POSTED: Friday July 22nd 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Is Patrick Vieira Right to Suggest that Arsenal are Soft?

The Former Arsenal Captain Is Not Far Off The Mark With His Recent Comments.

The philosophy of Arséne Wenger has, admirably, always been to play as much stylish football as possible, but has the manager somewhere down the line forgotten about the elegant balance that characterised in his early title winning sides?

Patrick Vieira, who was the cornerstone of the Wenger teams of old, spoke out this week about his former club, and highlighted what he perceives to be the cause of Arsenal's recent struggles. He told the Daily Express yesterday;

“Since I left Arsenal, there are new players, a new generation and maybe a new philosophy because Arsenal play better football than we used to do in my time,” he said.

“The passing and the movement is better and they are faster. But our team was more physical and responded better to the English game.

“There is a big difference between the Arsenal team now and the one I played in.

“Look at the goalkeeper back then, you had the personality and presence of David Seaman.

“In defence you had players like [Tony] Adams, [Steve] Bould and [Martin] Keown and then myself and Emmanuel Petit in the midfield - it was a big, physical, intimidating team.

“But I honestly believe that the Arsenal team now are playing better than we were then. The difference is we put silverware on the sideboard.”

It's hard to argue with anything that the former captain says here. He makes the point that as well as the attacking flair players that Arsenal had, they managed to find the correct balance to counter the physical sides they came up against. The league has changed since then, but direct strong sides still exist in the premier league so why does Wenger not adhere to the method that won so many trophies in the past?

You may say that he inherited many of the players Vieira referrers to in this interview, but the invincible team of 2004 were almost entirely Wenger signings. Campbell, Toure, Vieira, Gilberto, Henry, Pirés and Lehmann were all six feet or over. This shows that the players he lost like Petit, Bould, Adams and Keown were replaced like for like for height and strength.  After the break up of the invincible team Wenger took another path, opting for skill and speed right through the team rather than looking for the previously fruitful combination of strength and skill.

It amazes me that a man as bright as the Arsenal boss cannot see the correlation between his two successful past outfits compared with that of now. At the end of last season he noted that he would be looking to add height to his squad, a statement which comforted many fans. The worry is that the height Wenger was talking about has already been signed in the form of young right-back, Carl Jenkinson.

If Wenger is serious about starting the season with a group that will challenge for honours, he would do well to listen to his inspirational former captain and look to bring in taller, stronger players to compliment his technical, yet fragile squad.

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Keywords · arsenal · vieira · wenger · gunners · squad · adams · keown · petit · pires · henry · blog · news · comment · defence · arsenal fc

Name: J A Kinchin-taylor
Organization: Arsenal Aether
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URL: www.arsenalaether.com

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