We have more different goalscorers than any other team in the league except Man City. Alex Song, Wojciech Szczesny and Thomas Vermaelen, as well as Mikel Arteta, Theo Walcott... Laurent Koscielny, Yao Gervinho AND of course Arsene Wenger have all been as instrumental to our season as Robin Van Persie. To say that our team is a one man team is the same as saying it about Barcelona. Messi could not do as well without Xavi, Iniesta, etc... in the same way that Van Persie couldn't score as many goals as he can without the great help of other attackers. But since Van Persie is so much better than the others, the performances of the others are overlooked to the extreme. I believe Song's through ball to Robin was a more delightful thing to watch than the volley. However, no praise to Alex. Koscielny has been very, very good this season, and is easily one of the best centre backs in the league right now, but no-one will notice. In fact, for a defence with no full backs we played extremely well against Everton and Koscielny has covered for Sagna brilliantly when needed. Vermaelen is epic too, our most solid defender since Sol IMO. Gervinho's mazy runs are what we signed him for. Granted, his finishing is ****e, but uh... how many other wingers in the league for the top teams are consistently scoring goals. Kalou could be scoring a few more as well as Young and Nasri. We have Walcott for that, as this season he's turned into a much deadlier winger. Szczesny needs no introduction. Best keeper in the league, aside from maybe Reina, but that will change soon. Arteta has filled the hole left by Fabregas. Many, including me, thought this would not be possible but he has quietly gone about the business of being a midfield maestro. And Wenger's management skills have been excellent as usual, you can tell how brilliant his influence over the players is. He looks a lot healthier in press conferences than he did earlier in the season. The people who label us a one man team obviously don't actually watch the real Arsenal. They just watch MOTD and see Van Persie scoring goals, and think 'OH, HE'S SOCRING DA GOOOOALS EEE MUST BE DA BESST PLAYER" while munching on their seven fingers and flexing their webbed feet. We are a TEAM. We are ARSENAL. And we are AWESOME.
Van Persie is world class, of that doubt there is no doubt anymore. But he is the one CF in the system therefore he is always going to score loads of goals in a Wenger team. We are an attacking team that create chances and Van Persie right now is the forward that is reaping the benefits. Earlier in the season, he was not as good against the likes of Liverpool,Newcastle and Swansea because our attacking game was not clicking. If we are this one man team everyone talks about, then Van Persie would still have produced moments of genius earlier. Its not a coincidence, that once Ramsey,Walcott and Gervinho found a bit of form that Van Persie started his scoring run for this season.
He's your best player by quite a bit and your back up for him are poor, that makes him irreplaceable but you're not a one man team(who is?).
'I believe Song's through ball to Robin was a more delightful thing to watch than the volley.' Steady on!!
The 'One man team' assertion is a complete misnomer. If it were one man against eleven, the outcome would be obvious. The term is used as a thinly veiled perjorative to try and disparage the team, when in fact they are enabling our best player to flourish.
We are a one man team. When RVP doesn't score .. nobody else does. In tight games RVP has to pull a rabbit from the hat. Take away RVP and most of those wins become losses or draws.
Yes because RVP is the only player that's scored, we don't have the most/2nd most different goal scorers....
These sorts of comments (one man team etc) are always balls. Most teams, City aside, can only afford one or two truly awesome players and you build around them. When, then, is it surprising when we do the same with RVP?! Take Suarez from Liverpool, Rooney from United and make Spurs give back Adebayor ( ) and all become far weaker. Shock. Fooking. Horror.
What would you say about Man City last season (Tevez)? Chelsea 2010 (Drogba)? Man Utd 2008-2010 (2008&09 Ronaldo, 2010 Rooney)? Tottenham 2008 (Berbatov)? Or looking outside the Prem, Real Madrid where Ronaldo scored nearly half the Madrid goals?! there are probably more examples like. There is always a player in every team that makes the difference and is irreplaceable qualitywise.
Invincibles were not a one man team. When Henry left Arsenal were not a one man team (as claimed BEFORE he left). If RVP doesn't score in a game nobody else will. You can all delude yourselves as much as you want. We will feel the pain if RVP stops scoring.
There always tends to be one stand out player in a season granted but I think the criticism stems from the percentage of the teams goals that are scored by Van Persie and checking your queries against the current stat of Van Persie they have a point; 2011-12 Van Persie(so far) 48.39 2010-11 Man City - Tevez 33.33% 2009-10 Chelsea - Drogba 28.15 2008-09 Man Utd - Ronaldo 26.47 2007-08 Man Utd - Ronaldo 38.75 2007-08 Spurs - Berbatov 22.72
Just to follow up my previous post going by a teams(selected) top scorer percentages of their total team goals Van Persie is second only to Demba Ba Demba Ba 52.38 Van Persie 48.39 Yakubu 40.91 Rooney 31.43 Suarez 27.78 Adebayor 26.67 Aguerro 22.45 Sturridge(joint with fat Frank) 21.21 Of course this is only one statistic and does nothing to take into account the system the team plays, form, assists etc... but it is still a suprising stat. Many people may have assumed Yakubu's would be higher or Rooney's but it does show the importance(some would say reliance) on Van Persie!
We have lost goals from midfield and there was not many better then Fabregas. Also Nasri scored 10 plus from the wings last season. So that is two reasons. Plus Walcott has not scored as many as we or he would have expected this season. But he is assisting more. Ramsey is young and still himself trying to find consistency in his performance. Goals from him will come but he needs to still improve other areas of his game. Gervinho has had the chances but is very much miss and a bit of hit in front of goal. And most Gooners acknowledge the fact the we have very weak back ups for Robin. So its two main problems. One will be sorted when those players (Walcott,Ramsey and Gervinho) get more confidence and the other one will have to be sorted by buying in the transfer window.
Without the team behind him, RVP wouldn't be scoring. Put RVP out there on his own and you'll find your answer to whether we are a one man team or not.
Pretty weak argument that, take Van Persie out of the team and you'll also find the answer to how important he is!
I totally agree with this !! when it matters it is only RVP who scores, in easy/comfortable games others might chip in the odd goal, that is hardly proof of no relying on RVP. I quoted the law of averages in another thread, it is obvious that others will score goals, but it is the ratio of RVP's goals to everyone else's that makes us a one man team - our defence hasn't exactly been in sparkling form !!
