2010/11
Arsenal seemed to have finally turned a corner last year. Until the League Cup final fiasco they were going strong in every available competition. Obviously Van Persie was actually available for some of the second half of the season but again he was absent for much of it. He spent the first half of the season out after again sustaining an injury on international duty and injured himself in the League cup final. The result was that after getting Arsenal’s equaliser in the final he then had to be subbed on and replaced by the impotent Chamakh. This caused him to miss a further three weeks at a crucial stage of the season. Moreover, arguably Arsenal would have won the League Cup last year had he not been forced off and considering Arsenal’s temperamental mental strength who knows what could have happened had they won that day against Birmingham? Many believe, myself included, that it would have given the Arsenal players a new lease of life and given them the confidence to chase down the League title too. However, Van Persie was taken off, Arsenal lost the final and went on to only win three of their remaining games in all competitions. One of those was against Leyton Orient.
So…
I wouldn’t be as presumptuous to say that had Van Persie been fit over the last few years Arsenal would definitely have won a haul of trophies. To say that would be to deny the other obvious flaws within the team: the leaky defence, goalkeeper problems, poor mentality etc. However it’s pretty clear that Van Persie is good enough to carry a team with those problems, he’s doing it pretty well this year and this is arguably Wenger’s weakest Arsenal squad.
Ultimately it’s not much consolation for Arsenal fans to know that he could have made the difference over the past six years but where this is important is for the critics out there saying that Wenger has lost it or that Arsenal have been rubbish since Vieira left. The fact is that they have had an appalling injury record over the last few years and always to their best players: Vermaelen repeatedly, Van Persie repeatedly, Fabregas repeatedly, Eduardo, Ramsey, Walcott, Rosicky, Diaby, Clichy and now Wilshere. They have all spent a ridiculous amount of time nursing injuries and many of the players never came back the same (for example: Rosicky, Eduardo). Van Persie’s record year in year out speaks for itself there is definitely grounds for the argument that had he not spent the best part of two years out over the last five then things could have been different.
For more news and views on English football follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
Written by Hamish Mackay for FootballFanCast.com
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