Our season has been a tale of two halves: the Holloway era when no one was playing for their manager and the Pulis days where they are fighting for their manager. Of course footballers get paid huge amounts of money and should always work themselves into the ground but it isn’t that simple; just look at Tottenham and Sherwood’s revival of Adebayor. The same can be said for Marouanne Chamakh. Arsenal fans are always quick to joke about him and his goal scoring ability or lack of it but they don’t realise that Chamakh has been playing behind the striker for the majority of matches since November and he has been creating chances and putting them away. When he shoots (rarely) it tends to go in with 57% of his shots testing the keeper and half of them going in. It is also true that he possesses a locker brimming and overflowing with skills.
In dikgacoi, jedinak and barry bannan i have named three fans favourites and also three of the ten worst passers in the league according to Opta and the three of them have misplaced well over 300 passes. As a team we have the least possession per game in the league which means when we get the ball the role of Chamakh is key with his champions league experience and quality. Chamakh had also created 24 goal scoring chances in 24 games only one ending in a goal due to questionable finishing. Chamakh can also track back well resulting in 40 clearances. In summary a lot of the criticism he has received is unwarranted and he brings more to the table than you may expect.
Puncheon above our weight 