Arsenal legend Ray Parlour believes Mathieu Flamini has been the main reason behind the club’s amazing start to the new Premier League campaign.
Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud have been winning most of the applauds from pundits after their great start to the season, but Parlour believes The Gunners owe a lot to the Frenchman, who made a shock return to the club this Summer.
Flamini is the holding-midfielder Arsenal have missed since losing Alex Song to FC Barcelona and after he was substituted against Norwich City at the weekend, the North London side looked a little bit lost for the remaining minutes of the first-half.
Despite having the likes of Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsey and Wilshere, Parlour believes the midfield is reliant on Flamini.
‘Flamini has been a massive signing,’ said Parlour to Talksport. ‘The midfield has always been very good, but they were all very similar players. The likes of (Santi) Cazorla, (Mikel) Arteta are really good on the ball, but they had no one in there bossing everyone around. Now suddenly Flamini has gone in there and he is starting to pull people around.
‘Before he left for AC Milan he was fantastic. Now he is doing a very similar role and giving it to Ozil, Cazorla. He has been a real unsung hero so far.
‘These sort of players do their jobs well but go unseen. He has been a really important player that has come into the club and gone on from where he left. He could be the difference this season.’
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
