The Christmas-Boxing Day-New Year's period is always a frantic one for the Premier League. Arguments and debates regarding a winter break aside, you're almost guaranteed some fantastic talking points with action just about every day. This year's run of games was no different, with shocking results all around in what has been a most engrossing season. Other than upsets though, the last few weeks have also seen a few strikers hit the news for various reasons.
I've written about Arsenal numerous times, and for a long time I've felt that they've been lucky to have finished in the Top Four and qualify from the Champions League. Since their stunning team of Invincibles, each incarnation of Arsene Wenger's Gunners has been significantly weaker than the last, and they are only where they are this season because of RVP's goals, Gervinho's addition and Vermaelen's return. Given that their star man is due a long-term injury soon and Gervinho will be off to the African Cup of Nations, the loan signing of a certain Thierry Henry might be perfect. Wojciech Szczesny says that his side "needs" the return of the Frenchman, and that statement raises a few pertinent questions.
The former Arsenal frontman and skipper returns to a side that barely resembles the one he left - Ljungberg, Gallas, Baptista, Flamini, Lehmann, Adebayor and Aboue have all left alongside the other big name Cesc Fabregas (also to Barcelona). Their replacements have turned in performances at varying degrees of success (you'd pick Wilshere over Flamini, surely...) and Robin Van Persie has certainly supplied the goals that Arsenal have needed. But what else are they lacking?
Szczesny said that Henry would provide a dressing room presence that the club needs, a telling line that might suggest that the London side still lack a leader - an accusation made even when Fabregas had the armband. This Thierry Henry is not the Henry of old, though, arguably the most dangerous striker on the planet (possibly out-performing Ruud Van Nistelrooy near his peak) and Arsenal will hope that his short-term deal will pan out as well as Henrik Larsson's did for Manchester United in 2007.
The Red Devils themselves have a strange striking situation. Dropping the league's top scorer at the start of the season isn't a luxury afforded to many sides, but United are still the only side to have scored in every league game this term. Most of the attention, of course, is on Wayne Rooney, the talisman United have craved for since the days of Eric Cantona.
But it is on the dropped striker that the Cantona comparisons are made, with Dimitar Berbatov's relaxed approach to the beautiful game drawing as much praise as it does criticism. Linked with a move to Juventus recently, the Bulgarian has often said that he is very happy to remain a squad player at United (a sentiment shared by the forgotten Michael Owen) but has started firing again in recent games, and one wonders what the future holds for the silky striker.
United do need him, though not as much as Arsenal need RVP, but Berbatov offers the option that Rooney, Welbeck, Hernandez, Owen, Macheda, or Diouf (that's a lot of strikers...) don't. When I wrote a few months ago of the importance of Tom Cleverley in allowing Wayne Rooney to play at his best, the main point was that the young midfielder offered a fulcrum to which the rest of the team could revolve around. Dimitar Berbatov is that sort of player as well, if utilized properly. He is not a big targetman like Edinson Cavani. He will not run behind defenders like Filippo Inzaghi. He is not going to score from 35 years like Gabriel Batistuta. And he will not run, terrier-like, as Carlos Tevez once did for Man Utd.
It is perhaps unfortuante, then, that the purchase of Berbatov was seen as a factor in driving out Carlos Tevez, who in many ways is the polar opposite of his former team-mate.
Never staying anywhere for long, the vagabond Argentine has been courted by both AC Milan and Internazionale, as well as big-spending Paris Saint-Germain. City's former captain, and now public enemy number one, the man's career is a transfer saga in itself. There isn't much to say about him except that the move in many ways has been long overdue, and that at his best, there are few better in the world at the position. It says much for City, sitting pretty at the top of the BPL, that they are so willing to offload the player that is probably the reason for all their success now. Would David Silva and Yaya Toure have flourished without Tevez? Would they have even been persuaded to move to Eastlands?
The departure of one South American hitman coincides with the absence of another, the former Ajax maestro Luis Suarez. Banned for eight games after the incident with Patrice Evra, details are sketchy to this day, with Liverpool saying it a matter of one man's word against another. The fact that testimonies from the Liverpool players and officials (including Suarez himself) don't add up though, speak poorly for his case.
On the pitch though, he is the dynamo that Liverpool have lacked since injuries cripplied Steven Gerrard's playing time. An on-form Suarez makes Liverpool as dangerous as they did when Torres and Gerrard terrorized defences across the country. However, the striking difference is just that, the striking.
With a strike conversion rate of less than 10% (and only about 50% of his shots hit the target at all), to call him wasteful might be generous. But the form of Andy Carroll, the conversion of Dirk Kuyt to winger, and the inability of Stewart Downing to find or create a goal this season does not bode well for the Reds, still seeking a top four finish even after this morning's crushing defeat to ten-man Manchester City.
How can Liverpool cope without him? Andy Carroll did so well at Newcastle because Joey Barton, Jonas Gutierrez and Kevin Nolan supplied him the kinds of balls that the big man thrives on, enabling him to reach doubel figures before Christmas. The delivery has been lacking at Liverpool, despite the management bringing in Adam, Downing and Henderson becuase of their apparent chance-creating prowess. Indeed, Charlie Adam has been almost ever-present (though not Carroll) but it almost looks like he has ceased to chance the glorious long balls to the targetman that made him so effective at Blackpool. It is notable that Steven Gerrard did supply Carroll with those balls in the game against Newcastle when he came on, and the ponytailed forward looked immediately more dangerous.
The next few weeks will be very interesting for many sides, and many players, not least the strikers we've looked at today. Be it a returning hero, a languid trickster, a wantaway maverick or a misfiring misfit, you can be sure that something is going to happen.
Even if nothing does, that in itself is surely something to talk about.
Happy new year everyone!
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