Just a quick moan today, but I need to get this off my chest. I am sure you will all be getting the same from friends and acquaintances who are not Gooners, and you will even have heard it from the press and TV punters who should know better – ‘Arsenal are a one man team! Without Robin van Persie you are nothing! Wait until he gets injured and where will you be then?’ – Sound familiar?
Now I am not saying he is not crucial to our continued resurgence and of course we all hope he is a stronger fitter athlete this season. However, perhaps these critics and impartial observers are just jealous that we happen to have the most inform striker in Europe, with the possible exception of Ronaldo. In the modern era when very few teams play with two out-and-out strikers is it not eminently more likely that the one main striker in any team will score a high percentage of a team’s goals?
In 2003/04, when Arsenal went a season undefeated in the league, reached the latter stages of the Champions League and the FA Cup, were we labelled a ‘One man team’? I certainly do not recall it, yet Thierry Henry scored 30 out of our 73 league goals, a huge 41%. This was of course with a recognised support striker, either Wiltord or Bergkamp, who scored 3 and 4 league goals respectively. In fact only Robert Pires, aside from Henry, reached double figures in the league that year. Even if we add in the FA Cup and Europe, Henry was still responsible for 39 out of our 97 goals, 39%.
Now my point is that this will be remembered as one of the greatest teams in domestic club football history, not as a one man team. It was however a team blessed with a striker at the absolute peak of his powers, ably assisted by a rich supporting cast of world class players – Bergkamp, Pires, Ljungberg and Vieira to name just some of the obvious.
I would argue that the new team of 2011/12 is beginning to take shape and again we are blessed with a striker at the absolute zenith of his powers in Van Persie, but now we are playing a different formation with this player as the sole central forward. And again in 2011 we are beginning to see the emergence of a new cast of supporting players, worthy of the Emirates stage.
Good post bud.
Inspiration
Good post as always! Nice point made there about the increasingly common use of lone striker subsequently meaning more goals for the lone striker.
Well said.
One does get a little sick of the one-man-team comments but it means he’s playing well. He’s been my favourite player since Henry left and to see him excel like a lot of us knew he could is just great, he’s pure class and I hope he retires at Arsenal so I can watch him play for the red and white week in week out.
RVP!
Yeah mate, tell them . We are a no one man team! If so then even barcelona is a one man team! Lay off this team and let them do their thing in peace. Big up true gooners!