His prolific goalscoring has been crucial for Arsenal, but many suggest they are increasingly reliant upon him.
This is clearly true. Arsenal do rely on him to score goals, and it is a worrying feature of their play that he is so pivotal to their hopes of putting the ball in the net. But the Dutchman is only one player among 11, and it is one of his team mates who has been given relatively few plaudits for his play recently.
Gervinho has been superb for Arsenal this year, a rare shining light in the worst start the club have endured in years. The Ivorian has adapted seamlessly to life in England, helping Arsenal recover following a poor start. The opening day draw with Newcastle showcased his promise, lively, attacking, direct, but he was sent off harshly after being provoked by Joey Barton.
In Arsenal’s pre-season friendly against Boca Juniors, Gervinho hared away down the left and fired in a cross for van Persie to score. That combination has been the heart of so much of Arsenal’s good play this season. It was in evidence again in Udine, when Arsenal were struggling to qualify for the Champions League group stage. Gervinho grabbed the ball, surged past his marker on the left and crossed for the Dutchman to finish.
Against Sunderland last week once more Gervinho surged down the left before passing to van Persie to fire home. And against Stoke this weekend, the Ivorian did so twice, this time once down the right and then again down the left. It is an intriguing feature of Arsenal’s play, showing how a more direct route to goal has benefited them. Van Persie has been able to cleverly manouevre himself into space, anticipating a cross into his path. He has been getting those as Arsenal show less hesitancy when passing and probing in the final third.
It is not just the Gervinho Van Persie axis which shows this. Against Bolton Wanderers it was an individual goal from van Persie which opened the scoring before Theo Walcott raced down the right to cross for the Dutchman. And against Tottenham it was Alex Song surging down the left to cross for Aaron Ramsey to fire home.
This of course, used to be the way Arsenal scored goals. Quick passing movements which would seek to release someone down the wing, to cut the ball back for an easy tap in from close range. How many goals did Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry score from just yards out after the ball had been cut back to them from the byline? Failing such a route, Arsenal rely on intricate passing, as Dennis Bergkamp or Cesc Fabregas used to provide. But where Bergkamp and Fabregas could be relied upon to regularly cut open the tightest of defences, there are few players of their calibre anywhere in the game.
This new trend, shown best by the dashing Ivorian Gervinho, could be the key to an Arsenal recovery.
