The latest cliché

Every year it seems the pundits come up with a new theory as to why we aren't winning anything and it fast becomes a cliché. Now most intelligent people would try to avoid clichés if they possibly can help it but not pundits, oh no, they're like a stuck record they are.

We've heard them all before, that we're trying to score the perfect goal, that we have no leaders, that we don't like it up us, blah blah blah. But this years appears to be that we have no "world class" players except Van Persie. Now I have no desire to get into a debate about what constitutes a world class player because that's entirely subjective and pointless, however what I infer from this remark as an admittedly paranoid and pundit-resenting Gooner is that they think that RVP is one of the best in the league (and therefore the world in punditspeak) and none of our other players are.

Now I'm not denying that Robin Van Persie is currently our best player by quite some margin but I think a fair few of our players stand up pretty well in comparison to others in their positions at the top clubs.

Sagna, for example, is in my opinion the best right back in the league. And from what I've seen there are very few better in the world at the moment.

I would also think that are very few clubs in the world that wouldn't want Jack Wilshere on their books. And looking at the midfields of our rivals I'm sure most of them would be pretty happy with Alex Song in their team.

In fact I think Song is one of the most underrated players in the Premier League. He is probably the most complete midfielder I've seen at Arsenal since Patrick Vieira but it seems to me he is underappreciated due to the modern habit of believing that midfielders have to be either attacking or defensive. Song does both, surely that's a bonus rather than a stick to beat him with? Now Man City fans will probably point to Yaya Toure and I'll admit I think he's fantastic but considering he's currently partnered by Gareth Barry I think I can safely say there would be room to accomodate Song into the engine room.

And what about Thomas Vermaelen? He might not be the best defender in the league but he's not far off and again I think most of the top clubs this season have shown some defensive frailties, so who wouldn't want someone of Vermaelen's class in the team?

Yes we are a little lacking in some departments but to say that we don't have any top quality players aside from Van Persie is ludicrous. Let's not forget that until a brief spell of true brilliance from Nasri last year the same pundits were claiming that the only world class player we had was Fabregas, ignoring Van Persie entirely ddue to his injury record.

Simply put if we carry on winning with the team that we have at the moment and if by some miracle we actually pick up a trophy somewhere along the line don't be surprised if the pundits suddenly revise their opinions on a few of our players.

Stranger things have happened, only last week I heard Trevor Francis refer to Koscielny as 'the big defender', now who'd've seen that coming a few weeks back?