For some the jury is still out on Andre Santos.
For a traditional left-back performance, the first half against Chelsea was hide behind the cushion time. His positioning and mistimed challenges were cringe worthy, but the second half was littered with gold dust, a goal, immaculate distribution, swashbuckling left wing overlaps and obvious Brazilian technique.
In my time of following and watching Arsenal we have had a rich tradition of left full-backs and if we are honest many of them offered more going forward than they did defensively, at least at first. However, what is undisputable is that most of them would now be looked upon as club legends.
Certainly in the 70’s one of my first idols was Sammy Nelson, originally a left winger, who has ousted double winner Bob McNab. Sammy was part of the team that reached 3 Cup Finals in 3 years before being replaced by Kenny Sansom, still rightly in my opinion considered the greatest English left-back ever. Certainly McNab, Nelson and Sansom are all fondly remembered by us middle aged Gooners. Amazingly, despite captaining Arsenal for years, Kenny had to wait until 1987 to finally lift silverware in the ‘Charlie Nicholas’ League Cup Final, but he remains Arsenal’s most capped Englishman while playing for the club with 77 caps.
After a season at right-back under George Graham, Nigel Winterburn signed in 1987, replaced Sansom in 1988 on the left and went on to shine for us for a further 12 years. It is unlikely in the modern era that we will ever see a full-back play 440 games for one club, as Winterburn did and I for one would suggest you could count his poor performances on one hand. Nigel was so unfortunate to be the second best English left-back behind Stuart Pearce. Nigel only managed to win only 2 caps for his country. I am sure he can accept and acknowledge Pearce as a giant of the English game, but somebody please explain to me how Tony Dorigo won 15 caps when Winterburn was at his peak?
Winterburn finally gave way briefly to Sylvinho, who starred for all too short a period, but who remains a legend for choosing Arsenal over Spurs, before a dodgy passport paved the way for the emergence of Ashley Cole, a product of the youth scheme and another converted left winger. Despite the general animosity towards Cole, which I share, we cannot deny he has been a top left-back in the Premier League for a decade. Cole of course departed Highbury in acrimonious circumstances, but the foresight of Wenger lessened the blow as Gael Clichy had already emerged from his shadows and was more than ready to step up to the task.
Clichy ultimately, after a very promising start, never quite came up the standard of his illustrious predecessors such as Winterburn and Cole, despite us creatively making up terrace chants that suggested he had. Indeed 1 goal and a handful of assists is not enough for an attacking left-back prone to serious concentration lapses in defence. One can forgive a rampaging full-back the off defensive blip if he chips in with decent crosses and the odd goal, but latterly Gael was just not doing so.
This nostalgic trip down memory lane that suggests that a certain Brazilian in possession of the shirt right now has quite a lot to live up to. Arsenal in the modern era have a tradition of real quality in the left-back role, certainly Sansom, Winterburn and Cole would all be bracketed world class by most observers.
I couldnt agree more. Santos has the making of a very good left back for us. he is not defensively as bad as people make him out to be and he is very good going forward. as his fitness level improves, fans are going to understand why he is now first choice left back from Brazil!
I have to admit that I still have my doubts regarding AS11. Neither him nor KG28 give me lot of confidence and if I line up my preferred starting XI, LB is, IMO, our weakest position.
It is because of Santos’ 2nd half reply to his 1st half at Chelski, that done it for me. It takes a REAL character to come back in the second half and give back double what he had to endure in the 1st half nailing his come-back with a class goal.
santos better than clichy..that is reality…
Without a shadow of doubt. Better defensively and 10 times better going forward but I think there is more to come. He’s not small either and he can use his head which Clichy certainly can’t do. A big part of the reason that Arsenal became predictable last season was that Clichy wasn’t overlapping effectively so whoever played left wing always had two players on them. That meant no penetration down the left wing and with Walcott on the right more of an inside forward the team lacked width. Now defenders have Santos to worry about on our left flank so Gervinho gets into more dangerous positions. It might not be the whole reason, the form of RvP perhaps contributes more, but it’s certainly helped Arsenal to break opponents down so far, despite lacking Cescs’ creative spark in the middle.
A perfect and succint summary Charlie. you have the essence of my belief there mate.
santos is realy adapting to life in england wch i think per shld do fast