Alex Song made 42 appearances for Arsenal during the 2010/11 season. Conor Henderson, Henri Lasnbury and Craig Eastmond made a grand total of 5 between them. For that reason, the majority of this post will be about Song, while the three younger players will have their own, much smaller, section at the end.

Possibly the most obvious change to Song over the past year was his rather noticeable hair style. It would seem that the white/blonde hair not only suits Alex, but also makes him a better footballer. His performances were notably better than they had been in previous seasons as he continued his defensive role in the heart of our midfield. Having spoken towards the end of the 2009/10 season (making it clear that despite a successful season we still hadn’t seen him at his best), Song proved yet again why he is such a valuable member of our squad (although arguably there are some areas of his game which are still in need of improvement).

“I feel I’ve improved a lot this season, but I don’t want to settle for that now that I’m a regular in the team. I know I can do far more, so it’s my job to keep improving.”

Song is a physically powerful player who is known for sitting in front of our defence and breaking up the opposition’s attack with his strong tackles. He also seems to have a ridiculous amount of energy, which allows him to close down opponents quickly for the duration of any game. The most notable difference in his overall playing style was that in the 2010/11 season he seemed to be a lot more comfortable on the ball and, therefore, slightly more adventurous. He provided more of a goal threat than he has in any of his previous seasons, scoring 5 goals (including the 1000th Premier League goal under Arsène Wenger). Possibly his most memorable goal was the first in our 3-1 win over Chelsea at the Emirates in December. His most important goal was a diving header scored in the 88th minute to give us a 1-0 win over West Ham.

However, the fact remains that Song is supposed to be a DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER and his habit of moving forward with attacking moves means that he is often out of position, leaving our back 4 (or sometimes back 2 because our full-backs both seem to come forward too) exposed. It was not uncommon that we were hit on the counter-attack, and I would argue that many of the goals that we conceded in this way were preventable. In my opinion, as brilliant as some of his goals may have been, Song needs to work on the defensive element of his game. Of late, we have not been in a position in which we have lacked attacking options, so Wenger needs to reiterate that Song’s defensive duties must take priority.

Connor Henderson made his Arsenal debut on 20th March, playing the full 90 minutes as we beat Leyton Orient 5-1 in the FA Cup. This would prove to be his only first-team action of the season, although Wenger has assured us that he will be included in our future first-team plans. Henri Lansbury also only made one appearances for Arsenal last season (during the 4-1 win over Spurs in the Carling Cup), but spent the majority of the season on a successful loan spell at Norwich City where he made a further 23 appearances and scored 4 goals.

Craig Eastmond made 3 appearances for the club, including playing against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League because of injuries to Song and Denilson. However, he was substituted shortly after half time because it was clear that he was unable to get to grips with the game. He then spent the second half of the season on loan at his former club Milwall where he made 6 appearances.

STG 2010/11 Ratings:

Song – 7.5/10Eastmond, Lansbury, Henderson – n/a

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