After Swansea, part 1: The missing link

By Walter Broeckx

When does a team reaches it’s tipping point? Or what is the importance of that one player that rarely catches the highlights but who is so important for the balance in the team? Are Arsenal really a one man team for the moment? And with a one man team I don’t mean Robin Van Persie. No I mean Arteta. Let’s have a look and try to see what was missing yesterday when we played at Swansea.

We have our injuries of course. We have a few players away on the Africa cup. Without wanting to step in to Dale’s territory too much but if I am correct we couldn’t pick the following players yesterday: Fabianski, Sagna, Jenkinson, Santos, Gibbs, Vermaelen. That is 5 defenders and one goal keeper missing. And as Mertesacker has been sick all week and hadn’t trained it wasn’t the best of preparation possible for this game.

In attack we didn’t have Gervinho and Chamakh. And I think the first one is the hardest to miss. I know he lacks a bit of composure certainly in front of goal but what he does bring is a constant threat to the other team and he certainly is a player that is ready and willing to work hard for the team. Something we cannot say of all the other players at times.

And in midfield we were without the long term absentees Wilshere and Diaby. Rosicky was on the bench but like Mertesacker he hadn’t trained all week because of illness. And as a special surprise missing person we had the absence of Mikel Arteta. The first rumours about his absence came on Saturday and I really hoped it would be nothing more than this: a rumour and best of all a false rumour. But when the team sheet was announced he was missing and on arsenal.com it said that he had a mild calf strain.

After the game we now know exactly what Arteta brings to the current Arsenal team. He is no Cesc that spreads the ball around and gives assists and does many brilliant things in a game (when Cesc was in form that is). He isn’t a Cesc just like that. No he is maybe more important because Cesc didn’t have to defend much as he got a lot of freedom in his role to attack. But Arteta is a player that links defence and attack in a way that Cesc could or didn’t have to do it.

Arteta is not just a great passer of the ball (I think his statistics are really amazing) but he also is a good reader of the game. And maybe more importantly he also knows how to defend and how to get his foot in when needed. He is not just a player that runs around the field like a blind man but he is there where you need him.

But yesterday when we needed him… he wasn’t there. Sidelined with an injury and we can only hope and pray he will be back very, very, very, very soon.

On Monday when we got past Leeds in the FA cup Arteta was given the captain’s armband. Okay RVP was given a rest, Vermaelen was out injured so someone had to get it but the choice of Arteta was not just a choice of ‘oh, lets just give it to him” . No I really do think it was the choice for the most important person in the team.

It was a long time ago but for the first time it felt as if there was not a real team on the field, just 11 individuals. The lines didn’t link up with each other as we have seen it in most of our games. I think it was because of Arteta not being there to make the link between the lines. Something he does when he plays and something that goes unnoticed most of the time. Until the player who does this is not available.

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We lost the ball far too easily at times and this cost us at least one goal. Combined with a young and rather inexperienced makeshift left back who totally ran out of position after winning the ball in his youthful enthusiasm. Learning money they call it in my part of the world. But this is something you can have when you have to play a young and inexperienced central defender as a 5th choice left back.

We could and should have defended better but to do this we must have our best defenders back. So I’m not going to blame Miquel for making a mistake as I hope and think they will talk to him about it and point at the fact that sometimes you just have to wait a second before running forward when there is no need for it.

The saddest thing however yesterday was that I saw on Twitter that some stupid and classless person who called himself an Arsenal supporter went completely over the line when he was twittering about Aaron Ramsey. I think nobody will realise more than he himself (and if not tell him Arsène) that he didn’t have his best game. In fact I noticed before that when Arsenal pass the Welsh border he suddenly loses his composure a bit.

I seem to remember when he came in the first team a few seasons ago as a very young person we had to play in Wales in the FA cup. He got a starting place in that game and he was awful. You just could see he wanted to show the people in Wales who he was. And then sometimes you end up with being too nervous and under-performing.

Was it the same yesterday? Was he to eager to make a mark in the game to show the people over there what he can do and produce? He is still young and he still has to learn a lot. Maybe he put too much pressure on himself yesterday. He was in the middle of the penalty decision and lost the ball for the second goal so a very unfortunate afternoon for the young Welshman in his own country.

But as he has overcome his terrible injury and shown character in doing so, he should be able to overcome such a day and again show what he is made of in the next weeks. And maybe with the presence of Arteta in his neighbourhood he will have a great person who can guide him better on the field.

A few stupid and avoidable and costly mistakes from some of our young players didn’t help our cause. If we had taken our early chances we could have got a better result. But if you don’t take your chances, you can end up losing the game. A long known and hard truth in football. And we had our early chances in this game. From what I could see in fact (I had a bad stream) it looked as if Swansea was not that great until they got the penalty.

And for those morons who have been twittering those terrible messages towards Ramsey: just leave Arsenal. You are not worth of being an Arsenal supporter. Go and support some scum team. Because that is what you are when you write such messages to one of the great Arsenal players of the future. Because Ramsey will be a massive player for us. Just like Arteta is a massive player for us already now. But sometimes people don’t realise what they have until it is gone.

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