We Miss You Robin!

Arsenal until recently, were the leading goal-poachers not just in England, but in the whole of Europe. Now that is a remarkable stat if you consider the acute paucity of goal-guzzlers at the Emirates this season. For a while Wenger had a full repertoire to choose from, in likes of Van Persie, Bendtner, Arshavin, Vela, Eduardo, & we are not even counting Walcott here! Injuries ripped right through our front-line & left us seriously short on armory. The transfer window came & bid adieu, but Arsene didn’t flutter one bit, much to the dismay of the faithful. He stuck by his guns & is now supposedly through the so-called ‘striker crisis’ facing his ranks.

Conor Valentine, a fiercely avid Gunner from Dublin, shares his views on the same right now. You can Follow him on Twitter @Gunnerman911.

Arsenal’s ‘striker crisis‘ is not so much a crisis, in my opinion. Yes, without Van Persie, who is undoubtedly one the Premier League’s best strikers, Arsenal does lack a properly proven finisher. But when you look down the entire team,  it ain’t that bad?

In every position are players who can, and will, score goals. Whether that’s Vermaelen, in the centre of defence, Diaby, in midfield, Cesc, in an attacking midfield, or even Bendtner who, despite what some fans believe, I think will have a huge future at the club. Arsenal is of a team which lacks height, but Bendtner an exception. He can head the ball alright & can also run all over the pitch, pressurizing the opposition. He may not be able to do justice to the lone striker’s job despite his strength and ability to hold the ball up, but  makes up for it with his mobility. However, I think him and Van Persie together up front can make a good partnership. And in Bendtner, we know we’ll get a triker who’d give it his all & has his best years ahead of him, is neither lazy nor selfish, unlike a certain ex-Arsenal player (Mad-e-Bye-Whore who!?).

We also have Eduardo, who, on his day is a clinical finisher and also a provider of goals. Both have lacked confidence recently, along with a surprising number of players. But back to Eduardo, who has not had many games to perform in, up until the Van Persie injury, he was mainly a substitute in the last 20 or so minutes, but when he got into the side due to the injury, he was clearly lacking the sharpness of an in-form striker. He got many opportunities to score, which he would have converted had he been playing regular football, but he just could not score. Eventually, he got off the mark, with some slightly lucky goals, but still, you could see he wasn’t confident, and when he scored, every time it required a bit of luck. But at least he was scoring, as opposed to just being on the pitch running around with no impact.

With news that Van Persie could be back by late April (if we are ever going to get any luck) then what was a crisis, has suddenly become a situation where we have 2 strikers who have been getting games (Eduardo has just a niggly injury) and one other striker who was both scoring and creating for fun, before a certain Italian tried to take his leg apart, which can only mean one thing, Goals, and hopefully, plenty for all to see.

But for now, we must make do with Bendtner probably Wenger’s first choice, and Eduardo as the backup. There is the possibility of playing Walcott through the middle, which so many Arsenal fans would like to see, considering the hat-trick versus Croatia for England. However I believe Wenger would sooner have Arshavin playing centrally, although our little Russian claims he cannot play there. Despite this crisis, Arsenal have kept themselves in the running for both the Premier League, and the Champions League, proving that life without a striker, even for a top European team like ours, is possible. And that only because of our desire to win at any cost. Keep the faith guys, this one’s not done yet!

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