Vermaelen: Song understanding is vital

Thomas Vermaelen has hailed his defensive understanding with Alex Song. The Belgian international’s charges forward from the back have been a feature of Arsenal’s season, so much so that Arsène Wenger recently noted his “nose for goal”. But Vermaelen admits he is only able to make these attacking runs because he knows Song will drop into central defence to fill the gap. “It is a spontaneous thing, because he knows that when I go forward he has to go back,” he told Arsenal Player. “That is just the way it is in football, it is not that I have to say to him [that he is going to go forward] because he does it. It is all automatic and spontaneous.”