The Show Must Go On Without Arteta
Mikel Arteta is injured again. The Guardian claim he is to be out for “many more weeks.” That’s unfortunate, but I think it’s indicative of our problems within the squad that we still rely on a 32-year-old with degrading legs to be our midfield lynchpin.
His transition from number 10 in his younger days to the quasi defensive mid role in our side was always a bit of a gamble, but it did pay off quite well in his first two seasons as the club.
Sure, Mikel is not perfect. But he did a damn good job in his time fit here. I think it’s fitting we keep him on as a player, as he’s still got a role to play in this team. As an experienced player who’s shown leadership qualities in the past, I’d have no qualms in giving him a contract that sees him well into his late thirties. Can you say player coach? We’ve managed to nab a few of the Invincibles to get their coaching badges at the Emirates, but it’s equally important we keep what few old heads we have now. You’d be forgiven in forgetting that a lot of our important players are still in their early to mid twenties.
I think it’s realistic that we won’t see Mikel play more than 10 games from here until the end of the season, if he plays at all. So, how do we cope with that?
The re-introduction of Francis Coquelin was a timely one, although I imagine Arsène did it out of bare necessity more than anything. That’s not a knock on Coquelin. He’s a player I’ve always said would eventually do well in this side, despite the fact that he could never quite nail down a starting place, supposedly due to attitude problems. He’s doing well now, and that’s what matters.
Beyond Coq, we’ve got the walking calamity that is Mathieu Flamini. I can wear rose-tinted specs with the best of them, but Flamini seems much, much worse than last season. Him and Aaron Ramsey were so complimentary last year. I really can’t figure out what changed. He is the wrong side of thirty now, but there’s something more to his sharp decline that we might have to put down to natural regression. I’m not going to cry about it; we got him for free. He’s put in a few entertaining tackles, and has enough red cards to make a home shirt out of. Let’s just leave him be.
This is where Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey will have to step up. Jack should be back in months, Ramsey in weeks or less. The lack of appealing options in the middle of the park goes in his favour, with Tomas Rosicky seemingly preferred next to Coquelin over the ailing Flamini.
Aside from making a signing in January (haha), that’s just about all we’ve got in the middle. One option that I’d love to see Wenger try in the long term is pushing Santi backwards, making him the deep lying playmaker; the role earmarked for Jack Wilshere, and potentially Oxlade-Chamberlain.
There would definitely be some growing pains with our daintiest playmaker next to an anchor man, but I think it could be useful against sides who are notoriously tough to break down, specifically all those shoddy Premier League outfits who show up to stack two banks of four against us for 90 minutes. It would mean fitting Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez, Walcott and Giroud in the same side without using any of the aforementioned ineffectually.
Just food for thought. In any case, I think we can manage without Mikel for a while longer. The same way we’ve kicked on during Flamini’s stint on the bench. It’s time for a bit of a rethink, and it starts with the personnel we’ve already got at our disposal.
