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| Dominant...Djourou winning in the air against Everton's Saha |
Everton’s Phil Neville put aside personal allegiances earlier in the week to declare the readiness of the Gunners to end their silverware drought. Having witnessed at close quarters the damage this current crop of Gunners can inflict, last Sunday, he deemed it timely to anoint them capable pretenders to the throne currently occupied by Chelsea.
It must have been sweet music to the ears of Arsene Wenger who has worked hard and tirelessely to build up this squad to its present state. Along the way, he has stubbornly and tenaciously held-on to the principles that helped him forge his reputation. His particular brand of football that combines high-pressing passing, en masse movement and what World War II Germany was famously known for – blitzkrieg.
An Alsatian, whose family migrated from Germany to Strasbourg in France after the second World War, Wenger has maintained a blind, sometimes infuriating faith in his methods and the players he has chosen to put that method into practice. After years of stop-start failures, minimal success and a yawning treasure room, it now looks like he will be vindicated at last.
Neville captained Everton to last Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Arsenal and saw how the visitors refused to be bullied and rather, imposed their game on the hosts and roiunded it up,with precision finishing in front of goal.
“You always fancy yourself to rough them up”, he confessed. “But we couldn't do it, and that's where they have improved. You could see the difference. We have always caused them problems with our energy before. They haven't been able to cope, but they did this time. They were deserved winners”.
It brought back memories of the years of the ‘Invincibles’; the Patrick Vieiras, Fredrik Ljungbergs, Ray Parlours, Kolo Toures and Thierry Henrys. Men mountains who happened to be footballers. Colossal figures who bestrode the landscape of English football. Vieira once said that at the height of their powers, the Invincibles often attempted to beat teams in the first 20-30 minutes, and spend the rest of the game passing the ball around.
In those times, Arsenal maintained an embarrassingly vice-like grip on all – yes, all – London clubsides in the premiership by never losing to any of them for many, many years. All London clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham as well as of course WestHam, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic.
This present squad are not there yet, but the foundations are firmly in place.
When you develop a fearlessness away from your own turf and believe in your ability to go anywhere and win, then you are to be handled with care. And awe.
So far this season, after 13 games, the Gunners have won four away matches, drawn twice and only lost once. The manner of the draws against Liverpool and Sunderland suggested that we could – with a little bit of luck – have snatched wins. The nature of the four wins demand respect if for no other reason, but for the fact they were recorded in notoriously difficult terrain. Against Manchester City, Blackburn, Wolves and Everton. Those are not places for the faint-hearted and for all their skill and talents, the one ingredient – fighting spirit – which the Gunners have always been accused of lacking seem to have been added to the mix at last.
As we have seen season after season, titles are often won and lost in such backwater, less-glamorous settings, faraway from home and in hostile, miserable conditions that test the mettle of visiting teams and push their resilience to the limits.
Maybe Wenger cannot truly teach defence. Maybe not. But long as he’s got the right men to do the job for him, he need not fret over the perceived inadequacies that are often mentioned about his teams. In men like Koscielny and Squillaci, he has acquired battle-tested hardmen who have stood up admirably well to all the intimidation that comes with defending in the rough and tumble of the premiership. Whatever you may think about them both, I’ve been impressed with their application to the job.
The only other defender schooled by Wenger, the young, injury-prone Johan Djourou has invariably been forced to up his game. Wenger has always believed in him. It was why he separated him from the fumbling Philippe Senderos and sent the latter first on loan to AC Milan and later to Everton before selling him to Fulham last summer.
After persevering with Djourou for years, it is most-heartening to see him now living up to that trust. He has seen two ready-made defenders come in over the summer and known that it had to be now or never for him as regards a career at Arsenal.
A one-time Swiss international, who appeared in the 2006 World Cup finals before falling out of favour and reckoning, he has stepped up to the plate in all the games he’s played so far this season. Pushing things further, he has emerged as a fighter and bulwark of defence using his giant frame to maximum effect and it is no surprise that the Ivorian-born who turns 24 next January has played more games already this season, than he did in the past 14 months. What a remarkable change of fortune!
The likes of Chamakh, Fabregas, Walcott and Nasri may be hugging the limelight and taking all the plaudits that come with goalscoring, but it is the dirty work done at the back by someone like Djourou, alongside Koscielny, Squillaci, Song and Vermaelen (whenever he returns) that will significantly determine our title hopes this season.
So well have they been doing the dirty work that a disciple of defending like Phil Neville has been impressed.
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