Adebayor should start looking behind his shoulder. There’s a new kid on the block

Arsenal Analysis resident season ticket holder at the Emirates (North Upper Stand Row Q) was there to watch Arsenal’s latest win against Wigan.

He makes some interesting observations about Diarra’s resemblance to Makelele, Rosicky’s play maker role and Bendtner’s announcement of his serious pretentions.

By Eros

It had to happen I suppose, Sir Alex has been moaning about his injuries all year, we had to get our fair share as well.

What I never understand is how it’s possible to get unavailable players at the same positions. We were stretched to the limit in midfield at the weekend against Wigan.

Flamini got injured in training with ‘Les Bleus’, Gilberto was unavailable because he only got back to London on Friday, Hleb got injured playing for Belarus and apparently is out for 3 weeks, and Diaby is injured once again!

Robin Van Persie was supposed to be ready by now but as usual our medical department got their timescales wrong and he needs a couple more weeks to be fully ready. I hope that the Diagnosis for Hleb and Flamini are accurate as we have a lot of important fixtures coming up!

As was expected with a brand new midfield pairing starting the game on Saturday, we started the game slowly and could not get any tempo going in the first half.

Our passing was sloppy and the bullying tactics of Michael Brown in the middle of the park seemed to work as we could not establish our normal dominance, making our pass and move game difficult to execute.

As a result our forwards were starved of any decent service, and the chances created were at a premium.

Still we created two excellent chances that should have been taken; both created by the lively Walcott. First setting up Ade showing good strength and awareness and then with an explosive run and close control to feed Eboue that got his feet all wrong and managed to miss horribly from the 6 yard line!!!

Slight adjustment was made by Wenger at the interval he releasing Rosicky in a free role. His movement, vision and passing created chaos in the Wigan defence which did not know how to handle him. Still some slack passing in the final third made for a very frustrating game.

After a horrible challenge by Heskey on Walcott, Bendtner came on and was involved in the build up of both goals. First releasing Sagna on the right to cross for Gallas to head the first in.

And then getting the ball behind the half way line running at the heart of the Wigan defence and playing a good ball for Rosicky to finish the game off.

Adebayor should start looking behind his shoulder. There’s a new kid on the block and this kid seems to be for real.

After his blunder earlier in the year when he said some daft stuff in the papers – no it was not a coincidence that he was left out for a few games – he got his head down and has done extremely well every time he was given a chance. Reports say he is in line to start against Seville tomorrow.

I said many times Ade needs to sort his distribution out quickly or he will soon be playing back-up to Nicklas.

I was slightly disappointed by Diarra, starting in his preferred position and not playing his own game. What I mean is, he tried unsuccessfully to copy what Flamini does so well, hassle defenders into losing the ball, pressurise them into mistakes and break up play, which is not his game.


He is more of a Makelele type of player, reading the game extremely well, sensing danger and stopping dangerous situations before they arise. He tried to chase the ball a bit too much and Wigan were on occasion able to pass the ball around our midfield successfully.

It also meant that Denilson was dropping deeper and deeper all the time asking for the ball. This was of course ineffective against their five man midfield as we did not utilise our fullbacks at all, especially in the first half.

When we finally did we were a lot more difficult to defend against. Both Denilson and Diarra showed some glimpses of their incredible talent however, and considering this was their first start together they did ok.

Wenger had a moment of genius in the summer by appointing Gallas as the captain. He has grown immensely in the role and seems to have created a great atmosphere within the camp.


Also he is starting to turn superb all action performances week in week out, first it was the great tackle on Steven Gerrard at Anfield, then the controlled finish against Man U and yesterday he begun and finished the move that broke the deadlock.

If he stays injury free he will make sure that his young team fights for every minute of every game, and if we go through a lean spell at some point he will make sure that heads don’t drop like they have in the past.

Finally, a shout to Bac Sagna who was again excellent yesterday. He is very quickly establishing himself as the best in the league.

A great Saturday was capped off by news at the Reebok that ex Arsenal boy Anelka’s goal was enough to put United to the sword.

The league will be won by the team that copes with injuries the best and United looked decidedly ordinary without Ronaldo and Rooney on Saturday.

People in North London are starting to believe this can actually be our year.


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