Vive la Difference
Order Your Copy	by Eddy Pratt

Eddy Pratt pays homage to Emmanuel Petit...

Emmanuel Petit. What a name. No wonder he's good at football. Talk about an unfair advantage over all the other kids, though. Come tea time, his mother would just have had breath for one blast of "E-M-M-A-N-U-E-L...!" before collapsing in an oxygen-starved heap. (Try it for yourself...) As a result our latest midfield star was able to hone his skills while all his mates were safely stashed away in-doors catching up the French equivalent of Coronation Street.

Let's get one thing straight. Even though Emmanuel can really play, to me, he doesn't look like a footballer. It's easy to imagine him in a Paris cafe, black polo neck sweater and leather jacket, smoking Gitanes and drinking his favourite pastis, discussing philosophy. At first glance he reminds me of one of those sad characters who turn up for the company's annual five-a-side. All brand new gear, new laces and shiny boots. Without even kicking a ball you know, instinctively, they can't play. Emmanuel Petit looks as if he's come straight out of the design department. Blonde hair in a pony tail, 6ft 2" (and looks even taller).

Emmanuel doesn't exactly fit the archetypal Arsenal midfield dynamo image. Traditionally we've preferred the menacing, squat muscular type (Storey, Kelly, Price, Talbot et al). There's something of the thoroughbread colt about the way Petit gallops around the pitch, definitely more Arkle than artisan. Worse (and let this be whispered....), ladies who usually don't show the slightest interest in the Premiership have 'noticed' our Number 17. "Who's that?" asked her-in-doors pointing at his photograph. "Emmanuel Petit" says I. "Is he any good...?" she quizzed in a far away tone that suggested his performance on the pitch was the last thing on her mind.

Whatever he does Emmanuel (none of this MANU lark you'll notice, who wants to be named after the current Premiership leaders?), is assured his place in Arsenal folk lore. The day he signed, Emmanuel had already been in the Devil's Kitchen meeting Mr Sugar. Need a cab, eh? "Here's the money son", said the unusually charitable, Father of Carlos Kickaball. So Emmanuel found himself at Highbury Stadium, courtesy of Alan Sugar's petty cash box.

If we believe everything we read in the papers Emmanuel, at the time, was in heavy demand. As well as Spurs, Rangers, Inter Milan and Fiorentina were all after him when he decided to quit Monaco. And according to Petit himself, "Real Madrid came to me the day after I signed for Arsenal...."

Born in Dieppe in 1970, Emmanuel showed at an early age he was an independent spirit and someone who will, undoubtedly, take the move to Highbury in his stride. Spotted playing for the French under-13 while living in Normandy, he opted for Monaco out of the sides chasing him. No small decision. (Picture yourself living in Glasgow and at the tender age of twelve upping sticks, leaving your family and friends and going to Southampton to play football and study. Pretty impressive, eh?). Under Wenger at Monaco he developed into a French international, along the way gaining a winners medal in the French Cup against Marseille.

Since his £3.5 million move to Highbury last summer, Emmanuel has already shown that he can make a huge contribution to the Arsenal. In tandem with Patrick Vieira at the heart of midfield, Emmanuel provides the graft and the craft to add to Vieira's running and graft. They complement each other perfectly. To say he has a left foot, is like saying a Rolls Royce is just a car. What a left foot! In the years of watching Arsenal I can only recall Liam Brady and Kenny Sansom as having better left pegs. With this deadly weapon, Emmanuel can un-pick the locks of the tightest back four. Watch him as he plays in little triangles with Winterburn and Overmars, waiting for the moment when he can curl a ball over or inside the full back for Overmars to run onto - and score. His defence work has really surprised me. Knowing I was writing this article I put him under the microscope in the last couple of games. In the Coca Cola against West Ham he worked tirelessly, covering the back four - as he did in the next game against Leeds whose midfield seemed to be full of poison dwarfs. He also wins plenty of balls in the air - as befits someone who admits he would love to play centre-back.

The present midfield of Parlour, Vieira, Petit and Overmars is the best balanced we've had for six or seven years - and has huge potential. Pace and penetration, coupled with industry and craft. Given time it can and will get better. Petit, himself, admits it will take him and his wife time to settle. Sadly already the mutterings of the moronic, instant success brigade at Highbury have been aimed at some of our newcomers - Petit included. I don't know what people expect. He's made a good start - he's already won back his place in the French national squad and has made a couple of starts in the full French side since his transfer - and the French aren't bad judges of a good footballer. It's quite possible that Arsenal could supply the midfield engine room for the eventual 1998 World Cup winners.

Faults? I've read somewhere he has only been playing in midfield for a couple of years, previously playing in the back four on the left. At times he seems to be too far from play, but that's probably lack of experience coupled with adjusting to the pace of the Premiership. For somebody who has such a sweet left foot he doesn't score enough. Although I can see his goal tally being improved (sadly, twice bugger all is still bugger all) at best, he will only ever be a five or six goal a year man.

Given time, Emmanuel Petit has all the qualities to develop into an outstanding midfield asset. He's not your average 'up and down the park, great engine' midfielder so beloved by George Graham. He's different, very different. But, as ever, the French sum it up best, 'Vive la difference'.