The thought losing of someone you cherished so greatly is one of tragedy. However, if that person was someone who you brought home to your family, someone who represented you with passion, vigour and most importantly delivered the goods time and time again, it becomes a lot, lot worse. Entertaining the thought of this tragedy, when it’s over a footballer, makes it something of desperation.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, this tragic thought turned into a devastating reality. After a stunning season, which saw him fire in a total of 37 goals, club captain Robin Van Persie swapped London for Manchester in a £24m transfer. This brought about the end of the relationship between Van Persie and Arsene Wenger; a relationship that was thought to be strong. So strong in fact that the Dutch striker once said that he couldn’t picture himself winning anywhere else – even going as far as saying it wouldn’t feel like his trophy.
[Speaking about winning trophies with Arsenal]: “It’s my dream and I see no point in speaking about other teams when I have these dreams. I think other people know that about me; I’m just hungry to win with Arsenal and that’s it’’
Alas, Van Persie spurned the opportunity to become an Arsenal legend – a la Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Ian Wright – in the pursuit of silverware. As much as we all dislike him for rejecting that opportunity and vented the emotion of hatred towards the departed Dutchman, there was a more immediate concern within the club: how do Arsenal replace his flair, his creativity and most importantly, his goals?
Countless times during the 2011-12 season, the Dutchman would be the one saving Arsenal’s skin. I’m thinking of the spectacular volley against Everton in a 1-0 win, the thunderbolt against Spurs to claw the Gunners back into the game and his audacious brace against Liverpool on their own turf. That’s three examples, but there were countless other occasions when Van Persie’s sheer technical brilliance shone brightest in the Premier League. Aside from him, it is fair to say the men in red were pretty average. Per Mertesacker looked a shade of his German National Team-self, and the midfield were not a lot better.
But, as Arsene Wenger’s side tends to, the North London team managed to finish in the top four. In fact, Arsenal finished third. This was particularly vital in the 2011-12 season, as Chelsea went onto win the Champions League – meaning fourth place was not enough to secure the prestigious competition qualification that it usually does.
May came, and the season was over. Arsenal had managed to secure a Champions League place despite being distinctly average – minus the aforementioned brilliance of Van Persie. The transfer window rolled in. It was now time to build on last season and surround the club captain with suitable pieces in order to really push for the ultimate prize: the Barclays Premier League.
Instead, Van Persie turned his back on Arsenal. He turned his back on the club that developed him from a hotheaded, rash talent, into a deadly world-class finisher. His reasons made sense – he wanted to win trophies – but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. Van Persie was one of us – or so he told us. The worst thing about it was that we’ve been through it before. Flamini, Nasri and Fabregas have all dragged us into this unbearable misery; but we’ll never learn. We’ve had our hearts broken before, but with Robin, it felt like he cheated on us before he left. It was the ultimate failed romance – one that is beyond repair.
[Wipes tears]
It was now time to move on; time to replace the man they called RVP. Arsene Wenger preempted the sale of Van Persie by bringing in two forwards: Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski. The former arrived for £13m from then Ligue 1 holders Montpellier, off the back of 21 goals in the league. While it was a signing met with reasonable optimism by some fans, it wasn’t the big name many had been hoping for. The latter, Podolski, whilst being an accomplished player, had never really proven it at club level.
After the loss of Van Persie, it seemed as if Arsenal would be in serious danger of losing their coveted Champions League place the following year. But, if you watched anything of last year you’ll know, the Gunners once again scraped into fourth place. It begs the question: just how did Arsenal manage to replace Van Persie’s contribution?
Goals
As mentioned at the start of the article, Van Persie scored 37 goals for Arsenal. No Arsenal player managed to get close to that total. Something had to give.
Simply put, the goals were shared out. Even the biggest Arsenal fan would admit that the team were over-reliant on Van Persie’s goals the season before, so to have any number of players able to step-up and score made Arsenal more unpredictable. In 2011-12, Van Persie scored 30 of Arsenal’s 74 goals, compared to 2012-13 when no player scored more than 14 of Arsenal’s 72 goals – with Walcott (14), Cazorla (13), Giroud (11) and Podolski (11) all hitting double figures.
Arsenal only scored two goals less in 2012-13 than they did with the Dutchman. So yes, they did replace his goals; but they spread the load as opposed to swapping a one pronged attack.
Defence
Perhaps the most dramatic improvement Arsene Wenger’s side made last season was in the defensive third. In 2011-12, Arsenal were an easy side to ruffle. This all changed just one year on. Perhaps Arsene Wenger realised that his current squad may not be as creative or gushing going forwards, so decided to improve the leaky pipe at the back. Or it was just the result of continuity.
Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny in particular became a solid partnership. Nacho Monreal and Kieran Gibbs pushed each other week in and week out for the starting left-back slot. Aside from Bacary Sagna’s uncharacteristically dodgy performances, Arsenal had shifted from a weak defensive side to one of the league’s best.
Sure, Arsenal didn’t score as many goals as during the Dutch striker’s reign, but they sorted out the area that has troubled them for the last decade. The Gunners went from conceding 49 goals to 34. A stark improvement, and one that made the loss less damning.
Togetherness
Towards the end of last season, it felt like the leadership of Van Persie was no longer missing. Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla all assumed senior leadership roles. The squad played for one- another. It’s fair to say that the 2012-13 crop will not go down as one of the most talented in Arsenal history, but it might just be one of the most tight-knit units. Everyone willed each other over the line and while finishing in the top four has become routine, it looked like a distinct improbability in February.
There’s no beating around the bush: losing Van Persie hurt. A lot. But Arsenal fans have seemed to relish the opportunity to get over it. Looking at it more positively, we received £24m for a player with one-year left on his contract and whilst I’ve just pointed out that Arsenal have managed to survive without him for a season, you can’t help but feel reinforcements would serve Arsene Wenger’s side well. Having four players contribute double figure league goals might not be a sustainable strategy.
Soon enough Arsenal will find Van Persie’s heir in the same way they did with Wright, Bergkamp and Henry. Let’s just hope this one doesn’t up-sticks and leave for Manchester so we have to go through this all over again.
