Robin van Persie is Arsenal's striker (their designated shooter), the best Dutch player, and Arsenal manager Wenger controversially accused van Persie of being the EPL's best striker -- despite the fact that Chelsea's Didier Drogba, Man U's Wayne Rooney, and Liverpool's Fernando Torres are all among the 15 best players in the world.

Drogba commented on Wenger's assessment by scoring two goals to beat Arsenal in their own stadium...

van Persie is the quintessential Arsenal player:  delicately artistic, offense-minded, and out for the season with a sprained ankle.  Wenger likes lightweight, small, mobile players, and they don't always stand up well to the EPL pounding...

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Andrey Arshavin is the 3rd of Arsenal's big three, playing second striker behind van Persie (and now, with van Persie out, playing first striker).

Arshavin is Russia's superstar, old by Arsenal standards at 26 (!).  At about 5 foot 6 inches tall, he packs one of the most powerful feet in the EPL.  He's notorious for his "compact swing to the ball" and can thunder a ball past a goalie with seemingly no backstroke at all.

Arshavin is a first-class passer in the attack, very creative, fast, and blessed with a boundless joy for the game of soccer.  He's my favorite player.  Ever.

The last few years, Arsenal was viciously criticized for maneuvering the ball around the midfield endlessly, playing keepaway in Harlem Globetrotters fashion, but not being able to generate serious shots on goal.  Arshavin completely solved this creativity problem -- since he joined the Gunners, they've been easily the highest-scoring team in England.

Arshavin is another typical Wenger 'waterbug' player:  very fast, very light, very mobile, and with zero physical presence bashing around the goal area.  When Arsenal takes a corner kick, they bring their center defenders Gallas and young star Vermaelen all the way up 100 yards to put a head on the ball, because those are the only two players they have able to do anything in the air...

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William Gallas is a big center defender, stolen from rival Chelsea, who does the hard physical work in Arsenal's own goal area -- going up to deny headers on crosses from corner kicks, for example.

4-4-2 put Gallas in the world's top 100, though I wouldn't have.

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Gael Clichy is a wing defender.  In the EPL, outside defenders are soccer's version of NFL cover corners, and the best of them can lock down any offensive player. 

Clichy is one of these.  We've seen him, time and again, simply snuff the EPL's greatest offensive players any time they venture into his area.  Clichy also gets forward to help in attack.  Great, great player.

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Eduardo was named in the world's top 100 by 4-4-2, despite the fact that he usually looks useless to me.  :- )  Cut him some slack - he suffered a Joe Theismann leg injury two years ago.

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For the more soccer-literate fans, how much chance have you had to watch young hotshot Aaron Ramsey?  Kid looks like the real deal to me.

Cheers,

Dr D