The computer analysis shows that Mathieu Flamini runs an average of
nine miles in every match, so it is no great surprise to learn
that, early in his career at Marseille, he was known as "The
Running Man". The nickname followed him to Arsenal, too, until
Arsène Wenger's players decided this season that he merited
something new. Flamini has been playing the best football of his
life and it is a measure of his emerging reputation that his
team-mates now call him "Gattuso".
Flamini thinks of it as a compliment (though it should also be
pointed out that he looks slightly embarrassed when it is brought
up) and it is a measure of what the former law student brings to
Wenger's team that Gennaro Gattuso's own nickname in Italy is
"Ringhio", which translates as "The Growl" or "Snarler".
The French midfielder does not have the same manic stare, or the
pirate's beard of the Milan enforcer, but he is another combative
midfielder who is quick to the ball and strong in the tackle. It is
the role Patrick Vieira used to fill with such distinction and,
even though it has taken Flamini longer than he would have liked to
establish himself in the side, his individual story has been one of
the more endearing aspects of Arsenal's unbeaten start to the
season.
"This is probably the happiest I have been since I joined the club
but I had a lot of thinking to do over the summer and I have to
admit that it did reach the stage where I decided I would be better
leaving," he says. "I wasn't playing enough and I was finding it
hard getting my chance. I loved London but a footballer can only be
truly happy when they are playing regularly so I went to the coach
[Wenger] and told him that I wanted to go. He listened, took it in
and then he said to me that he did not want me to go anywhere. He
said he had confidence in me and that if I carried on working hard
my chance would come. Looking back, he changed my mind because,
until then, I was clear that I wanted to leave."
Flamini was so unsettled at the time that a family decision was
taken for his uncle to ring L'Equipe to publicise his potential
availability. "That is true, but everything has worked out and it
is in the past now," he says. "I am just happy that I listened to
the coach and I decided to fight for my place. I'm playing every
week now and that is all I ever wanted. We are top of the league,
winning matches and playing well, and I am performing an important
role in the team.
"I have developed a good understanding with Cesc Fábregas and maybe
there has been a change about the way opponents see Arsenal, too.
When Patrick left, other teams have played Arsenal with the
mentality that if they kick us and if they play a hard, physical
game they will beat us. We have heard other managers talking about
it and maybe it was true, too. Maybe it was a fair criticism. But I
don't think anyone can say it this season.
"We are a technical team and we love to pass the ball but we can
never forget that we are playing in England. We have to win the
physical battle, too. That is where I come in. I play a physical
game and that is why they call me 'Gattuso' because he plays
exactly the same role. It's my job to be aggressive on the pitch,
just like it's Gattuso's job to do that for Milan. We have to be
able to pass the ball, too, but most of all we are there to add a
physical presence and, for Arsenal, I think that was very
necessary."
Flamini has followed Vieira into the France national squad and he
has been playing with such authority for Arsenal that it is
beginning to feel like a trick of the imagination that his only
other extended spell in the team came during the knockout stages of
the 2006 Champions League when Ashley Cole, Gaël Clichy and several
others picked up injuries and he found himself playing at
left-back, more by default than anything else.
His three and a half years at the club have otherwise been spent on
the edges of the team, but he has started every game in the Premier
League this season and if, as expected, he keeps out the
increasingly unhappy Gilberto Silva against Manchester United at
the Emirates Stadium today he will have begun as many games this
season as he managed during the entire last campaign.
"It's going to be a special game," he says. "I learned very quickly
what Arsenal versus Manchester United means. I had been at the club
only a few months when everything happened at Old Trafford in that
famous game [the notorious "Battle of the Buffet"]. I can also
vividly remember being in the tunnel at Highbury before the game
when there was the trouble between Patrick and Roy Keane. That was
incredible - we hadn't even reached the pitch!
"For Marseille, we used to have a big rivalry with Paris St-Germain
and, at Arsenal, there is always the history of Tottenham. But it
became clear to me very early on that Arsenal and Manchester United
have a special kind of rivalry.
"I used to watch Patrick from the side of the pitch and when he
used to play against Keane it was like a match within a match. They
were two warriors but, deep down, they had respect for each other
because they knew they were the best in the business. They were
real fighters. They wanted to win every one-on-one and that is the
way I think, too. I have picked up things from Patrick and I try to
play in the same way."
It has earned him the wholehearted respect of Arsenal's supporters
and a fan club that includes their celebrity supporter David Gest,
who has been seen at the Emirates Stadium recently with Flamini's
name sewn into his shirt with sequins. "These are good times for me
and the club," says the Frenchman. "It is the last year of my
contract and I do not want to start talking about a new deal just
yet because we have so many important games and it might take my
mind away from the football. What I can say is that I definitely
see my future here."
pls sign a new deal flamster
