When Arsenal secured one of their finer results last season, a 5-3 victory away at Chelsea, Robin Van Persie contributed a hat-trick to his side’s tally. That was a familiar tale during a year in which the Gunners were widely dismissed as being a one-man team. The Dutchman scored 30 of his side’s 74 Premier League goals, and without his efforts it is quite likely that the Emirates would not be hosting Champions League football this term.
With Van Persie leaving Arsenal for Old Trafford, where he has continued to excel, many Gooners were understandably concerned as to how their team would cope and their worries have proved to have foundation. Arsene Wenger hasn’t replaced the 29 year-old’s goals. Olivier Giroud arrived from Montpellier but is yet to find any consistency, while Lukas Podolski, after a bright start to his career in English football, has looked heavy-legged of late. Wenger’s other major summer capture, Santi Cazorla, burst into the Premier League with a series of skilful and exciting performances, but he too has lost some of his early zest.
During their 2-0 home defeat by Manchester City a week ago there was an appalling lack of willingness by many of the Arsenal players to take any responsibility for their team’s performance. The one man who stood tall, and tried everything within his capability to drag his side forward was Jack Wilshere. The young Englishman followed his energetic, determined, and selfless display against the champions with an equally exceptional individual showing against Swansea City in the F.A. Cup.
Pushed further forward into an authentic ‘Number 10’ role against the Welsh side, Wilshere was outstanding, demonstrating a vast range of attributes, and his capacity to pose myriad problems for opponents when operating closer to their goal. It was the midfielder’s purpose, drive, tenacity, and ultimately ability, which took Arsenal through to the 4th round of the cup.
Unfortunately for the Gunners on Sunday, they couldn’t achieve the same triumphant result as in October 2011 at Stamford Bridge, while again relying so heavily on one individual. The nature of Van Persie’s dominance of his own side was his incredibly consistent goal-scoring, consequently meaning that Arsenal were rarely bereft of hope in any match in which he played.
For Wilshere however, it is a different story. Against adversaries as strong as Manchester City and Chelsea he is striving manfully to compete against midfields which rank amongst the best in the world. The responsibility on the shoulders of a 21 year-old is alarming.
After Sunday’s defeat in West London, Arsene Wenger made reference again to his team’s ‘physical problem to get going’, a frailty he had identified after the home loss to City. The Frenchman also cited again the difficulty of playing every three days. These attempts at offering some mitigation for Arsenal’s unacceptably timid and supine performances for 90 minutes against Manchester City, and then 45 minutes at Chelsea, are surely an attempt to mask greater concerns.
The Gunners’ opponents yesterday have had to manage a more exacting schedule than any other club in the Premier League thanks to their involvement in the FIFA Club World Cup and European Super Cup, in addition to regular domestic and European demands. Nonetheless, it was Chelsea that looked a fresh, incisive, and bright unit.
For Arsenal, Abou Diaby continued his poor return to the side. The Parisian was typically careless in possession, not least when being robbed by Ramires in the lead up to the Brazilian winning the penalty from which Frank Lampard scored Chelsea’s second goal. Francis Coquelin worked hard but is short of the requisite quality to operate at the most rarefied level.
These are the two players deployed to provide the base which allows Wilshere to take up a position higher up the pitch. With their inability to take any grasp on proceedings though, Wilshere is forced to retreat and fight defensively. Once Arsenal gain a foothold the onus immediately switches onto the youngster to carry the ball, and so alleviate pressure on his team, or to provide a killer delivery for a colleague.
There were plenty of examples of Wilshere’s excellent vision in each of the three games in which he featured last week, as he delivered an array of clever, perfectly-weighted passes. A rare ability to repeatedly find space in congested areas, and make himself available to receive the ball was also showcased. Nevertheless, unlike Van Persie, whose position affords him conclusive responsibility, Wilshere is often reliant on inferior team-mates to finish his creative work. Against Swansea and Chelsea, he has watched on as a catalogue of chances have been spurned, Giroud and Walcott the chief culprits.
It is a mark of Arsenal’s current status that they have acceded to Walcott’s exorbitant contract demands, so fearful are they of supporter unrest at seeing another headline player leave the club. There is little doubt that Walcott has individual qualities, particularly his pace and improving finishing. The ex-Southampton man remains horribly erratic though, and is not someone who a side with ambitions as grand as Arsenal’s should be placing so much faith in.