Arsenal’s style of play has been evolving without Thierry and two weeks ago I reckoned that Rosicky-Fabregas is the new hub of the team.
Actually, Gallas-Rosicky-Fabregas is the new hub.
Gallas had Arsenal’s first shot on Saturday and after 65 minutes he scored the goal that set them on their way to their first Premiership victory at the Emirates.First time they had taken the lead at the new stadium. Big relief all round.
By signing Galllas and Rosicky, two self-contained competitors, Arsene has added a lot of bottle to his team. Both have been able to put on a red shirt and produce immediately.
With those two in the side, Arsenal will not lose 11 Premiership games this season, as they did in 2005-2006.
While Thierry has been trying to get fit and sharp, it’s become Cesc’s team and it now plays a short-passing game which is varied and subtle but lacks the dynamism of yesteryear.
What is dynamism in football? Is it the ability to win the ball and score three seconds later? Arsenal did that a lot. Win it, three quick passes, shot, goal, crank up the tempo, score again, kill the game. They did that many times and they did it as well as Manchester United ever did, or better.
EXACTLY WHERE DID that dynamism come from?
In the first place, a lot of practice sessions. Constant practice, emphasising quick passes from the back third.
Before that, when the team had George Graham’s back five, the quick passes came more from midfield, where warriors set a fast tempo, when Vieira-Petit- Parlour hunted the ball and gave it to Berkgkamp.
Later on, a lot of the dynamism came from the speed and agility of Ashley Cole, who could whip the ball up to Pires or Henry on the left side. He could fasten onto a loose ball and whack it early and hard up that flank and it didn’t have to go perfectly to the right foot of Henry or the right foot of Pires. If the ball arrived knee-high, or waist-high, or under their armpit, they could still kill the ball and move it on quickly.
So speed comes from skill, speed comes from practice ; and speed of passing comes from players with special abilities.
Like the king of two-touch, Dennis Bergkamp. And it came, for nine years, from Patrick Vieira’s ability to tackle and pass in almost in the same movement.Vieira was beautifully efficient, always choosing the right pass or flick, even in the maelstrom of midfield when the boots were flying. He could speed a move up, or slow it down and then speed it up.
And Arsenal’s penetration often came from playing in avenues, not small triangles, so that Freddie Ljungberg’s diagonal run was sometimes longer than the pass which found him and gave him a shot.
Also, penetration came from servicing the explosive Thierry Henry, who could switch to turbo and zoom away from the last defender to create one-on-one chances for himself against the goalkeeper. Robert Pires and Ashley Cole gave Henry a lot of help, and he made them look good too. Arsenal in their unbeaten season were a left-sided team, even though they only had one left-footed player, Cole.
So that’s my point today : much of Arsenal’s dynamism came from players who are no longer at the club.
NOW I’M WATCHING it evolve game by game and I’m watching Thierry adapt to playing in Cesc Fabregas’s multi-passing team.
Thierry is such a gifted player, able to do so many things in various parts of the field, that he can create goals as well as score them. He has always done that. He can play people in from all angles.
In Zagreb the goals came when Fabregas got forward, with the kid scoring twice against Dinamo.On Saturday, the crucial first goal came when Fabregas got into the box. Henry spotted his run and played him in. But when Fabregas controlled the pass, Gallas volleyed it in for 1-0.
In the future, Henry will still fly away from the defence at times, and slot the sort of goals he has scored for the last six years. But it won’t be so often now. He may have to nod in a few more Eboue crosses to keep ahead of Everton hot-shot Andy Johnson.
If Saturday is any indicator, this season may see Arsenal scoring more “little goals” The first goal came from two Arsenal players going for the same ball, the second was an own-goal by Jagielka, one of three centrebacks, diverting in Henry’s low cross. The more players there are in the box, the untidier the goals will tend to be,
IN THE MEANTIME, it’s Porto at the Emirates and patience may be needed.
With Arsenal’s new multi-passing style, it could take 65 minutes to break Porto down, just as it took 65 before Gallas scored against the Blades.
Clearly, Porto are a much better team than Sheffield United. More on that tomorrow