footing home after some slack defending from substitute Johan Djourou.  Hearteningly, Thomas Vermaelen was furious and berated his team-mates.  We’re beginning to take pride in the game’s less glamorous elements.  Their fans deserved to see a goal.  They were superb throughout the ninety minutes, even managing a chorus of “You only sing when you’re winning” in perfect English.

In recognition, Arsenal fans concurred “we only sing when we’re winning”.  But last night, we had plenty to sing about.  And, after all, we only needed One Song.

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Centurion RVP helps Arsenal vanquish Bolton

126 comments September 25th, 2011

RVP celebrates his 100th Arsenal goal

Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

In the circumstances, this was just the result we needed.  Three goals, three points, a clean sheet, and a landmark moment for the talismanic Robin van Persie.

At half-time, the result was still very much in the balance.  It was 0-0, and Wojciech Szczesny had produced an outstanding early save to keep his sheet clean.  Arsenal should have gone ahead when Mikel Arteta played in Gervinho, but the Ivorian’s touch was too heavy and the ball ran through to Jussi Jääskeläinen.

Bolton were marking very tight in midfield and Arteta seemed to be carrying all the creative responsibility.  Aaron Ramsey was having little impact, and Walcott and Gervinho struggled for space on the flanks.  Despite missing Gary Cahill through illness, Bolton looked secure at the back and a threat on the break.

Occasionally, Arsene Wenger’s critics accuse him of lacking tactical acumen.  However, his post-match explanation of his half-time team-talk instantly dispels that myth:

“I felt that in the first half we were a bit impatient sometimes, that we didn’t move the ball quickly enough, that our midfielders came a bit deep because we were man-marked. That exposed us a bit to counter-attacking and we had less support up front. In the second half, maybe because they were fatigued as well, our midfielders played higher up and we became straight away more dangerous.”

Our second half display was also helped by two things that settled our obvious nerves: an early goal, and a sending off for Bolton.  First, Van Persie finished superbly from a narrow angle after the referee waived play on when Gervinho was brought down in midfield.  Then David Wheater was dismissed for tugging back Theo Walcott after he’d been played in by an improving Ramsey.

It was a game in which we saw the good and the bad of Walcott.  He showcased his electrifying pace, racing behind the defence to leave Wheater fatally training, and reaching a Ramsey pass to cross for RVP to nudge home his second goal of the game and 100th for Arsenal.  He also showed just why he frustrates, missing a couple of glaring opportunities – one when set clean through by the impressive Alex Song.  On balance it was an effective display, and Arsene will hoping that the knee injury which forced him to limp off is not too serious.

It was that second goal, created by Walcott, that killed the game, and made for a fantastic landmark for Van Persie.  He joins sixteen other Arsenal centurions in passing the milestone, and his pride in doing so will only be tempered by the thought of how many he might have were it not for a succession of injuries.

Alex Song gabbed a deserved late third, stepping inside his man to curl in to the top corner.  The three points mean that a win at White Hart Lane next weekend would take us above them in the league – as if any more incentive for a North London Derby were needed.

I thought there were plenty of positives to take from today’s game, albeit against ten men.  Mikel Arteta continues to look every inch the class act we hoped he would be, and Alex Song appears to be stepping up to the midfield mantle with some incisive passing to match his essential physical presence.

At the back we coped well with the supposed threat of Kevin Davies, on as an early sub for the injured N’Gog.  Mertesacker and Koscielny were happy to let Davies win the majority of long-balls; they got tight enough to him to prevent him bringing the ball down, and were able to intercept the second ball every time.  For all the headers Davies won, barely a single one reached a team-mate.

Our concentration at set-pieces was better too.  It was heartening that when defending a corner in stoppage time, at 3-0 up, Wojciech Szczesny was bellowing at his team-mates to concentrate.  A clean sheet will do the defence a world of good.

Next up it’s Olympiakos in the Champions League.  Another home game, and a chance to maintain that momentum ahead of that crucial derby game a week today.