Emile Smith Rowe has experienced a lot for a player who has only started 42 league matches in his career.
He’s appeared against Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig. He’s had a half-season in the Championship. He’s played under Unai Emery, Freddie Ljungberg and Mikel Arteta at Arsenal. He’s been the subject of an audacious approach from another club that came after he signed a new contract. He’s been called up for the England senior team.
Smith Rowe’s Arsenal career has occurred at two different speeds: slowly and then lightning fast. Before Boxing Day last year, he had only made two league appearances for the club. Since then he has started 28 of their 35 Premier League matches. Smith Rowe only made his England Under-21 debut in March but may make his senior debut in the next week.
But then that is Smith Rowe in a nutshell – he’s in a hurry to make things happen. Hurry is not the same as rush, you understand; rushing indicates panic. One of the striking aspects of Smith Rowe’s play is that he seems to know exactly what he must do next and the speed at which he must do it. He understands when to surge forward and when to protect the ball, when to play a pass and when to delay it, when to move into space and when to hang back.
See his goals against Tottenham in the north London derby, against Leicester City and against Watford on Sunday. All were one-touch finishes, proof of a young man who excels in being in the right place at the right time. This is the type of untrainable attribute that comes with experience. He appears to have it ingrained within him.
There is a unique sound made by a home crowd when an attacking midfielder picks up the ball and begins to drive forward. It isn’t a cheer, a roar or applause, because those are all noises of celebration or congratulation and there is nothing to celebrate yet. It is a purr, an excited murmur that indicates that a large group of people are readying themselves to celebrate. And when Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka collect possession around halfway, the Emirates involuntarily makes that noise. It is fitting that they have a joint chant, set to “Rockin’ all over the world” and still lodged in your head days after watching Arsenal play.
That excited murmur is the sound that Arteta wants to hear most. Arsenal have lurched between issues since Arsene Wenger’s peak – stadium costs crippling player investment, big-name players seeking to leave, misguided recruitment and contract extensions – but one persistent on-pitch issue over that long, comparatively miserable period has been an inability to move the ball quickly enough.
Under Wenger, the cliche was that they tried to walk the ball in. Under Emery, the passing was too stagnant and Arsenal became easy to defend. Under Arteta, until recently, the ball seemed to get a little stuck in midfield. Precision and speed were mutual exclusives; Arsenal were either safe but sluggish or open and a little wild.
It is too much to say that Smith Rowe is the difference maker. Arsenal now have young players across the pitch (they now account for the nine youngest starting XIs picked in the Premier League this season) and it is that freshness across the pitch – in goal, at centre-back, at right-back, in central midfield and in attacking midfield – that has provoked a rapid improvement.
Arsenal’s unbeaten run
Arsenal are unbeaten in 10 games since the 5-0 defeat to Manchester City on 28 August. Premier League unless otherwise stated:
- Arsenal 1-0 Norwich
- Burnley 0-1 Arsenal
- Arsenal 3-0 AFC Wimbledon (League Cup)
- Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham
- Brighton 0-0 Arsenal
- Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace 2
- Arsenal 3-1 Aston Villa
- Arsenal 2-0 Leeds (League Cup)
- Leicester 0-2 Arsenal
- Arsenal 1-0 Watford
But Smith Rowe is certainly the poster boy, not just because he is playing so well but because he has grasped his chance so consummately from a standing start. Saka is 15 months his junior but has been a fixture in the team for longer. Smith Rowe took advantage of Arteta’s new meritocracy – if you are good enough, you are experienced enough. Arteta knows too that patience is more easily afforded when supporters can see a plan and can see those who fit the plan being given ample opportunity to deliver it.
Smith Rowe may slip back; Arsenal may slip back. He is a young player and this is a team of young players. The improvement and development of young players are not straight lines on a graph. They are more prone to the trials and travails of football than anyone else: growing pains, dips in confidence, injury niggles, the expectations that come with early success.
But Arsenal supporters were never asking for perfection and nobody reasonable is expecting sustained progress without pitfalls. They were simply crying out for a club in which they could be proud, a team that tried to entertain and a starting XI that contained players who they believed were half as desperate for success as those sitting in the stands.
In Smith Rowe, they have their new hero. They have an attacking midfielder who delights in creating goals and scoring them. They have an Arsenal supporter who has declared his desire to be an Arsenal legend. They have a young man who has come an awfully long way in a short period of time and demonstrated a remarkable ability to deal with each step without losing the appealing exuberance of youth. This time next week, they might have only their third homegrown England debutant in the last 10 years.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3ocGDVx
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