Has Arsenal missed Robin van Persie?

The death knell for Arsenal was sounded at the beginning of the season as the third member of the then promising Theo van Nasregas partnership left for other pastures in search of glory. The acrimonious circumstances that led to Robin van Persie‘s ultimate departure left a bitter taste in the mouth of Arsenal fans throughout the world. Having scored a valuable chunk of the goals in the 2011/12 season for the Gunners (37 of Arsenal’s 95 goals in all competitions including 30 in the League; easily eclipsing his previous season highs with the North London club), replacing a striker of his calibre was always going to be an arduous task.

But Arsène Wenger was prepared this season and had bolstered the ranks with two proven goal scorers in Europe much before van Persie’s exit. Having initially bought them to complement van Persie, they’ve now become integral parts of a strike force that has mesmerized fans with breathtaking football. RvP chants were quickly replaced with songs for Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski. And though they understandably took a while to get going in a new team, they’ve finally begun to understand how to play with each other as the 2 left-footed strikers formed a lethal partnership up front.

And it didn’t stop there. Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla has pulled the strings from midfield with his delicious through balls and link up play. Unlike Podolski and Giroud, Cazorla needed no time to “acclimatize” to the Premier League and looked right at home from the first game of the season. And when opponents realized he was the main danger man, they tried marking him out of the game, which worked for a while until the return of a certain English midfielder called Jack Wilshere provided the impetus to drive the ball forward. Cazorla has also almost reached double figures for goals this season with 9.

But nothing has come as a bigger or more pleasant surprise than Theo Walcott coming into his own this season. Walcott has finally proved himself to be an important goal scorer, and not just a pacy winger who laid it on a plate for others to score. Last season, Walcott was directly involved in 21 goals (11 goals and 10 assists). This season, he has already played a part in 30 goals in 30 appearances, basically being involved in one goal every game! He leads the club in scoring 18 goals and has also provided 12 assists thus far. And we’re only in February.

Combined with Giroud’s 14 goals and Podolski’s 12 goals, Arsenal’s first choice strike force has scored 44 goals already this season. And if we add up Cazorla’s 9 goals, that’s 53 goals in all competitions (37 in the League). This table will give us a better idea of where the goals have come.

	Premier League	Champions League	FA Cup	League Cup	TOTAL
Walcott	11	1	1	5	18
Giroud	9	1	2	2	14
Podolski	8	3	1	0	12
Cazorla	9	0	0	0	9
TOTAL	37	5	4	7	53

But a major concern is that Arsenal hasn’t been able to score against the top three teams. In 5 games against the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea, they have scored only 4 goals, conceding 9 in 1 draw and 4 losses. The inability to turn up at big games has cost them in the League. To be more specific, their ability to turn up in the first half has deserted them. This has been turned around to a certain extent in the last few games. Moreover, most of these goals have come in high scoring wins (6-1 against Southampton, 5-2 against Tottenham, 7-3 against Newcastle and 5-1 against West Ham).

This is where Arsenal have missed someone like van Persie who could convert even half chances into goals. A lot of his goals in the previous season had been decisive goals that turned the result in Arsenal’s favour. His positioning and movement made it easy for the team to play around him. And a penalty specialist with a high conversion rate under pressure is something that will be missed (remember Arteta vs Fulham at the Emirates?). He had the ability to drop deep and link up play as well, something Giroud has been working at.

The team is beginning to understand how to use Giroud as a hold up player instead of a target man, to move the ball quickly in and around the box to free space and create opportunities. His movement doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves, especially when he takes defenders out of the equation with quick, darting runs. He has an impeccable first touch to bring others into play and a keen sense of where his team-mates are. A high percentage of aerial duels won make him the ideal candidate to play as the centre forward, allowing others to latch on to his lay-offs.

Even Walcott and Giroud have forged an understanding and created goals for each other, but their decision making with the final ball (especially Walcott’s) could do with some fine tuning. This was also something van Persie was adept at. His adroit movement and ball control in the box ensured that chances didn’t always go abegging.

But over the course of the season, we have seen missed passes turned into completed passes which have slowly been converted into goals. The beautiful football that has been a mainstay of the club is back and results are slowly going their way. So have Arsenal missed van Persie? Yes and no. Obviously any team would love to have a player like him in their squad, but Arsenal are slowly but surely moving forward and away from the “one man team” nomenclature by building a team for the future with strikers who are ready to play for each other.

Last season, Arsenal scored 95 goals in all competitions. They already have 80 goals so far with a minimum of 15 games to play this season. It’s fair to say that Walcott, Giroud, Podolski and Cazorla have shared the goal scoring burden and will do so for seasons to come.