By Boris Mellor
November 4 2005

Wenger says that one reason Arsenal haven’t done as well this season is due to a lack of confidence. One reason for that lack is Wenger’s revolution of relying on the young players in his squad.

A belief Arsene holds so strongly that he let Vieira go – which in turn led to a loss of confidence in some of the older players.

"The past weighs like a nightmare on the minds of the living", the Henry’s, Pires’s, and perhaps a few more, find it hard to conceive of life without Paddy, and until recently found it hard to bounce back if a goal down. At Chelsea and Middlesboro the Gunners never looked like equalising. But at Spurs it only looked like a matter of time. What had changed? Wenger said confidence was not good in first half, but returned for the second. One reason was Pires having a good game as substitute, and another was when van Persie came on.

On Wednesday we played well, but were only one goal up, even Henry admitted we had not killed the game off. There was always a risk that Sparta could have struck lucky. Their shooting was so poor, (bar one shot and one header) that I made up a joke statistic that they had not scored in 29 away CL games, and everyone around me believed it. But there was a risk – but that risk faded as soon as van Persie came on.

It wasn’t just his goals, it was more than that. He has no baggage from the past, he is not in awe of Paddy, he didn’t know him that well. He is young; he lacks the fears that the maturer player has. More than that he believes in the project, he believes we can win things in the here and now. There is no nightmare of the past haunting him, he remembers only his glorious penalty that helped destroy the Red Devils last season. He dreams of cups and future glory, not how difficult it might be without Paddy. That’s why he plays with exuberance, lifting the team and the crowd.

Reyes also believes in the project, but not quite in himself. But I watched the Sparta game again and I realised how good some of his shooting was that night, maybe not good enough, but it will fall in place for him. But more important was his work rate, and wonderful passing.

So now is the time to jump on the van wagon, lets make the best of this talent whether from the bench, or starting line up. A new star has arrived; the squad is not as thin as people think, players such as Robin, Quincy, Ebuoe, Reyes and others, are proving that.

Tomorrow will be a good time to put the new confidence to the test. Apart from Freddy, Hleb and Ashley we have all players’ back and fit. Wenger can pick from Bergkamp, Henry, Reyes, Pires, and van Persie. It’s a 14 man game these days, it means that Wenger can have spare artillery on the bench for Sunderland, far to much for McCarthy’s men to deal with, however hard they try to make it.