An Arsenal Blog: It's a Shame We've Only Got One Song

As an Arsenal fan its not always easy to have a sense of perspective, but, as we move into 2011, lets be realistic, if before the Christmas and New Year fixtures someone had said to you, "You will go unbeaten over the whole holiday period and beat Chelsea (regardless of how poor they are playing) 3-1", I don't know about some Gooners out there I would have bitten their hand off. Yes, the draw with "boring, boring City" may have meant we fell 2 points further behind the lot from Old Trafford, but there's still an awful lot of football to be played.

But I'm not writing this to talk about our prospects for the rest of the season, but to talk about one player in particular, and thats Alex Song. Song's transformation from seemingly useless squad player in his early days, resulting in a long loan spell at Charlton when they were still in the top tier of English football to one of the first names on the team sheet has been a) remarkable, and b) well documented, so I won't go on about that for very long.

What I do want to talk about is how exceptional he was against the blue half of Manchester last night. He has often been accused this season (sometimes with justification, some not) of abandoning his defensive duties to go marauding forwards (with fairly successful results and some important goals, it must also be added). Last night, he was a perfect example of how the holding midfielder role should be played. 8 times out of 10 (probably the total amount of touches of the ball Carlos Tevez had in the whole match) Song was on top of him in a flash, pressuring, niggling, often winning the ball cleanly. He put in a couple of magnificent tackles on Yaya Toure and his general positioning was much improved, when he did go forward for the most part Wilshire or even Fabregas were covering (though as the game wore on all three were pushing forward, hardly surprising with City barely willing to cross the halfway line).

Alex Song: Powered Like Sampson?

It has been remarked online (and also possibly in the gooner, memory fails) that in recent games he has been sitting and holding a little more than in earlier matches of the season and whether this is him continuing to grow into the role or through Wenger's explicit instructions (I would hope the latter but not be surprised either way) I think it is vital he keeps up this very high level of performance for the teams continued chances of success this season. I would argue that with the possible exception of Scott Parker (the only thing keeping West Ham going against the drop, never mind Avram Grant and his lucky scarf), Song has been the best player in his position in the league this season. Mikel has been part of Chelsea's fall from grace, Darren Fletcher has not hit the heights of past seasons and The Spuds don't often operate with an orthodox holding player, apart from the odd occasion when Wilson Palacious gets a game.

Which brings me to the other point, as unlikely as it is to happen, Mr Wenger, please give him some backup. Denilson is not a proper defensive midfielder and never will be, he is also not good enough when it comes to the crunch against the best teams. Jack Wilshire has been superb this season but has shown signs of tiring in the second half of games lately and could do with a good rest. Abou Diaby is having another "made of glass" season and Craig Eastmond will not exactly strike fear into the opposition. A huge shame that Emmanuel Frimpong is out basically for the season, very good noises having been made about him alongside JW19 in pre-season, but all these facts bring us to the (established) conclusion that we could really do with another defensive midfielder.

Scott Parker will not be allowed to leave West Ham and I don't think Wenger would go for him even if it was feasible (pity, as I think he would be ideal), so something like the return of Mattieu Flamini would be ideal (even on a loan until the end of the season if he fears bringing in players will stop the development of Wilshire, Frimpong et al), or even a typical Wenger unknown (hopefully in the Vieira mould, rather than the Cygan) would be a boost to the squad. My number one choice, even higher than Scotty Parker would be Tiote from Newcastle - what a buy that guy was for Chris Hughton before his departure from The Toon. He scraps, tackles, and has taken to the Premier League like the proverbial duck in the wet stuff. If Alex Song gets injured (a distinct possibility, given the amount of games for which he is first choice and his robust playing style) it will leave us in deep shit, for lack of a better expression. So while others are calling for a new defender or a new goalie (Sczcesney all the way!), I'm praying Wenger gets the Visa out for another battler in midfield.

Its a shame we've only got one Song!