The 12th man

If I had a pound for every time a commentator or pundit compared Abou Diaby to Patrick Vieira I would be a substantially richer man.  You can hardly blame people for making the comparison, both played a similar role at Arsenal, both have a similar mountainous build and both are French internationals.  But until recently, I have always sneered at the comparison.  After all Patrick Vieira is one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time and Abou Diaby plays so irregularly it can be easy to forget that he is an Arsenal player.

So far this season to the delight of Manchester United and to the dismay of Arsenal fans, Robin Van Persie has had a blinding start to the new premier league.  His hat trick at the weekend seemed almost unimpressive by his standards, as he will surely be wondering why he didn’t just demolish the net with his penalty as opposed to attempting to tickle the ball cutely into the goal.  No doubt he will already be many fans hot favourite to etch his name onto the golden boot this season, but is this a wise prediction?