Arsenal singing for Song

Tuesday, 13/12/2011

by Richard Leighton, Shoot's Arsenal blogger

Before Saturday's match against Everton Arsenal celebrated their 125th anniversary and so it was fitting that a scoreline so synonymous with the club turned up once again to settle the match.

But the only goal came not from a corner kick, near post flick on by Steve Bould to be nodded in at the back stick by Tony Adams type of goal. It was a moment of wonderful finishing from Robin van Persie (of course) with a volley from the edge of the area.

I wouldn't like to be in Ivan Gazidis' shoes for those contract negotiations. You can imagine van Persie's agent walking in with nothing but a DVD of goals, a folder full of statistics and a salary demand.

But the one that constantly surprises and impresses me with his brilliance and consistency of performance is the man that laid on the pass for van Persie - our 'defensive midfielder' Alex Song. If Cesc Fabregas had executed that pass, everyone would have been lauding it and nobody would have been surprised.

But Song has this in his locker and over the past three seasons his improvement has been absolutely extraordinary. His strength when holding up the ball, his ability to intercept a pass and break up the play are all huge reasons why he must be the first name on the team sheet these days.

But it doesn't end there. He isn't just one of those midfielder players who performs his defensive duties and then plays the simple five yard pass sideways to keep the ball moving. It's all about what he can do next because his part in the move has only just started.

When we played Borussia Dortmund at home a few weeks ago, it was he that made a marauding, tricky run down the left wing (!) before skipping between two defenders and putting in a great cross for van Persie to head home. This against the German champions no less.

Of course, credit must also go to players like Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey who allow Song to express himself all over the pitch like this but for me he is second most important outfield player in our squad right now behind 'you know who'.

I say outfield players because if Wojciech Szczesny isn't playing, we might as well wheel out a scarecrow.

So it is to my eternal relief that Cameroon somehow failed to qualify for the 2012 African Nations Cup because without Song I think we would have been in for a long hard winter.

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