Arsenal's Corner: Top Three Men Firing is Equal to a Successful Season

ai???You need to score goals if you want to win football matchesai??? ai??i?? it is that simple! Over the years, the Arsenal team has had been blessed with a plethora of extremely endowed goal-scorers who have made life difficult for opponent defenders. Arsene always had a knack of picking up top strikers and midfielders who were capable of adding the numbers to the score-board. In a football club, it is very important that along with the top striker, there is at least two more players capable of providing the ai???goodsai??i?? if they are to compete for top honors in the league. It is a different thing if one of the strikers finishes the season with 30 goals or the entire team chips in with an adequate amount of goals from their top men. These are exceptions to the rule!

Past Seasons of Arsenal

Season 1996-97ai??i?? – Ian Wright ai??i?? 23 goals, Dennis Bergkamp ai??i?? 12 goals. Result ai??i?? Arsenal didnai??i??t finish in the Top Two.

Season 1997-98ai??i?? ai??i?? Dennis Bergkamp ai??i?? 16 goals, Marc Overmars ai??i?? 12 goals, Ian Wright ai??i?? 10 goals. Arsenal were Champions in a season where they scored just 68 goals ai??i?? a very poor number compared to recent standards.

Season 1998-99ai??i?? ai??i?? Nicolas Anelka ai??i?? 17 goals, Dennis Bergkamp ai??i?? 12 goals. Arsenal didnai??i??t win the league; they failed short of goals from another player. They scored just 59 goals in that season but boasted of a rock-solid defense.

Season 1999-00ai??i?? ai??i?? Thierry Henry ai??i?? 17 goals, Nwankwo Kanu ai??i?? 12 goals. They fell short by 18 points to Manchester United, who were on a rampage that season.

Season 2000-01ai??i?? ai??i?? Thierry Henry ai??i?? 17 goals. Arsenal finished second; clearly they lacked goals from two more attacking players in the team.

Season 2001-02ai??i?? ai??i?? Thierry Henry ai??i?? 24 goals, Freddie Ljungberg ai??i?? 12 goals, Sylvian Wiltord ai??i?? 10 goals. Arsenal won their second league title under Arsene as they had adequate number of scorers along with the countryai??i??s most lethal striker, Thierry Henry.

Season 2002-03ai??i?? ai??i?? Thierry Henry ai??i?? 24 goals, Robert Pires ai??i?? 14 goals, Sylvian Wiltord ai??i?? 10 goals. This is perhaps the first time where three top men fired yet Arsenal didnai??i??t finish as champions because of a troubled defense. They shipped in 42 goals that season.

Season 2003-04ai??i?? ai??i?? Thierry Henry ai??i?? 30 goals, Robert Pires ai??i?? 14 goals. As mentioned earlier, when your top striker scores 30 goals, you have almost touched the ai???cupai??i?? unless some calamity strikes. Arseneai??i??s most perfect season saw an incredible contribution from Thierry both with goals and assists.

Season 2004-05ai??i?? ai??i?? Thierry Henry ai??i?? 25 goals, Robert Pires ai??i?? 14 goals, Fredrik Ljungberg ai??i?? 10 goals. Arsenal scored 87 goals that season but failed to win the league, bowing down to the meanest defense in Premiership history ai??i?? Chelsea in their new football era conceded just 15 goals that season.

Season 2005-06ai??i?? ai??i?? Thierry Henry ai??i?? 27 goals. The French striker kept his incredible average of at least 24 goals for five consecutive seasons but failed to help his team finish in the Top Three due to no significant contribution from at least two other attacking players in the team.

Season 2006-07ai??i?? ai??i?? Robin van Persie ai??i?? 11 goals, Thierry Henry ai??i?? 10 goals. When your highest goal-scorer of the season has scored just 11 goals, you know it is certainly not your season. Arsenal finished in fourth place.

Season 2007-08ai??i?? ai??i?? Emmanuel Adebayor ai??i?? 24 goals. Though it was a promising season for Arsenal, they lacked another striker who could ai???supportai??i?? Adeai??i??s work. The ai???striking effortai??i?? from the rest of the team was simply not good enough.

Season 2008-09ai??i?? ai??i?? Robin van Persie ai??i?? 11 goals, Emmanuel Adebayor ai??i?? 10 goals. An exact replica of the 2006-07ai??i?? season as far as goals from ai???top menai??i?? were concerned. This was the time when Arsenal were slowly missing the three players capable of providing the goals.

Season 2009-10ai??i?? ai??i?? Cesc Fabregas ai??i?? 15 goals, Andrey Arshavin ai??i?? 10 goals. A lot of ai???patternai??i?? would have gone awry anyway, Chelsea scored 103 goals and they were certainly not going to lose the league title that season.

Season 2010-11ai??i?? ai??i?? Robin van Persie ai??i?? 18 goals, Samir Nasri ai??i?? 10 goals. Again, a dearth of goals from at least another attacking player meant Arsenal were short on that front, the fact that they conceded 43 goals was a different story altogether.

Present Day Arsenal

If one looks at the current crop of Arsenal players, they would really have to scratchAi??theirAi??heads finding out the top three personnel to deliver with the requisite goals to compete for trophies this season. In Robin van Persie, Arsenal has the country’s most consistent striker; the problem lies exactly after that. Who is capable of filling van Persie’s shoes in his absence? Which two players are capable of giving Arsenal the adequate number of goals along with the Dutchman? Who will stand up and be counted, literally?

