Cesc Fabregas was injured in December 21, ten days before the transfer window opened.
But Wenger was never going to buy another playmaker to replace Fabregas for four months.
He was always going to switch his team around, try Denilson, Diaby, Nasri and Eboue in different combinations. And he was always likely to give a French player a bigger role.
Clearly, Fabregas is a very different type of playmaker to Nasri. He mainly plays one/two touch and creates goals with early passes that other players cannot see. At his best, Fabregas is shrewd, economical and deadly. Nasri usually holds the ball more, carries it forward and sideways, dribbles in the middle third, looks, dribbles a bit more, then passes.
After Fabregas was crocked, Wenger wanted to see how Nasri, his other brainy footballer, could shape the play from the middle of the park. Even though Aaron Ramsey, the teenager, is more like Fabregas in style. Arsenal is a French club playing in England, as Robbie Pires noted, and it’s had three French captains before the Spaniard earned the armband, so it’s always likely that a French player will be given a bigger role , if a bigger role is up for grabs.
The style difference between Fabregas and Nasri is a bit like the style difference between Bergkamp and Merson, which I analysed in The Professor.
In 1997 and 2007, Wenger wanted to speed up Arsenal’s attack. He sold Merson to do that in 1997-98, and replaced Gilberto with Flamini to do that again in 2007-2008. Those were radical changes to his Arsenal team and both innovations worked very well. Incisive thinking and bold action by the manager. He knew he needed to change the way Arsenal played, so he changed it in July, before the season started. He saw enough in training, and in pre-season, to persuade him that those changes (bringing in Overmars and Flamini) would give him the improvement he deeply craved : he likes to penetrate defences quickly by passing the ball forward to accelerating goalscorers. He went for it in 1997 and he went for it again in 2007. He made Arsenal’s attack much quicker, more direct, more effective.
I’ve never thought that Arsene Wenger got enough credit for his originality, so I made that one of the themes of my book.
It’s now mid-winter and mid-season and it’s cold and not the best time to play great football.
I reckon Arsenal have only scored 12 goals in their last 11 league games. That’s not been enough to keep the team in fourth place. Unbeaten in their last seven games, Arsenal are fifth but only four points behind Chelsea in second place.
Against Bolton’s deep-lying 4-5-1 formation, Nasri made some tasty passes. He picked out Adebayor when he was unmarked but Ade muffed his shot. In The Observer Paul Hayward said he took three seconds to get his shot in. Having watched that miss eight times now, I reckon Adebayor would muff the same chance eight times out of ten. He’s a power player, not compact enough to anticipate the play, not light on his feet, always on his heels, not his toes, so he allowed Andy O’Brien, a third-rate defender, to block his shot.
For the last 12 years, Wenger’s standard substitution response to 0-0 at home is to bring on another striker, and if that doesn’t work he then brings on a fourth striker. That worked again on Saturday.
Nasri played a part in the goal which came after a good move in 84 : Nasri to Clichy to Van Persie, cross to the far post for Bendtner. Two touches by Nasri, two touches by Clichy, one by Van Persie, half-volley by Bendtner. As a sub, Bendtner has scored a lot of goals.
Remarkably, the defence is keeping clean sheets. Sagna-Toure-Djourou-Clichy looks OK and it will be capable at Hull next Saturday as long as Almunia doesn’t charge out of his penalty area and crash into Toure again.
The Manchester United- Chelsea game could have been 6-0 if Berbatov had not scuffed that chance in 31, when Rooney played him in.
First goal : Giggs corner, Berbatov flick-on, Vidic headed in at the far post off a ball arriving fast and awkwardly. Excellent goal by a terrific player. Rooney sidefooted Evra’s cross for 2-0, and Ronaldo hit a bullet free-kick to the near post for Berbatov to stab in from three yards, with Vidic holding Carvalho as the ball came in. Quite funny to see the centreback who tugged the shoulder of Barcelona keeper Valdes being given a taste of his own medicine. Ricardo Carvalho was Carvalhoed at Old Trafford.
Drogba played his worst game ever in the EPL. He posed, fell over, posed again, fell again. Then he got up and carried on posing and falling over. Words can’t describe how pathetic Drogba was and you wondered what Inter coach Jose Mourinho made of his old champions. I knew Anelka would do zilch when he replaced Deco at half-time.
Manchester United had everything yesterday: flair when it was needed, experience, ruthless physicality, professional intelligence, a relentlessly competitive attitude. They’ve won more trophies than other English teams because their desire to win is greater than the combined desire of the 19 teams who would like to compete with them. They are spontaneous but also organised. They marry flair to efficiency. Wayne Rooney has many faults but his desire is colossal. He wants it. He wants it for himself, for his team, for his manager, for his mate Rio who wasn’t even playing today. Jonny Evans played well in Rio’s place and Giggs,35, was superb.
Having said all that, United were not as fluent and exciting as they were last season. But they still won 3-0 and that tells us a lot. Six months ago Chelsea took them to extra time and penalties in Moscow.
Is the Premier League the most exciting league in the world?
Not this weekend, I’m afraid. La Liga had far more thrilling games. Valencia against Villarreal was a real cracker with David Villa on fire in the first half before the small-town neighbours pulled it back to 2-2 and again to 3-3. Villarreal is a town of 49,000 people.
Bottom club Osasuna gave Barcelona a real scare when they took a 2-1 lead last night, after the magical Messi, skipping through with dainty determination, set up Eto’o for a fine early strike. Late on, Messi made it 3-2 with a scorching shot. He finished the game with the hardest shot I’ve ever seen him hit. What a marvellous game! This was what football should be and can be, a pulsating 90-minute contest of competitive skill.
Man United-Chelsea was a match for 20 minutes, then it became walkover, a procession. I can’t wait to see Barcelona v Manchester United. That should really be something special.
On Arsenal, I enjoyed seeing Nicklas Bendtner score a Man United goal.
United scored three times against Chelsea from balls into the box. Crosses where it was : get on the end of that ! Vidic far post, Berbatov near post, Rooney in the middle. The Bendtner goal wasn’t a typical Arsenal goal, it was much more like a Man United goal. As was the spectacular RVP goal against United when he broke his foot. I love that kind of goal and think every good team has to be able to score that type of goal.
If you like ANR, you’ll love The Professor. These 12 Arsenal seasons took 10 years to write. Read the first chapter free.