Worthy Successor

Arsene Wenger has suggested that he bought Tomas Rosicky to replace Robert Pires. Some challenge! Robert was a much loved Arsenal player whom many fans recognised as being, like Bergkamp and Henry, gifted to the point of genius.

Those fans will recall that when Pires first joined the club after the departure of Marc Overmars, he was a little slow to acclimatise. Tomas Rosicky, by contrast, has made an almost immediate impact – for his pace, his balance, his control, his vision, his crisp passing and his impressive finishing ability. And there has been another facet of his play that has surprised many – for someone who is relatively slight of build he is unexpectedly competitive, extremely brave and always willing to track back and do the less glamorous defensive jobs.

So already there are signs – as there were in the World Cup - that Tomas Rosicky has both the talent and the commitment to be a worthy successor to Robert Pires. But Arsenal fans who, like Arsene Wenger himself, can recall a Highbury night in October 2000, when in the dying moments a teenage midfielder representing Sparta Prague impudently jinked his way through the home defence and beat an astonished David Seaman, will hardly be surprised at that.