Goodbye Senderos. Goodbye Title.

Senderos has taken with him another piece of our title challenge to AC Milan and despite what some people may think, Philippe’s departure leaves us much worse off. His aerial ability, enthusiasm and ability to adapt and bring out the best in his centre half partners  will be sorely missed and as Arseblogger said, the fact that he’s moved to Milan, a team who plays in league that prides itself on outstanding defending and gave us the likes of Paolo Maldini, proves that Senderos is a quality defender.

The majority of Arsenal and football fans alike could never appreciate how good Senderos really was because they could never see past his mistakes (which were a lot less frequent then people may them out to be). A quick look at the statistics tells you everything you need to know: during the run in to the Champions League final Senderos forged a brilliant partnership with Toure and as a result Arsenal kept 10 clean sheets against the likes of Real Madrid, Juventus and Villareal.

And even when Toure was taking part in the African Cup of Nations last season Senderos was still able to come in and partner Gallas succesfully for quite a long period of time. Senderos, in my opinion, had an uncanny ability of being able to bring out the best in the man he was playing alongside.

When Arsene sold Hoyte and bought Silvestre I thought ‘okay, this is a decent move’ but if I had known that Senderos would be leaving (as I do now) as a result my disgust at Wenger would be damn near impossible to put into words. We’re now left with Toure, an imcometent fool of a captain, a crocked defender who may or may not add something to the team and Djourou.

The very game(s) which now appear to have sealed Senderos’s move to Milan was when we knocked them out of the Champions League. He, along with Flamini, had the likes of Kaka, Pato and Inzaghi all in his pocket. I can only wish Senderos the very best of luck at Milan and I’ve no doubt that with the defensive coaches they have there he will finally get to achieve his full potential.

For further reading, I suggest you check out Gunnerblog’s fantastic article which make some very interesting and hard hitting points.