Thanks heavens he’s fine

Head cuddle.....Little Jack Wilshire gets a headhug from the big Swiss

This has been his breakthrough season. Every player has one. Every sportsman as well has one.

For Johann Djourou, season 2010-2011 has seen him show the world what he can actually do. If you ask me, he is better than stalwarts and household names from the past of the club such as Sol Campbell. Nothing personal against the big man but this Swiss bloke with an intimidating frame is a better deal than his erstwhile senior colleague.

Last Saturday, if you ask me, it was no coincidence that our spectacular, historic collapse at St. James Park happened when the Swissman was off the pitch. Soon as Johann hobbled off in the 47^th minute, I feared the worst. Many pundits prefer to point to Abou Diaby’s 55^th minute dismissal as the turning point of the game and the moment when we lost our grip on the pitch. Methink it wasn’t

The real pivotal moment was Johann’s departure. His departure allowed the clumsy and ineffective Seb Squillaci to enter the game. All apologies to Seb, he has morphed into a modern-day Pascal Cygan, whose clumsy and heavy-footed movement frustrated both teammates and fans alike. Arsene Wenger’s preference of Cygan over Matthew Upson forced the latter to demand a transfer and was eventually sold to Birmingham City.

Cygan was of course third or even fourth choice to Campbell and Kole Toure during the era of the Invincibles in season 2004 and the brilliance of that glorious group of players greatly masked his incompetence. Anytime he was on the pitch, we were guaranteed to concede goals. He was however a lucky man cos he was surrounded on all sides by some of the best footballers in the world at that time. Players like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and Sylvain Wiltord happened to be his teammates and what more, they were all French!

So in the midst of so much excellence, it was almost impossible to spot the ugly duckling.

And so Cygan found himself winning trophy after trophy, while riding on the shoulders of other players’ efforts. By the time though when he was sold in the summer of 2006 – after we lost that forgettable Champions League final to Barcelona in Paris - he had been found out and pushed further down the pecking order at Arsenal. The fact that Villareal even agreed to pay 2million Pounds for him was because he was included in the deal that took Robert Pires from Arsenal to the Spanish side.

It is such a clown that Squillaci is striving so hard to emulate now.

So seeing him saunter onto the pitch was something of a precursor to doom. I thought he had been out to pasture after getting himself red-carded against Huddersfield the previous weekend in the FA Cup. Don’t know what happened to the normal three-match suspension that accompanies such straight red cards. Except we had been involved in game on another planet, I recollect that we only played Everton between the Huddersfield game and Newcastle. So, seeing Squillaci firstly squeezed on the reserve bench and lo and behold, finally strolling onto the pitch to replace Johann was an unexpected surprise.

The rest as they often say, is history.

Even though it was the unlucky Koscielny that conceded the two penalties that accelerated our capitulation and helped Newcastle onto a very undeserved draw, I’m convinced that those penalties wouldn’t have happened if Johann’s partnership with Koscielny had continued for the rest of that afternoon.  On the day when he scored his first goal for us, how sad that Johann had to exit with a knee complaint.

Well, it looks so far that Johann’s substitution was a precautionary move. Reports from inside the Swiss camp, where he has reported to join the national side in their preparations for their friendly against Malta, confirmed that he only picked up bruising against Newcastle. Nothing was broken, or torn, or twisted as first feared.

There is even the likelihood that he will be fit to file out against Wolves this Saturday. But I trust the ultra-careful Wenger, he’ll be saving the big Swiss for Barcelona, next week Wednesday in a top billing Champions League showdown.

So, at least the big man is back. For him, this has been a rubicon-crossing season. He has cobbled together a fine partnership with Koscielny and together, they have helped take us to second spot on the league table and into our first final since 2006.

Compared with Squillaci, he is royalty. He is a handsome prince to Squillaci’s ogre and if he stays fit, we surely do have real hope of winning things this season.

He’s back and with him, hope springs anew for the rest of this season.