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At a tad under 6 feet, Thomas Vermaelen is not your typical centerback. In fact, many big teams have passed him up because of his height. But, what the “Verminator” lacks in height, he more than makes up for in his ability to leap and his timing on headers. The boy jumps like a kangaroo! His organization in defense and his tackling abilities have brought comparisons to Nemanja Vidic (Man U). I think he’s better.

So, here’s some interesting articles about Vermaelen’s history, his view of the game, and a short video on his exploits for Arsenal.

Thomas Vermaelen Loves Playing For Arsenal Due to Arsene Wenger’s “Vision”

Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen earns himself ‘Verminator’ nickname

Thomas Vermaelen: defender of the faith

How did Drogba get his foot, knee, whatever it was, on the cross from Cole in just the right way? How did Vermaelen make the mistake and put the ball into his own net? You take away those two factors and let Arshavin’s goal stand, you’ve got something else. Chelsea’s last goal was just the cherry on top.

Both teams gave it all they had. It rained the whole time. Either team could have had luck go their way.

That’s the way football is. The world goes on. Its only November.

The hero of Saturday’s game was, of course, Thomas Vermaelen. I love the fact folks were saying that he was too short to play central defense, yet he’s scoring headers by jumping higher than anyone else on the field.

Eboue took a attacking role in midfield on the right, Fabregas and Song played in the middle, with Eduardo roaming the left. This was a slightly different midfield from last week, with Denilson sitting on the bench. I’ll assume that it had something to do with Adebayor.

You got to feel for Robin van Persie. How many shots on goal did he have? I thought for sure that he would put one away but it wasn’t meant to be. He had a great hit of the ball on a free kick outside the box, and then moments later Eboue playing a ball – somewhat ackwardly placed – that RvP could have tapped in. It seemed like all he needed to do was open his body up and tap it with his favored left foot rather than trying a quick shot with his right.

But, that was all warm up for what was coming. RvP whipped in a great corner in the 25th minute than Vermaelen headed in. He just jumped higher than anyone and changed the direction of the ball. It was a clinical header – no need to force it, just redirect it.

Vermaelen’s second came right after the start of the 2nd half. He started it and ended it. He did the give and go with Eboue and asked for the ball back. Eboue obliged and “Tommy V” (the Verminator) curled it into the top left corner.

Some attribute the third goal to Eduardo, others to Eboue. In the 59th minute, Eduardo volleyed a cross from Clichy but it rebounded off the post. He got his own rebound and shot again. The replay shows that it hit Eboue on the way in and redirected slightly. Either way, by this time in the game, it seemed Wigan were ready to concede and go home.

A fourth goal by Fabregas completed the route.

My feeling after the game was, yeah, ok, we can destroy Wigan at home because they let us play an attacking style. Most of the game happened in their half. Teams who allow us to do this will fall. The fact that we look shaky in defense when a tougher team goes forward is alarming. All another team needs to do is set up shop right between the mids and the defensive line. That’s harder than it sounds, I realize, but teams like United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool, and even Fulham have managed to do it.

I don’t think the problem lies in our defensive line, its the fact that our midfield seems to think of themselves as an attacking unit (at the wrong times), not as an important part of a collective defensive effort. Denilson plays the defensive mid role well, and so does Song and Diaby when they’re asked. I just don’t see the same cohesion as, say, Vieira with Sol Campbell or Lauren or Gilberto Silva or Tony Adams. My hope is that Gallas and Vermaelen stay healthy and they find a way to fill the holes in front of them, i.e., organizing their team mates in midfield and calling for a greater team unity in defense.

Perhaps we’ll see more highlights like these:

In the most interesting fixture on Sunday, I was somewhat happy to see Michael Owen get the game winner against Manchester City. While I don’t enjoy seeing Man United win, City have entered the realm of “anyone but them”. Somehow, the work that Sir Alex Ferguson has done over the years at United deserves some accolades, even though his heavy handed play against Arsenal deserves time in purgatory. Simply buying a team of great players – like City and Chelsea have done – puts you in league with the devil and outside the realm of penance. And, with all the struggles that Owen has gone through, its great to see him get the match winner.

While Arsenal possessed the ball well, this game was settled by set pieces. The first goal was a master strike by Denilson to curl Fabregas’ side pass into the upper left corner. But, it wasn’t the dagger that ended the possibility of an Everton comeback. The 2nd and 3rd goals did that. Both centerbacks, first Vermaelen, then Gallas, headed the ball home on well-orchestrated set pieces by Arsenal, not so well defended by Everton. One team has been practicing these, the other not. After those two goals, any confidence left in Everton was gone. The rest of the goals would come on counter attacks, because Everton was pushing forward. This is what Wenger’s Arsenal does best and its been too long since we’ve seen it happen.

