FOLLOW, FOLLOW.....

SOMETIMES it really does seem like there’s nobody better.
I’ve banged on before about my adoration of "the best little Spaniard we know", your friend and mine, “Go ed there Arteta lad”.

But I’ve had a nagging sense of frustration about his performances this season since he sparkled in the opening game against Wigan.
I might as well just spit it out. He has a growing tendency to go missing in big games. When a big performance was called for against Man U at Goodison, Metalist and Liverpool it just seemed like the magician forgot his wand.
Instead of demanding the ball and leaving his usual trail of full-backs tears as he cuts to the byline and whips in another delicious cross, his input was minimal.
He’s still been the best player in blue, never wasting possession and always neat and tidy, but his effect on games hasn’t been as profound.
Then we see an ultra-low profile away trip to Derby and suddenly he is running the game again, scoring a goal and pulling strings the way only he knows how.
I have always been puzzled by how the daft racialist Luis Aragones can ignore Arteta when he picks the Spanish squad.
The national press like to insinuate it’s because he doesn’t play for one of the ‘big four’ and point to the inclusion of the inferior (in my opinion) Xabi Alonso across the park regardless of form.
But we might all be missing a trick here.
I’m guessing the Spanish scouts might have watched Micky in the glut of games were he has struggled to get out of first gear.
There is no doubt that he deserves our acclaim, a place in Spain’s first team and the top new contract we signed him up to so the transfer market buzzards would have their wings clipped.
But Arteta needs to step up and produce the big shows in the big games in order to claim his prize.
Oh and his strike yesterday again underlines why he should have a dig more often instead of always laying it off to people with weaker shots.

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