The key ingredient

During Wenger’s incredibly successful tenure at the helm of Arsenal Football club, we have seen several different Arsenal teams take the Highbury/Ashburton Grove pitch. The pace and power of the late 90’s, the Invincibles of the early 2000s and the technical youngsters of today. Styles may have altered and personnel changed, but one ingredient has always remained synonymous with a successful Wenger team. World-beating full backs.

When Wenger took over, he inherited Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn, who were half of one of the most meagre defence’s the premiership has ever seen. Not only were they defensively savvy, they were quick, aggressive and intelligent.

Wenger’s early footballing philosophy was based on speed, technique and power and with this revolutionary ethos came a new breed of Arsenal full-back, with Silvinho,Cole and Lauren. All three were incredibly brave, good on the ball and vital to the success of our prolific wingers Overmars, Pires and Ljungberg.

Footballing philosophy at Arsenal has not changed, but evolved and developed. In Clichy and Sagna, Wenger has seemingly found the defensive qualities of Dixon and Winterburn and mixed them with the attacking qualities of Cole and Lauren. Both have unbelievable pace and levels of fitness, unnerving composure and are now realising their attacking potential with a series of sublime assists this season.

It was very weird to see Clichy make a mistake at Man City this weekend, and was perhaps more obvious than most because he just doesn’t make them. When the myarsenalbloggers team watch an Arsenal match, the player we shower with the most superlatives and rather odd excitable squeals is not Fabregas, Van Persie or Adebayor, but Clichy. At some stage in a match, you have to expect that an opposing winger is going to get the better of your full-back, they can’t make every tackle and block every cross – or so I thought. Clichy’s reading of the game is phenomenal. No winger in the world can beat him for pace, and when he is under pressure, he always finds the space to manoeuvre around the opposition or find the appropriate pass – never a hoof. Sagna possesses many of the same attributes and is also fantastic in the air. His willingness to get forward at every opportunity means that Hleb can operate in his favoured central area, where he can be at his flowing and unpredictable best.

Another attribute these tremendous athletes have? Their mentality. In Lauren, Cole and Eboue, we have had three full-backs who can be petulant and at times very embarrassing. Never have I seen Sagna or Clichy dive, deliberately go out to hurt a player or moan at the referee. They are winners who are focussed on their individual game at all times, and when they don’t play, Arsenal miss them, badly. In Clichy, we have the best left-back in the world, and I’m fast becoming of the opinion that in Sagna, we have the best right-back in the world, which can’t be bad when you’re trying to win three major trophies.

By Martin Webb