Seaman
Sagna – Keown – Adams – Clichy
Ljungberg – Vieira - Fabregas – Pires
And that is quite some team, so far.
So on to the strikers, and we have quite a few to choose from, this bit is hard as a lot of these players made different contributions to the teams at different times, who was Arsene’s greatest?
Christopher Wreh, Jose Reyes, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright, Nic Anelka, Sylvain Wiltord, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin Van Persie, Eduardoare to name just a few of Arsene’s strike force. Okay, remove Christopher Wreh, but who was the best? To pick two of the above is hard, but of course, to pick the first one is easy.
Thierry Henry was a cut above his peers. A real entertainer. He’s scored goals that others could only imagine. He was cheeky in his attitude and play. Could create, could embarrass and could raise his game when the team needed him. Without a doubt Thierry Henry was and is irreplaceable. Before him was the young kid wonder, Nic Anelka who’s currently doing the business for Chelsea. His one regret was leaving Arsenal and when he was here, he was quite a player. So confident for such a young age, clinical and with pace to burn. His career went all over the place until he’s finally re-settled somewhere, but what a player he could have been for us had he stayed.
Of course, Ian Wright was the player he ousted out of the team. But how good was Wrighty? He was pretty damn awesome. His link up play with Bergkamp was a joy to see, but then everyone who partnered Dennis seemed to flourish next to him. Dennis Bergkamp will always been known as an Arsene Wenger player, even though it was Bruce Rioch who brought him to the club. Bergkamp was simply majestical and it was his influence on the team that changed us from boring boring Arsenal to the great entertainers. Bergkamp will always have a place in our hearts. He played on until 36 and was simply sensational.
Sylvain Wiltord had the best goalscoring record, but never really a fans favourite. His abilities were limited, but his scoring rate was pretty good. Adebayor and Van Persie are our current two strikers. Do they compare to what was there before? Van Persie is such a good player. He is a typical dutch striker, in the mould of Van Basten himself, has bags of skills, a great left foot but for as far as I can remember, has been plagued with injuries. And Adebayor, last season, was immense, but technically was last season a one-season wonder? Does he have what it takes to go on and become a world class player. His current form is debatable, or are we being harsh as fans. Has Henry raised the bar too high?
Talking about raising the bar, Eduardo is a player I’m looking forward to watching in the near future. His 6 months last season saw him score, create and definitely give us the attacking advantage that saw us climb to the top of the league and it was no coincidence that his injury coincided with our fall from grace. So who would you pick? Anelka and Wright? Henry and Bergkamp? Ade and VP? Eduardo and Vela? Lol, I really do hope one day we sit back and say “wow, do you remember Eduardo and Vela, what a partnership”.
Over to you.
News coming from Arsene today on French radio is that Theo is out of action for the next three months, and unlikely to be back until the end of February. That really sucks, as suddenly our squad seems to lack some attacking instinct. If we have to play Eboue or Diaby on the wing for the rest of the season, I’d be aggrieved. Surely we have to buy now, but we can’t buy “now” so let’s see where we are come January the first.
Tomorrow will see more current Arsenal news and less reminiscing.
‘Til then…]]>
