Do Arsenal lack leaders and winners?

May 19, 2008 | 52 Comments

Recently, I had a very feisty argument with a friend. He is a German and his favorite club is Bayern Munich. In England, his favorite club is actually Arsenal. But he essentially told me that Arsenal are a team of pussies and we will never win anything with this set of players. I obviously disagreed and we had quite an argument. He put forward some scenarios to illustrate his point

1. Gerrard converts penalty against Arsenal in the CL. Ballack converts penalty against ManU in the league. Ronaldo converts penalty on the final day at Wigan. When the stakes are so high, which Arsenal player would you trust, not just to step up to take the penalty but actually convert it?

My first answer was RvP, but he is injured often and not guaranteed to be on the pitch. The only other person I could think of was Eduardo.

2. Free kick for Chelsea against ManU, Ballack and Drogba are actually fighting over who takes it. Free kick for ManU against Arsenal, Ronaldo or Hargreaves can take it and maybe others too. If Arsenal get a free kick in a key game, who will step up? Will it be a case of you first?

Again, my first answer was RvP. I really couldn’t think of anyone else.

3. Torres’ 1:1 against Arsnal and Chelsea in the CL, Rooney’s 1:1 against Chelsea at the Bridge and Drogba’s goals against Liverpool in the CL. Which Arsenal player would you trust in a 1:1 in such a tight game?

My only answer was Eduardo. We all know Ade is not very good on 1:1s and I am not sure of RvP either.

There were some other examples, but you get the drift of it by now. My main line of defense was that you don’t come so close without having top players in the side. Just because we fell apart doesn’t mean we lack leaders and winners? There were lots of other reasons – injuries, bad referee decision, fatigue due to lack of depth, etc.

My friend also made some other comments. Living in Germany, he sees lots of Bundesliga games. He claims that not only is Hleb a big loser (something most of us know by now), but also that Rosicky is not much of a big game player. He claims that despite being captain of the Czech team, the big boys are Nedved, Poborsky and Koller.

Certainly the fact that we fell apart in key games at Anfield, the Bridge and OT does show a certain vulnerability. Is it simply a weak defense or do we need more leaders/winners in the team?

Posted by nipuna | Filed Under Mailbag