Will 2012/13 be remembered as a great year for Gervinho? No, obviously not – but in the here and now of this season, he is making a worthwhile contribution which will ultimately be relevant to which continental competition Arsenal find themselves in next September.
Gervinho hasn’t done anything ground-breaking in the last two games, but he has been a prominent part of a resurgent Arsenal side, and he deserves acclaim for being so.
Confidence can be a fragile thing, and given the six months the Ivorian had prior to the Africa Cup of Nations, he could have been forgiven for shying away from the limelight on his return. He’s had bad misses, he’s delivered some very poor performances, and he’ll have been aware of his less-than-cherished status amongst the Emirates crowd at times, but he’s recovered his self-belief admirably.
Ok, so he hasn’t all of a sudden become a world-beater, and a goal and a couple of assists against Swansea and West Brom isn’t much of a highlight reel, but applaud the player for having – for want of a better phrase – the balls to show-up when the season’s on the line.
Once a player’s deficiencies have allowed him to become a figure of fun at a club, it’s very difficult for him to correct that perception – on a grander scale, Fernando Torres is currently finding that out at Chelsea. Gervinho may very well revert to type within a few months, and he may also rediscover his fondness for missing chances from underneath the crossbar, but in the here and now he’s playing very well – and that’s really all that matters at the moment.
Don’t underestimate the mental strength at work here, because this is someone who had become something of a punchline.
Even in the analysis of Tomas Rosicky’s first goal yesterday on Match Of The Day, nobody seemed in any great hurry to acknowledge Gervinho’s role – at least beyond Mark Lawrenson muttering something about how he ‘probably meant to shoot’. Maybe so, but he held the ball up extremely well, and gave Rosicky the time he needed to get into the box and connect with his header. (further analysis of that goal here).
We’ve had our fun with him, now let’s be fair to the guy.
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