Arsenal without Samir Nasri and Alex Song Facing a Tough Challenge

In the first half of the season, central defense was the matter of concern for Arsenal with injury hitting one after another and decreasing Arsene Wenger’s options at the back line. Now, it seems that injury is gradually shifting its focus from Arsenal’s defense line to its midfield as the Gunners have already lost two of their crucial midfielders- Samir Nasri and Alex Song- in the recent weeks and they would be sidelined for around three weeks.

Samir Nasri has been perhaps Arsenal’s best performer so far this season and was one of the crucial players in their small passing game. His creativity and scoring earned his team a lot of points throughout the first half of the season. Nasri along with Fabregas, Walcott and Robin van Persie formed a lethal quartet which started to work for Wenger.

Similarly, Alex Song has also been a dominant player who along with Jack Wilshere provided lot of support to Arsenal’s struggling backline and cover for their wingbacks, especially Bacary Sagna. The most important thing is that Song focused not only in intercepting opponent attacks, but also building up attacks for his team, showing his creativity and vision.

So, losing the two midfielders for 3 crucial weeks has been a big blow for Wenger boys who are desperate to bring an end to their five-year title draught. It is pretty much certain that both players would miss Arsenal’s Champions League encounter with Barcelona on 16 February. Moreover, the midfielder duo would also miss a number of Premier League matches.

Overall, Arsenal has a very tough challenge to take up in the coming weeks and the players like Fabregas, Wilshere and Arshavin must step up to go through this phase without suffering any major damage to their title hope.

Samir Nasri: Relentless Criticism about Arsenal is not Fair

(This entry was originally posted in this blog on December 4, 2008 and the information is based on that time.)

Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri has dismissed all the criticisms thrown to Arsenal because of their inconsistent form so far this season. The French youngster was not consistent either. Joining the North London during last Summer, Nasri started off his new journey with Arsenal with success as he scored the winning goal in the season opener against West Bromwich Albion. Arsenal also got off to a mixed start to the season losing five out of 16 matches so far this season. However, Arsenal got two excellent victories over defending champion Manchester United at home and most recently Arsenal defeated another title contender Chelsea on the road. Nasri is so not concerned about the criticisms.

Goal.com reported:

“There is lots of relentless criticism about Arsenal that is not fair,” the former Marseille player told the Independent.
“But now it is up to us to stop talking, to work hard at training and to show on the pitch that all of that is nonsense.
“We know the quality we have, we know what is in our dressing room and that everything is okay at the club so we can prove them wrong,” he said.
“I am very pleased with my four months here so far,” the £12 million signing added.

Arsenal is now 8 points behind the league leader Liverpool and will face Wigan Athletic in their upcoming league encounter. No doubt, Arsenal is favorite in the match, but their inconsistent form does not provide the fans any good feeling. However, one thing is for sure that this Arsenal has the ability to win outclass any side when they are at their top, but the problem is that very often Arsenal goes out of form.