The Flamini effect at Arsenal
Today, Arsenal face Liverpool and as an Arsenal fan, I am very worried about the fact that Flamini isn’t in the squad.
It was a general consensus that Flamini re-signing for Arsenal was a recipe for underwhelming an entire fan base, but credit to Arsene Wenger and his call on the Frenchman. When Flamini left Arsenal, I wasn’t really old enough to judge a player on how good he was unless he was scoring loads and loads of goals, so the first stint of Flamini at Arsenal is rather a blur of mediocrity to me. How wrong I was about that is incredible.
I watched a few YouTube videos of him in the last season for us where he was mainly used as a fullback and, my word, what a phenomenal season that was. If I was more adept when watching football at the time he left, I would have been much more aggrieved about him leaving. I don’t really remember him being a general on the pitch as he acts now but, when you see him strolling about in his jet black boots anchoring and screening the back four, I just feel safe, like Mathieu himself has wrapped his arms around me and told me everything will be alright.
Unfortunately, when he went off against Crystal Palace with a groin injury it was like a hurricane had swept through our midfield and, instead of a one thousand foot tall concrete dam like Flamini, we had a windbreaker with a hole in it. It worries me considering that was only Crystal Palace doing that and I can’t bring myself to think what Liverpool will do to if we’re not switched on today. In my opinion, I think Flamini was a better signing that Özil; everyone who claims to be a football fan knew Özil would be a “great signing” but Wenger has proven many wrong with the return of Flamini, who is now an integral cog in Arsenal’s midfield.
Come back soon, Mathieu, please.
Yours faithfully,
Arsenal fans.
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