Thomas Vermaelen – Analysis Of ‘Verminator’ + Rating Out Of 10

Guest blog post by @totallyArsenal for o-posts:

Hi Gooners. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be writing my views on every Arsenal player to have played over 20 games this season and will give my own rating out of 10 for each. Today, I look at Belgian centre back Thomas Vermaelen.

Thomas Vermaelen:

Thomas Vermaelen joined Arsenal in 2009 from Dutch side Ajax and has become a key part of Arsenal’s defence. Since the Invicibles, our defence has been pin-pointed as the main reason why we haven’t won a trophy in 7 years but with Tommy V, Bosscielny, Bacary and Kieran forming an impressive back four in recent months , next season is already looking promising, should they all stay injury free, of course.

In Thomas’s first Premier League game, he scored against Everton in a 6-1 away win and become Arsenal’s 84th player to score on their debut. He then hit a brace against Wigan and became notable to Arsenal fans as being a goal scoring defender.

Like Laurent Koscielny, Vermaelen has been up there with the best this season but has been forced to play much of the campaign at left back while Gibbs and Santos were both out injured.

One of the most memorable moments of Vermaelen this season, is when he scored a 65th minute own goal vs Fulham at the Emirates and then 18 minutes later, the Verminator scored a header to make it 1-1. But perhaps his finest moment came against Newcastle when he scored a 94th minute winner to boost our hopes of a top three finish.

I wouldn’t say Thomas has been in Koscielny’s shadow this season, but he certainly hasn’t been as efficient. His costly slip against QPR lead to the winning goal for the home side and he’s also had a couple of other lapses at the back which we wouldn’t have seen last term.

However, he seems to be enjoying playing alongside Koscielny at the back and if the two can keep fit next season, we’ll have as solid a base as any other team in the Premier League.

My rating out of 10 this season: 7.5/10