I know I’m a few days late, but I didn’t realize a truly unique quality of Arsenal’s starting line-up last Saturday versus Fulham until I was sifting through individual player ratings.  During the Wenger era, this quality has been as much of a fabric of Arsenal Football Club as the cannon.

What do the following nations have in common:  Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Spain, Wales, England, Netherlands, and the Ivory Coast.

Eleven players pulled on Arsenal’s iconic red and white jersey on Saturday.  All eleven players were from eleven different countries!  If there ever was one, this was a team that exemplified the global vision of Monsieur Wenger.

Famously, in the 2006 Champions League draw between Spain’s Real Madrid and Arsenal, two English players started… both wore the all-white of Los Merengues (Beckham and Woodgate).  I am unsure of whether last Saturday was the first time that Arsenal (or any team) has fielded a starting line-up consisting of eleven different nationalities, but I will nonetheless take this as an opportunity to highlight the ‘Arsenal Diaspora.’

At a time where the introduction of regulations such as the “homegrown rule” is requiring Premier League managers to favor blooding English players over foreign ones, the gray beards of the Football Association have long scoffed at Wenger’s vision.  Yet, Wenger’s vision of building a truly cosmopolitan club is a refreshing departure from top clubs such as Liverpool aggressively shopping for mediocre British talent or Barcelona building their spine exclusively around Catalans.

For foreign supporters like myself, I embrace this quality, as among other things, it is a very feasible hope that one of my countrymen may one day become a regular first-teamer at Arsenal.  A report in 2005 by Granada Ventures estimated Arsenal’s global fanbase at 27 million and designated it as the “Premiership’s fastest-growing brand.”  And with Wenger steering his club to pre-season tours in Asian and the Americas, that number is going to keep on snowballing.

Le Prof, however, cannot be accused be of being an English-hater.  Jack Wilshere, the future of the Three Lions, and Walcott are promising first-team talents while Oxlade-Chamberlain waits on the fringes.  Arsene Wenger will continue to engineer squads that seamlessly blend a squad of foreign and domestic talent.  After all, where would the English Premier League be without the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Eric Cantona, Dennis Bergkamp, and Thierry Henry?

Follow Anand S on Twitter @AnandArsenal

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