Personally I can think of 11 reasons for Arsenal fans to worry ahead of tomorrow’s match against Barcelona, but Arsene Wenger has pinpointed the man that he famously tried to buy a few years ago, Luis Suarez. Le Prof believes that Suarez is the glue that holds the team together, and he admitted that he used to feel regret that the Uruguayan goal machine didn’t come to play with the Gunners.
“I used to think ‘what if I signed Luis Suarez’ before, but not now,” Wenger said. “He gives camaraderie to a team. He did it at Liverpool and he did it playing with Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan for Uruguay, and did it well.
“Suarez is the kind of guy who manages to create that spirit in teams. Apart from the individual talent the three have, they also have a good understanding, cohesion and great solidarity.
“I have seen that Lionel Messi gave the ball to Suarez from a penalty, because he wanted him to be the best goal-scorer.
“When you see someone like Messi – who had the opportunity to score his 300th goal – do that, it means there’s really something there.
“Individually, all their players are difficult to stop. We have to find a way to do it collectively. We have to analyse what we do and do it well and together. We have to keep Suarez quiet on Tuesday night.”
You could say that Suarez helped us to get Alexis Sanchez indirectly, by making sure him and Neymar kept the Chilean out of the starting line-up, but that is as far as I would go in praise of Suarez. Sure he’s a great goalscorer but who knows who he will bite next?
I’m sure Koscielny or Mertesacker will quickly remind him that Premier League players are not like those soft Spanish defenders!