If you go back 3 or 4 seasons, you’ll remember that the way other teams figured out how to stop Arsenal when they were in the mood was to take them out of it by being overly physical. Its part of the English game that a team can push and shove a team with superior ball skills and technique. Its looked upon as opposing “tactics”. Manchester United were the first to employ it. Sir Alex Ferguson knew he couldn’t beat the Arsenal team that had gone on a 49 game unbeaten run by just playing football and so enabled his team to muscle their way to victory. Others (to name a few, Chelsea, Bolton, and any team managed by Sam Alyrdice) have tried the same. Credit should be given to David Moyes and the team he put on the field Saturday for not doing the same. But then, its been awhile since another team needed to employ this tactic.

This should be the season where Arsene Wenger’s plan for this team shows its full potential. After the 2004 Invincibles, he began a work of building a culture and program around his style of all-around football. Now he’s got a complete and youthful team to show it. I hope he’s got a plan for controlling the ball and game when things get rough, when teams decide they have to go back to the imposing game of physical intimidation.

And, even though the flowing free-form game of old seems to be back in this squad, there are still questions to be answered about the defense. Vermaelen and Gallas did a great job as central defenders but (1) they didn’t have someone like Drogba or Rooney to contend with, and (2) neither of them are very tall and imposing themselves. Both play the role of speedy, mobile centerbacks very well, although Gallas, at his age, will probably start to wear over a long season.

In any regard, it was a magical game and was a great start to the new campaign. Champions League football against Celtic on Tuesday (2:45 pm EST, Fox Soccer Channel here in the States).

1 down, 37 to go.

Here are some notes that I jotted down while watching. The highlight reel from Youtube is below.

• Andrey Arshavin is so aware of things going on around him. He had several dummies and its hard to see how he knew that another player was behind him. I’m looking forward to some more magical moments from Arshavin. He might be my favorite current Arsenal player right now … no, that’s not true; although, he’s probably a close second to Cesc Fabregas.
• The last goal is a showcase of the young, young guns coming through at Arsenal. Sanchez Watt doesn’t give up and manages to get the ball off the endline where the defender should have been able to shepherd it out. The ball comes to Aaron Ramsey who has the foresight to not blast the ball at an impossible angle. He patiently waits and sees a running Jack Wilshere through a crowd of players. Then, he manages to dink it over everyone to the opposite side of the goal where Wilshere has the composure to place a well hit ball into the far corner. Its a thing of beauty. Watch the highlights below.
• Jack Wilshere!
• The biggest problem for Arsenal is the ability to clear the ball on corners or set pieces. The ball bounced around too much in the box and luckily Rangers didn’t jump on their chances. Hopefully, having Thomas Vermaelen in there will help to remedy those situations.

On the other side of the pond, the start of the Premiership is just around the corner. After watching MLS games played in terrible heat and worse conditions, it’s almost time for the “Ahh, ha” moment when we see what club football can be like with real competition and players with extraordinary skill.

Its time to get the funds together for Arsenal TV Online and start integrating the Arsenal blogs into my daily reading. There is so many good writers out there, writing about Arsenal, its hard for me to put myself into the blogosphere as any kind of expert on the subject. I’ve followed them since 1997, so at least I have a decade under my belt. My 12th season of Arsenal starts August 15th!

We’ve been able to finally get rid of Adebayor. He really endured himself to supporters last summer with his “maybe I’m Arsenal, maybe not” remarks. Unfortunately, Kolo Toure has left as well. Both have signed with Manchester City, which should make the watching of “Citeh” finish mid-table again even more interesting. With all of the money they’re throwing around to sign players, they think they’re heading to the top four of the Premiership. I think that’s hilarious but I guess we’ll see. Arsenal has supposedly pocketed 40 million pounds on the deal, so if we just get them to take Eboue as well, the whole thing would go down as the biggest swindle ever, in the whole history of the world. Well done Arsene!

We may actually get to see Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott, and Fabregas all in the midfield together at some point. Rosicky is said to be back after being gone for so long. Our new Belgian centerback Thomas Vermaelen looks to be a great acquisition as well. Rumors are swirling around talks to get Patrick Vieira back at Arsenal and to sign Daniele de Rossi from Roma. I’m not holding my breathe for either but just one of them would be outstanding. Vieira is past his prime but coming back to the club he loves (and we love you too Paddy) would probably throw the engine into overdrive for at least a season or two.

This weekend, as part of the pre-season Emirates Cup, Arsenal take on Atletico Madrid on Saturday and Rangers on Sunday. Then, we take on Valencia next Saturday, before opening day against Everton on August 15th. Ooh, the anticipation!