Now that we’ve lost Samir

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. It is a handy phrase to describe this moment in time when we go into February; into a crucial month that will mark a watershed in the life of Arsenal football club as a sporting enterprise that can actually deliver on potential and promises.

Arsene Wenger has staked his entire coaching career and pedigree on the ‘youth project’ which he embarked upon these past six years. After a multiple of hiccups; catalogue of near-misses and endless heartbreak, the moment has finally come when he and everyone else knows that his ‘special ones’ must finally deliver.

We go into February on the back of a very successful Christmas-cum-January programme, in which we only lost a game - to Ipswich – and successfully remained unbeaten in 13 others. It was a period of solidity that placed us above the likes of Chelsea and saw us overtake ‘pretenders’ Man City in the race for the title.

As things stand now, we are the only team in England who are in contention for four trophies. In the league – the apple of Wenger’s eyes – we look to be the only genuine rivals to Man United as Chelsea and Tottenham have dropped out of reckoning. Man City may still have a say in the final destination of the league but their inconsistency and disunity will always count against them.

The FA Cup, of course has seen us progress into Round Five, where yet another lower league opposition in form of Leyton Orient lie in wait. If Wenger juggles his playing cards well, we are bound to go all the way in this one with Man Utd, Chelsea and Man City the only real heavyweights left in the cup.

The Carling Cup is almost, almost in the bag if we can outsmart Birmingham on Sunday, February 20. That leaves the “little matter” of Barcelona in a home and away tie in the Champions League. We leave that analysis for another day. Fact remains that on the first day of February, 2011, Arsenal football club are alive and kicking in four competitions.

Unfortunately, we enter this most crucial of months without our player of the season, Samir Nasri. His 14 goals; endless assists, coupled with delightful movement and excellent vision has contributed greatly in bringing us this far. A player described by the incomparable Zinedine Zidane as next big thing; the future of French football; has lived up to that accolade and stamped his authority on this team. He is the player most likely also to step into the boots of Zidane, whose time coincided with the most successful era of French football.

Sadly, we lost “the future of French football”, last Sunday in the FA Cup, to a left hamstring injury that may rule him out of action for the next three weeks.

So without Samir, what or who do we have in the armoury to drive us through this moist pivotal of months?

My most obvious candidate is of course Cesc Fabregas. At 23, he is a man in a boy’s skin. A Trojan; a warrior; a one-man battleship in the midst of the fiercest storms. He dragged the team almost single-handedly through many tempests last season and our failure to crown his efforts with silverware tempted him to consider Barcelona’s advances throughout the summer. But he ignored his Catalan homeland and chose to stay with us. So far this season, he has scored nine times and underlined his value to the team by leading from the front. He is getting once more into his fearsome groove and deadly abilities as we approach the business end of the season and in the enforced absence of Samir, he remains Wenger’s go-to man. But unlike last year, he’s got some help this time.

That help comes in the unlikely shape of a fit Robin Van Persie. Two weeks ago, he scored his first hattrick in professional football against Wigan. This came after nine, stalemated attempts at two goals in a game. Normally at this time of the year for the past two seasons, Robin has always been missing in action on account of one debilitating injury after other. His history of injury setbacks are well-documented and frustratingly-consistent so much so that he has hardly ever been involved in our season run-ins. 

Robin Van Persie.......Injury free for once

 Thankfully though, we enter February with a very-fit and hungry Robin in our playing ranks. At 26, the same age with £50million man Nando Torres, an injury-free Robin Van Persie is a very dangerous player to come up against. In his five years at Arsenal, he has delivered consistently when not hindered by injury. He’s scored good goals against the toughest defences of the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea. He remains one of Europe’s most-feared strikers, but that is, if he is fit. 

Wenger helps put in perspective how much Van Persie means to the team and what his absence has cost both player and club:

 “What he has gone through has been difficult. A player who is injured a lot is fragile. He feels useless and is without his job. He is without his happiness, of course. On the other hand, it has made him a lot stronger mentally because he had to fight against disappointments.”.

Thankfully once more, the Dutchman is with us in this crucial phase of our season and in search of a player to fill in the gap left by Samir, Van Persie’s boots are more than capable of doing the job.

My final candidate for the vacancy left by Samir is the erratic Theo Walcott. This season has been his most fruitful in front of goal as he has netted ten times already. He is famous for his lightening pace and often nothing else, but people often forget that nine times out of ten, a quick player will get an upperhand over his opponents and win games for his team.

Just days ago, Fabio Capello was man enough to admit that he regretted not taking Theo to the 2010 World Cup finals – a tournament in which England bombed spectacularly. He has seen the youngman reconstruct his game admirably all through this season and become a handy joker for Wenger and Arsenal.

Any team with a player of Theo’s speed must strike fear into the hearts of opponents. We were all witnesses to how Tottenham unleashed Gareth Bale on Maicon - supposedly the world’s best right back - and destroyed the Brazilian’s reputation in two games. Now Inter Milan are willing to pay  £40 million for the Welsh speed machine.

Theo, who ironically learnt his trade alongside Bale at Southampton when Harry Redknapp was coach there five years back, is even quicker than Bale. It is only in his decision making and application that he remains second-fiddle to the Welshman.

But with him on the pitch, you can always expect the unexpected. He has matured this season and silenced his many critics. With a leeway now to starting games in the absence of Samir and getting more chance to run at opponents, we may yet see glimpse more of the unique talents of our English enigma.

So methink there is little cause for alarm, long as the injury curse doesn’t strike again.

Samir’s hamstring may have given-in at a most-inopportune time of the season but its only for three weeks and in that time, the window may have opened for yet another member of the cast to prove that cometh the hour, he is the man.