If we dig deep into the team, and search for answers, it is of utmost importance we take a look at the formation the team is deploying right now. Is that formation ‘choking’ goal-scoring chances for some players? Is the formationAi??puttingAi??extra burden on van Persie? Let’s take a look at the current system and a ‘hypothetical system’ that Arsene can possibly employ.

If we look at Fig 1, we are into the current system at Arsenal with the ‘fancy’ 4-3-3 – which started three seasons back after Arsenal, no longer, boasted of two top strikers and wanted to give Cesc Fabregas the ‘suited’ central role in that 4-3-3. Right now, Arsenal is unintentionally crawling into a dangerous 4-5-1 wherein they end up putting a lot of pressure on van Persie. The Dutchman is doing quite a fantastic job on his own, but the question remains, ‘what if’ he doesn’t score those many goals, ‘what if’ he loses form, ‘what if’, god forbid, he gets injured? It is a very tricky situation for Arsenal as far as the scoring is concerned.

If we look at Fig 2 – The hypothetical ‘Romantic 4-4-2’ – a formation deployed in the ‘Invincibles’ season, the responsibilities of scoring gets distributed among a lot of players. Gervinho, Arshavin, Oxlade and company are capable of doing justice to their respective scoring targets by chipping in when the strikers move into withdrawn positions. Even Theo, Chamakh and Park, who can play as support strikers, are all capable of scoring more than 10 goals in a season. It is beyond ‘normal’ understanding why Arsene hasn’t fallen back into this particular formation. It is the ultimate formation to take burden off from van Persie and allow others to contribute with goals. Does the manager have no confidence in a 26 year old striker who is going to serve the club for two more years, who scores for fun in every International Break? The fans would hope, time doesn’t run out for Arsene to get back to the basics.

We have asked some famous Gooners what they think about the two possible ‘personnel’ who are capable of ‘supporting’ van Persie this season. Let us see whom they have picked as their Top Two along with van Persie.

Anish Dutta, die-hard Gooner, has picked Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey as his Top Two along with the Dutchman, to provide Arsenal with the much-required goals –

Theo Walcott (15 goals in all competitions) -Well, opinions on Theo seem to be divided at the moment. There’s the “no-footballing brain” brigade who thinks he isn’t good enough.While there are the fan-boys who think otherwise. I think the actual situation lies between the two extremes.Theo’s pace can rip apart defenses but a good side-back can thwart him. His decision-making isn’t the best but those off the ball runs and a couple of magic moments during the 90 minutes could see Theo making a vital contribution and emerging as one of our top goal-scorers this season provided he stays fit. He is my choice to end as our 2nd highest scorer after RVP.

Aaron Ramsey (10 goals in all competitions) – It is still early days for young Mr.Ramsey but it seems like he has the knack for goals. His goal against Utd last season and in the NLD showed that he can get into scoring positions. And that’s a plus, when he’s playing in the hole where a lot of goal-scoring chances may arrive. We can only hope he takes them and grabs himself some goals.With Arteta sitting deep, my bet is on Rambo ending as our 3rd highest goal scorer provided he gets enough game time and stays relatively injury-free.

Bala, twitter-maniac, Arsenal fan, believes in the selfishness of Gervinho along with Theo, who will give Arsenal the goals after the ‘expected’ numbers from van Persie –

Theo (20+ goals in all competitions) – Theo’s problem at the moment is consistency. I personally believe that Theo is the best finsher at AFC at the moment, behind Robin, of course. Theo’s pace is an great asset and I think he will use it to much more effect this season. He scored 13 goals for us in all comps last season and I can easily see him score at least 20 this term. Maybe we should revert back to 4-4-2 to get the best out of both Theo & RVP.

Gervinho (15+ goals in all competitions) – As we have seen already, he gets into some really nice positions but his finishing / decision making has let him down so far. I am predicting that it will come with game time and once he fully adjusts himself to EPL. If he can add some finishing with his present positional sense, then it can be really helpful for us. We can get many more assists and goals from him once he corrects that.

Hemchand Mallela, gamer and an avid Arsenal fan, like Anish, picks Theo and Aaron to complement van Persie’s goals –

Theo (15 goals in all competitions) scored 13 last season & has put 3 into the net this season. I expect him to get more chances as the team improves and settles. He will also have a lot to prove as far as the England setup is concerned. Adam Johnson and Stewart Downing are breathing down his neck.

It’s pretty obvious that Arteta is going to play deep alongside Song in the ‘Pirlo’ or ‘Wilshere’ role. Hence,Ai??RamseyAi??(10 goals in all competitions) will be more dynamic/box-to-box/attacking and playing in the ‘hole’ behind RVP. He has already scored 1 goal and is gradually getting better.Wilshere’s injury is a major boost for Ramsey (bane for the Club) as he will get games week-in, week-out. This is confirmed atleast until January (Wenger might reinforce with a new CAM).

Deepak, of The Deepak Menon Daily fame, a massive Gooner picks Gervinho and the young and dynamic Oxlade Chamberlain as his top two men who will bang in the goals along with van Persie –

Gervinho – The man from Ivory CoastAi??does everything other than finishing; that happens a Ai??lot at Arsenal, but looks like, he can score 15 goals for us this season.

ChamberlainAi??– This player needs to play more in my opinion – he has pace, good control and very decent finishing. So, yes, he can be among our top three goal-scorers for this season.

The fans believe in two players capable of scoring goals along with van Persie. But, with the existing formation, it remains to be seen, if those number of goals can come from the aforementioned players. Only time will tell.

Arsenal’s Corner: Top Three Men Firing Is Equal To A Successful Season

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