See part 1 here
Samir Nasri's career has been meteoric. He began playing with Marseille when he was just 9 years old. He rose through the youth ranks and he started playing in Ligue 1 in the 2004/2005 season at the age of 17, where he started 13 games and came on as a substitute in 11 games, scoring one goal.
In the 2005-2006 season he saw European action in the form of the UEFA cup where he played 10 games and then the UEFA Intertoto Cup where he played one game and scored on his debut and only game in the competition.
I have nicked the below career stats from Wikipedia to highlight his career so far.
- As of 4 December 2010 [19]
| Club | Season | League | Cup [20] [21] | Europe | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Assists | Apps | Goals | Assists | Apps | Goals | Assists | Apps | Goals | Assists | ||
| Marseille | 2004-05 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 1 | - |
| 2005-06 | 30 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | - | 11 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 1 | - | |
| 2006-07 | 38 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 0 | - | 4 | 0 | 0 | 49 | 3 | 6 | |
| 2007-08 | 30 | 6 | 11 | 4 | 0 | - | 8 | 0 | 3 | 42 | 6 | 14 | |
| Total | 122 | 11 | 17 | 17 | 0 | - | 23 | 0 | 3 | 162 | 11 | 20 | |
| Arsenal | 2008-09 | 29 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 44 | 7 | 5 |
| 2009-10 | 26 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 34 | 5 | 6 | |
| 2010-11 | 13 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 11 | 3 | |
| Total | 68 | 16 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 20 | 5 | 2 | 97 | 23 | 14 | |
| Career Total | 190 | 27 | 25 | 26 | 2 | 4 | 43 | 5 | 5 | 259 | 34 | 34 | |
At 23 years old, he's played a considerable amount of football. For the purposes of this article I am not going to look at his international career as the games are infrequent and selection doesn't necessarily reflect form.
I'm sure its relevant that we are seeing the best of Samir now that Gallas is no longer at Arsenal. Bundle that with a settled home life and we are reaping the benefits. Deemed as something of a playboy in his final days at Marseille, it is refreshing to know he is still in a steady relationship with Tatiana Golovin - a french Tennis player who lives with him in Hampstead.
I remember watching him vs Porto where he danced through the defence and scored. I went practically mental at that and spent the next ten mins trying to convince the mrs to watch the replay. I said at the time I wished he would do that more often and its refreshing to see another of my wishes come true.
Samir has taken his best ability, the ability to control the ball at full pace and is applying it against the opposition far more regularly this season. I think this is more to do with his advanced position, starting farther up the pitch, closer to the opposition back line. At pace he's terrifying. You either foul him or let him through.
Long may it continue, because with him in the side, Arshavin, Fabregas and Rosicky have someone to play with, someone to read that stabbed first-time pass into space behind the opposition. Something that Samir is excellent at. Don't be fooled into thinking he is Fabregas-lite, Wenger doesn't want to replace Fabregas with Samir, Samir is something else altogether.
WG
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