Is Alex Song The New Gilberto?

Add as preferred source on Google

Let’s rewind a couple of years back, and remind ourselves about our Mr. Underrated, Gilberto Silva.
During his 6 years with The Arsenal, the Brazilian midfielder was often criticized by fans for not doing enough. True, he only scored 17 goals for The Gunners and naturally, he didn’t offer that much attacking-wise. But let’s be fair, that wasn’t his job!
His role in the team was to protect the back 5, by reducing pressure from the opposition, while also having the job to initiate attacks by passing it forward or onto the wingers. Despite his critics, when he was out of the team, he was greatly missed. I’m sure the doubters could even see that in the end. I still believe he’s the closest thing we’ve had to Vieira since our skipper left for Juventus in 2005.
I feel it’s very hard to compare players from past and present. But I believe it would be fair to compare Gilberto Silva of the Invincibles side, with the Alex Song that we have today.
Admittedly, the Song that we have now is a much more athletic player than “The Gilb” ever was. With that in mind, I firmly believe that our African midfielder performs as well as Gilberto did when he was with us.
The sad truth for Gilberto, was that he was only truly appreciated when he was missing from the team. I believe the same can be said for the Song we see now. Whoever is in the middle of our defence, I’m sure they both feel much more confident with Alex Song in front of them. He is strong, fast and can pass the ball well. I think his improvement has been incredible, and he has now transformed into a consistently good player.
I realise that Song still has his critics and of course, there is still room for improvement. But from my point of view, I genuinely feel he is one of the best players in the world currently, for this particular position. I believe we really missed him at Newcastle. I’m certain we wouldn’t have struggled so much, if Koscielny and Squillaci had Song protecting them for the last 20 minutes.
His rapid improvement has been incredible – arguably miraculous. Wenger has shown great faith in Alex and now, they are both being rewarded. We sometimes wonder what Arsene sees, but we have to admit that he’s certainly got this one right.