Wenger - Fantastic Gervinho only lacks goals
By Chris Harris
Arsène Wenger is delighted with Gervinho's start to life at Arsenal but he admits that the Ivorian is no Robin van Persie in front of goal right now.
Gervinho has set up a number of goals for his team-mates - especially Van Persie - and his direct running and flair in the final third has caught the eye. But he has scored just twice in 15 appearances for his new club and squandered a golden chance against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
Gervinho's one-on-one with the keeper was the kind of opportunity that Van Persie is snaffling with ease at the moment and Wenger sympathises with his otherwise impressive summer signing.
"At the moment Gervinho is a fantastic provider and he creates space for the other players because he always goes behind [the defence]," said the Frenchman.
"The problem with Gervinho is he is in the opposite position of Robin van Persie. He is desperate for a goal and once you are in that situation… well, you could see the other night he had the chance to score but he started to think.
"When you start to think you are already finished but for the rest his game is absolutely fantastic. He works hard for the team, provides, creates space and makes great runs and I’m personally very happy with his game.
"His goalscoring record was good last year and this year is a bit less but his assists are fantastic and in every single game you think he will score and at the moment he just misses a little bit but that will come.
"Overall his attitude, his work-rate, his technical quality, the intelligence of his runs is fantastic."
Wenger has seen plenty of forwards go through scoring droughts before and he will do his best to help Gervinho over this particular hurdle.
"For a long time you don't talk about it, but at some stage you have to say 'don't worry – try to be natural'. I spoke to him today about that, but he is not obsessed with scoring goals, it will come naturally.
“On the quality of his game he has settled very quickly. After that, the other aspects in the English game were where he had problems. He got sent off in the Newcastle game for a mild reaction after being provoked by Barton.
“He got the learning process of three games out and then the intensity of the challenges here is higher than anywhere else. He adapted quite quickly.”