For years now, Arsenal fans have been singing the praises of their big Belgium bruiser Thomas Vermaelen. The conventional wisdom is that he’s the best centre-back at the club and one of the best in the League – it’s just unfortunate that he’s part of a team that doesn’t know how to defend. Over the last couple of weeks, this conventional wisdom has been severely tested. Is Thomas Vermaelen the man we thought he was?
When he first came to the club he was calm, collected, vocal and commanding. He instantly took control of an Arsenal defence that was struggling and established himself as one of the most important players in the squad. Why is it then that nowadays I’d be more confident with a Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny partnership at the heart of the Gunner’s defense?
One thing that Vermaelen was always praised for was being a leader. But when Arsenal most needed a performance this season he was found severely lacking.
He was one of the worst players on the pitch against AC Milan and that’s saying something. He got pulled out of position regularly, left their forwards with too much space and time and generally got turned inside out. His slip in the lead up to Robinho’s goal summed up his whole performance.
What’s more, he wasn’t any better against Sunderland when Arsenal crashed out of the FA Cup. That’s two games now in his favoured centre-back position playing alongside the more than capable Laurent Koscielny where he’s looked plain bad. He looks like a man completely shorn of confidence and that’s something I never thought I’d be saying about Vermaelen.
The problem probably started with his stretch as a fill-in left-back during Arsenal’s full-back crisis. Arsene Wenger risked Andre Santos in a meaningless European game when Kieran Gibbs was already injured and this resulted in Arsenal having no left-backs to choose from. As a result, Vermaelen was tasked with playing in an unfamiliar role – something he did pretty badly.
This Arsenal team is desperately lacking in spirit and confidence and the fact that this is now prevalent amongst their best players is worrying.
Hopefully Vermaelen’s poor form is temporary. He has shown his class over the years and once he readjusts to playing as a centre-back and playing with Laurent Koscielny he may look like his old self once again. For Arsenal’s sake, the sooner this happens, the better.
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Football is a TEAM GAME ….. the whole team is accountable whatever the end result is!
I can’t believe that you somehow try to blame Wenger for Santos’s injury. A player can get injured in training, walking to the car, putting his socks on…Is Wenger not supposed to play the players he’s got??? Was he supposed to put the Reserves out? All of those Arsenal fans that were there supporting would have loved that.
Complete trash.
This article smells as bad as a Nuns piss flaps!!
There is this saying that, “spectators are normaly the best players”, which is what most of you are. If you are better than Wenger and or Vermaelen you will have been employed as the manager, or recruited in place of vermaelen.All thesame, as spectators, keep playingT the with your mouth, it makes you the best.
One bad game against AC Milan and suddenly he’s rubbish!!! Are you sure????
You weren’t so vocal everytime Fabregas choked in big games. I think he was more of a dissapointment when we really needed him. If Tony Adams had been captain the last two seasons Fabregas was at the club I think we would have won at least one league title, if not two. But Fabregas was a serial choker and went missing when he was most needed.
I still have every confidence in Vermaelen than I ever had in Fabregas