Well, Henry is probably one of the top10 players in the world in his position, and vieira almost certainly one of the top3 in his, so ANY team would look worse without them (even the talent-swamped Real Madrid are keen to sign vieira). Just because a team would be worse without them, doesn't mean they are average without them though.
If you think Seaman, Lauren, Campbell, Keown, Cole, Pires, Parlour, Gilberto, Ljungberg, Bergkamp and Wiltord is an average team, with Shabaan, Cygan, Luzhny, Van Bronckhorst, Edu, Kanu and Jeffers on the bench, then the premiership must be one hell of a competitive league. Sure theres 4 or 5 teams who could give them a good run for their money but they would still finish in the top6 IMHO, which ain't average.
Think back to what happened when Man utd offloaded Kanchelskis, Ince and Hughes; the infamous "you can't win anything with kids" comments from Alan Hansen. Taking a couple of good players out of a brilliant team doesn't suddenly make them average. Heck, Arsenal were playing their "unbeatable" football at the start of the season when their two most creative midfielders (pires and ljungberg) were both injured.
Besides anyone who saw the end of last season closely would have seen the impact bergkamps return to the first team and brilliant understanding with ljungberg had to the title chase, in the abscence of the footballer of the year Pires too I might add. Players like Ray Parlour rarely grab the headlines these days cos they aren't playing every week, but could easily come up with the goods if required (FA cup final anyone?).
If you think Seaman, Lauren, Campbell, Keown, Cole, Pires, Parlour, Gilberto, Ljungberg, Bergkamp and Wiltord is an average team, with Shabaan, Cygan, Luzhny, Van Bronckhorst, Edu, Kanu and Jeffers on the bench, then the premiership must be one hell of a competitive league. Sure theres 4 or 5 teams who could give them a good run for their money but they would still finish in the top6 IMHO, which ain't average.
Think back to what happened when Man utd offloaded Kanchelskis, Ince and Hughes; the infamous "you can't win anything with kids" comments from Alan Hansen. Taking a couple of good players out of a brilliant team doesn't suddenly make them average. Heck, Arsenal were playing their "unbeatable" football at the start of the season when their two most creative midfielders (pires and ljungberg) were both injured.
Besides anyone who saw the end of last season closely would have seen the impact bergkamps return to the first team and brilliant understanding with ljungberg had to the title chase, in the abscence of the footballer of the year Pires too I might add. Players like Ray Parlour rarely grab the headlines these days cos they aren't playing every week, but could easily come up with the goods if required (FA cup final anyone?).
