Arsenal, the 1man team

It is official, Arsenal are the new one man team of the season, at least for the moment. It seems that we can’t get out of a hole without Alexis Sanchez digging us out of it.

So let’s see. It is generally okay for Manchester City to feed off Sergio Aguero’s goals in their efforts to secure a place in the Champions League knock-out stages while gaining accolades for being the only team that is capable of challenging Chelsea for the title this season.

And if my memory serves me correctly, there was no fuss about Liverpool depending on Luis Suarez for the entire last season when he single-handedly carried them agonisingly close to the Premier League title.

In fact, we marvelled at their lovely attacking style of football and hailed it as collective team improvement. But heaven forbid Arsenal winning another game by virtue of one man playing better than the rest, because that is unacceptable. Multiple standards, I would say.

Yes, we’re probably relying on Sanchez too much at times and we’re back to the old ways with 1-0 wins, but why the need to criticise?

Is there something amiss with the combination above because the way I see it, we have a top player brimming with confidence who is scoring goals for us, a clean sheet for our defence and three points in the bag.

I’m not saying that I like Arsenal being labelled as a one man team and we should keep it up, I’m just saying that it doesn’t matter as long as we’re getting the wins and results week in, week out.

Last season, I used to think of how we could really use a player like Suarez if Arsene Wenger had pulled off that cheeky transfer attempt for the Uruguayan.

With Arsenal having started so strongly in the league, his goals might have just propelled us to more trophies than just the FA Cup.

In hindsight, I’m glad it didn’t happen. The reason is plain simple. Even if we had gotten him to play for us, Suarez will not stop angling for a move away to either one of the Spanish giants in the form of Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Can you imagine Wenger letting another world-class player walk out the door of the Emirates? We’ll never hear the end of it for another five years. Not to mention, the baggage and issues he brings with him are as big as his ability to score goals.

But more importantly, his arrival would mean that there wasn’t going to be room to accommodate Sanchez when he became available this season, something not very different from the situation involving our former captain, whereby the signing of Mesut Ozil effectively rendered Cesc Fabregas’ return unlikely and unviable.

Had Fabregas opted to leave Barcelona a season earlier, a time when Frank Lampard was still holding his place in Chelsea’s first team and the only potential suitor being Manchester United under David Moyes, I have no doubt we would have seen him playing in red and white again as Wenger had always reiterated his interest to welcome Fabregas back.

Before I digress any further, the point here is that we are awfully lucky to have Sanchez playing and scoring for us and it is expected that people will want to make us out as a one man team, just like they did in Van Persie’s final season at Arsenal.

What they failed to realise is that given the number of times we have lost or sold a key player from our team, we have consistently maintained a certain level of performance and results.

This isn’t me glorifying fourth place in the league or Champions League qualification and all that, but judging by how it is something that Liverpool are struggling to emulate this season after losing Suarez I think you know where I’m getting at.

Of course, scoring plenty of goals and having different players score for our team would be great not only for the fans, but for team morale as well.

The sooner some of the other players in our squad step up and start playing better, the focus will shift and we will lose this unwanted tag in no time. Now would be a good time to start. – December 7, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.