Arsenal: Rare Danny Welbeast sightings worth the price of admission

Arsenal haven’t been able to get the very best out of Danny Welbeck, but aren’t the glimpses of Welbeast well worth whatever is in between?

It doesn’t come around often, but when Arsenal fans are blessed with the presence of Danny Welbeck, in his more appreciated Danny Welbeast form, nothing else in the world matters. It’s like what has kept the world fascinated by Bigfoot for so long. The mystique, the majesty.

Only on a football pitch. Welbeast is not seen very often. And more times than not it is against Southampton (perhaps them getting relegated isn’t such a good thing). When he does come around though, all I care about is seeing it more often.

Which is part of the problem with Welbeck. Or, the whole problem, rather. Welbeck’s incredible inconsistency has baffled us since he made the move from Manchester United. How a guy could look like such a beast for England and an oft-bumbling fool for us was just inexplicable.

And then Welbeast comes out, like he did against Southampton, and all the worries temporarily disappear. Welbeck was a master against the Saints. He had superb, soft touches, one of which set up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for a terrific team goal.

His own goals involved individual inspiration as well. The first required a deft cut-in that left the defense scrambling to catch up and, while it did take a deflection, the move itself was worthy of the goal it produced.

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And the second was just an athletic marvel, as he rose above the crowd to nod home the winning goal. Afterwards, he struck a pose like this was business as usual.

Early in the season, Welbeck was in tremendous form, getting off to a roaring start, but an injury interrupted everything. With a healthy body and the Premier League likely to be his cup of tea moving forward, maybe we can start to see if Welbeck can finally make this a consistent thing. Not necessarily the goals, just the threat.

Welbeck is always a workhorse. That part of his game is never questioned. It’s the finer things that he struggles with – the dribbling, scoring and deft touches. All of that was remarkably on display (except for that one bouncing pass from Wilshere) against Southampton.

Even if it isn’t able to be made consistent, though, the rare sightings of the Welbeast are well worth whatever we have to pay to keep him. I have been hot and cold on Welbeck, but the effort that can be counted on, plus the upside of potentially seeing matches like these, well, that’s good enough for me.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Southampton

Teams need players like Welbeck, who can play a role. However, few role players have the same potential as the Welbeast.

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