Favourite ever arsenal players

Some of those forwards you mentioned were before my time, but honestly, van Persie was one of the best forwards I've ever seen in an Arsenal shirt. His technique, vision and skill were incredible. Even though he joined United, he was single-handedly winning us matches in his last season for us and never backed down from a challenge. When he was fit, he was the perfect centre-forward. He was a specialist from set-pieces, he could drop deep and become a playmaker (like a False 9), he was strong on the ball, he was good in the air and wasn't afraid to take games by the scruff of the neck if he needed to. The only thing he really lacked was speed, but apart from that, he had world-class ability.

Maybe the way he departed left a sour taste in our mouths, but I enjoyed watching him play. If we had the van Persie of 2011/12 leading the line right now, I am confident that we could win the league.

 

Totally agree. RVP was one of those players who was unlucky with health issues. He would have been among the all time greats. For me he was the perfect heir to Henry. Just a brilliant all round footballer with a killer instinct. He had a nastiness to him too. Yes he left on a sour note but doesn't take away from his talent. Same for Ashley Cole. For me, between him and Maldini for best LB of all time. He was top drawer.

 

Robert Pires; in fact he's my all time favourite player.

Not only known for scoring, but also for assisting.

He wasn't black and white either - plenty of his magic moments oozed skill and technique.

true class act, and top top player.

 

Eboue

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What about Emmanuel Eboue? he was a comedy genius.

 

Eboue was a very likeable player and always gave his all for us. He was around at the wrong time when we were at our most limited squad wide and he was forced to play up as a right winger/midfielder when Wenger did a fair bit of experimenting/covering injuries, trying to keep us up at the top. He was unfairly scapegoated when in reality, we had barely enough players to regularly play in our first 11, let alone have adequate backups. Goes to show how vastly improved we've become since those days.

 

He was prone to making rash decisions and was poor defensively. But he was great going forward and never stopped running.
Couldn't help but like the guy as he was a real character.

 

If nothing else I'll always remember that cross he put in for Henry when we beat Utd in the 93rd minute

 

I never understood the scapegoating of him tbh - it was really harsh how people turned on him and booed him, then suddenly he became a cult hero. A great character though, as you say, not the best defender but a great athlete and did everything with a smile on his face that was infectious!

 

Hmm It's not really a scapegoat thing.The guy was properly eccentric. Had some good performances for us but he made a lot of errors. In fact he was often a liability. Eboue was exactly the same in Turkey some great games but got sent go for some ridiculous tackles and made some crazy errors which costs his side games.

Fans should never have boo'd him though. He seemed like a good guy.

 

I know he was never a Lauren, Campbell, Dixon standard player and he was very inconsistent, but he certainly wasn't our worst or our best player, so I always thought it was strange the swing from some fans making him a sccapegoat and hating him to him becoming a cult hero!

EDIT - I meant to add that he wasn't even the worst player in the teams he played in.

Anyway I suppose he certainly made life interesting for us fans when he played

 

Granted he did make mistakes but it wasn't helped when his position was moved into midfield or the players around him weren't disciplined, lacked quality in certain areas or helped by the system they played in. I remember seeing a few of our midfielders in those days charging forward and leaving gaps where we got punished on many occasions. Eboue should never have played in such an advanced position but it was more down to necessity than anything else.

The fans should never have booed Eboue because the guy had proper love for the club and was a positive influence in the changing room. He was just tasked with something that was beyond him.

 

I also remember Eboue's cross for RVP's wonder volley at Charlton

 

One of my favourite players of all time who played for Arsenal - Liam "Chippy" Brady who could put a ball on a sixpence from 60 yards. Some have mentioned Steve Williams who was one of my favourite players in a Southampton short as was the great Alan Ball.

 

Surprisingly, the first mention of Brady. I would add three others, from different era's, that were amongst my favourites:
Supermac, John Radford and Edu

 

Did he ever do much apart from that goal? I have few memories of him - although I did go to his house when I was younger when he was playing for the Saints (my cousins family knew him and were invited so I tagged along).

 

Liam Brady was a fantastic player and always comes across well in interviews.
Scored an exquisite goal against us in 78/79 season in a 5 nil win. Apart from the fact he played for you **** wits he was a great player.

Big Pat Jennings

Other than those 2 the rest of your players are a stain on humanity!

 

That post screams that you have a secret Sol Campbell shrine in your bedroom

 

That's no way to encourage me to be civil on your board

 

We never expected you to be civil, you uncouth ****.