The eternal question of the second half of the summer was… if Cesc leaves, who would replace him?
By the final day of the transfer window, when we hadn’t replaced him, it was Ramsey who we all thought would play ahead of a duo of Song & Wilshere, with Rosicky, Frimpong and perhaps Miyachi filling in when injuries and suspensions took their toll… the first three sounded good, but the depth of an ageing Rosicky and two teenagers didn’t quite fit the requirements we all wanted for our title challenge…
But then… all of a sudden, we opened the chequebook and before we knew it, Everton’s star player, Mikel Arteta arrived at the Emirates…
Not only Arteta, but also Benayoun, on loan…
Whether or not both players joined because of the loss of Jack Wilshere to injury and potential losses to the African Cup of Nations in January are debatable, but starting this weekend, Mikel Arteta will kick off his career as an Arsenal player.
The question on everyone’s lips is whether he can replace Cesc or Nasri… the Spaniard spoke to Arsenal.com and answered that question…
No, I don’t want to use the word replacement. They were two top players for the Club, they did really, really well in the last few years and now we have some new players coming in to try and make the same impact. I am sure we will. I don’t want the fans to be expecting the same as them because every player is different. We need some time to adapt as well, but I am sure that we will give everything we can to make this team better.
I do like the way he talks, he’s been in the press saying how we have a chance to win the title despite our bad start, and that’s what I want to hear… One of the questions I’ve been thinking about is where he best position is – when he was signed, I thought he’d slot into the hole – where Cesc used to play, just behind the striker and in between the two wingers – but having looked at where he has played, the hole isn’t where his natural position for Everton was – he played primarily on the left of midfield.
He was asked about his position and replied:
The manager asked me to play in every position [at Everton] and the good thing is to get different things from every position. I played a lot on the left, I played a lot in attacking midfield and I played in front of the back four as well. It depends what the manager wants here from me – I have not had a chance to speak to him about that yet.
Personally, I think he will play in the central part of midfield – and I think he’ll be teamed with Ramsey and either Frimpong or Song (pending suspensions), with him having a license to roam forward, but despite his attacking nature, he will have a balanced role, being part of the defensive area of the game too. I came across the “Executioner’s Bong” blog – an Everton blogger who has his positives and negatives about the player.
The main positive comment was his contribution to the Everton cause since his arrival…
There is no doubting how pivotal Arteta has been to the Blues cause since arriving from Sociedad – we have averaged 61 points per season with him in the team and 51 points without him – notably down to his creativity – since 2005 he has on average created 2.7 chances per game ranking him 5th in the top flight in terms of creation.
Creativity is exactly what we need, and Arteta’s historically brought that to teams – but the player did have quite an injury 3 seasons ago and despite playing on the left of midfield, his previous role for Everton did allow him to get involved in the attacking third. An alarming statistic is that Arteta has mustered just 6 assists in the last two seasons.
Arteta’s importance to the club has been reduced in last 3 seasons since his cruciate injury, leading him to only be available for half the games in this period. Pre-injury the team was built around him but since Baines has become the pivotal player in terms of strategy and creative spark; in the last 2 seasons Baines has mustered 20 assists with Arteta just 6 – way short of his vintage of 13 assists back in 2006/7.
If Arteta does play in the hub of a front four or five in an Arsenal team, we can and should expect more from him. Many believe that his poor form for the last two seasons was due to the role he played – sometimes in front of the back four, mostly from the left of midfield – yet often involved in the secondary pass and counter attack… At the moment, it’s all speculation, we have no idea where he will play and we have no idea how he will adapt…
Come on Mikel, show us what you’re made of…
One thing is for certain (well, barring injury), the new recruit will kick off his Arsenal career on Saturday and then, as they say, the rest will be history…
