Arsenal may be on as good a Premier League run as they have managed for 20 months but for Arsène Wenger the scars from the early-season blows have not yet healed. "I'm always a little bit concerned that the ghosts we had to fight one month ago will come back," he confessed after their most relaxed win of the season.
"We are not yet on a completely different planet. Until then we have still to fight against it. One month ago [it was actually nearly two] we played here against Swansea and had absolutely to win or you had a complete disaster. One month ago the questions we had to answer were: 'Do you face a relegation battle or not?' That makes the game more difficult. It's more enjoyable now. We are a bit lighter in our display and that gives us confidence."
Maturity was the asset that Wenger identified as critical in his team's turnaround. The addition of experienced signings from the summer transfer window, added to the return of the likes of Thomas Vermaelen, has given Arsenal an older, and shrewder, spine. Against West Brom, the backbone of the team included Vermaelen (aged 25), Alex Song (24), Mikel Arteta (29) and Robin van Persie (28).
Three of them delivered the goals and Song was a little unfortunate not to join them on the scoresheet. But they all provided so much more than end product. There was an authority, a calmness, a sense of complete control that was not evident earlier in the season when Arsenal were prone to looking panic stricken. "I feel we have more experience in the side and know how to the kill the game without exposing ourselves," said Wenger.
He paid tribute to the growing influence of Arteta, who has taken responsibility for much of the unsung work in midfield: "He's a really important player in our team. He is the player between Song and [Aaron] Ramsey or [Tomas] Rosicky. That gives us continuity. When we need to keep the ball he can do that. With Jack [Wilshere] missing he is really a player who allows you to keep the ball when it is needed."
Wenger feels it is only bad luck that Arteta has never played international football – like many impressive Spanish players from the current generation. "Spain have plenty of midfielders who are absolutely outstanding," Arsenal's manager said. "What didn't help him maybe was that he was very young when he moved to clubs who were not as ambitious as they should have been.He moved to Rangers where it is difficult to convince managers in Spain that you deserve a chance in the Spanish national team."
Arteta says he will watch his compatriots in their upcoming friendly against England on the television, and enjoy a few days with his family. It will be a well earned breather for a player who has played every Premier League and Champions League game since he joined Arsenal for £10m on the stroke of transfer deadline.
He has had to adapt to a more cautious role and wants to find the ideal balance between his linking duties and a more offensive style. "For me, it's important that I help the team in an attacking way it a bit more," he said. "We've been working on being a bit more solid but I like to get forward, get freedom and I like to score goals," said the former Everton player. "I want to participate more on the attacking side so I did that and I'm pleased with that. I've not had a lot of time to settle. We've been under a lot of pressure to win games – we've needed results. But I've only been here two months. There's a lot of things to learn, a lot of things to improve, and hopefully I can do that."
For West Brom, the international break comes at a good time to allow them to try and get the successive defeats by Liverpool and Arsenal out of the system. "We've not been at our best in the last two games," said the defender Jonas Olsson. "We've shown last year we can compete against these teams but for us to get anything out of it everything has to click.
"We need to get some results against the teams around us. There's some important games coming up for us." Bolton, QPR, Wigan and Blackburn are on the horizon, so the opportunity to regroup is there. Finding a workable alternative to the front two of Shane Long and Peter Odemwingie is no simple task, though.
Simon Cox, whose efforts up front yielded little reward, cannot wait to turn his attention to the international scene in the days ahead as he joins up with the Republic of Ireland for their play-off against Estonia. "Any part I play in helping the team get to the Euros, I would be happy to play," he said. "If we get there it would be the biggest, most significant memory of my career."
Events from two years ago, when Ireland lost a play-off for the World Cup finals in the most painful of circumstances as France profited from Thierry Henry's handball, are a spur, but only in the context that there are no free passes to a tournament just because someone is due some good luck.
"We will take that as inspiration to win the game, but we can't look at that," he said. "That was back then, this is now. We will go into the game full of confidence on the back of really good results. We have conceded one goal in nine appearances, so we will take that as a basis and work forward. We have as good a chance as anyone. And I think it's our time after what happened before. They are probably the most important games of my career."
Source: Amy Lawrence, The Guardian on 6 Nov 11
No comments:
Post a Comment