The past 2 weeks or so have been quite eventful for anyone
who follows Arsenal. Within that period, the club lost Alexis Sanchez who over
the past 3 years or so has been talismanic to the club, then wiped the floor
with Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace, booked a trip to Wembley for the league cup
final, lost in a shocking albeit familiar performance to Swansea before
thoroughly dismantling Sam Allardyce’s outfit after Big Sam had made smug
comments about Arsenal having a weak defence. Big Sam’s opinion on Arsenal’s
defence honestly is not off the mark, I mean Arsenal’s defensive frailties are
there for all to see. However, if this game showed anything, it’s how dangerous
it is to throw shots in this game of football as Everton’s defending
(especially in the first half) was a masterstroke in how to make your
opposition look good. Huge gaps, not tracking runs and so on.
Also, within this two-week period, there is also the matter
that Arsenal have brought in both Henrikh
Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as well as resigned Mesut Özil to a
new 3 year contract. The latter two especially brought one of the biggest waves
of optimism to the fanbase in recent memory. And as always, big signings and
business off the pitch generate a lot of chatter which has certainly been the
case. Everything from the supposed backroom “power shift” with what has been
affectionately termed the “Gazidis Squad” comprising Ivan Gazidis, Huss Fahmy,
Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanllehi supposedly wrestling power from Arsene Wenger
in terms of transfer dealings to how these signings will affect the teams put
out by the Arsenal manager has been doing the rounds. That last point is what
this piece will attempt to focus on using the game vs Everton as a case study
if you will.
LINEUP
Arsenal lined up in the 4-2-3-1 shape which has been Wenger’s
defacto formation for a large majority of the last decade. However, Arsenal have not played this shape a lot this season.
Running through the line-up, Petr Cech kept his place in goal despite some very
questionable form in search of a clean sheet to reach the magic 200. The back 4
(from right to left) was made up of Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny and Monreal. A
midfield pivot of Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey then a trio of roaming
playmakers in Alex Iwobi, Mesut Özil and newcomer Henrikh Mkhitaryan playing
behind the debuting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Its worth saying that when the
game settled, Mkhitaryan was mostly working from the right flank with Iwobi
from the left and Özil in the middle even though very early on it was Iwobi on
the right which is a position that limits him and Mkhitaryan on the left.
MIDFIELD SETUP
Arsenal’s midfield setup is always a bone of contention with
so many different opinions on the best way to solve the issues stemming from
that area of the pitch. Looking at the midfield in this game, Xhaka-Ramsey
which seems to be the manager’s first choice as that has almost always been the
go-to pivot over the past 12 months once both players are available. However,
most times, this has been with a back 3 due to the fact that that pivot may not
be as defensively astute as desired but against Everton, the pair started
together as a pivot in front of a back 4 for the first time in a while (vs
Swansea, Mohammed El Nenny started behind them to form a midfield-trio). The
difference here was that the 3 players in front of the pivot are very
technically gifted and very much attracted to central areas of the pitch. The
kind of setup which has scarcely been seen at Arsenal since the first half of
the 2013/2014 season and just like in many games over that period, this game was punctuated with
an outstanding showing from Aaron Ramsey. It stands to reason that this is not
a coincidence as when the team is setup like this, these playmakers starting in
wide areas stay tighter to the midfield than out and out wingers or wide
forwards would. This provides a measure of cover when Ramsey makes those
difficult to track off the ball runs from deep that have become his selling point. One thing also worth noting is that the players starting wide here are very comfortable in half-spaces and very "sharp" so playing them wide does not totally cripple wing play as we saw at times where Aaron Ramsey played wide as Wenger searched for this type of balance. In
addition to that, leading up to signing his new contract, Mesut Özil has put in great performances where he has looked more
like a midfielder on the pitch than he ever had for Arsenal. By this I mean,
Mesut in recent months is now more adjusted to being able to drop deep to
support in build up play when required and has become much more reliable in
terms of packing the midfield when Arsenal is out of possession. All this bodes
well especially with the rejuvenated version of Jack Wilshere we have seen this season set
to return to the starting 11 imminently. Something worth watching for in fact is who in fact gives way for Wilshere when Wenger (inevitably according to his comments) reintroduces Wilshere. Another important thing to note is what this
setup meant for Granit Xhaka who has struggled a lot this season. This setup
gives Granit 4 players ahead of him that are normally in between the lines that
he can find quickly. This should go some way towards mitigating the number of
cheap giveaways he is responsible for going forward which would help the team
massively as cheap giveaways from Xhaka have been a hallmark of many Arsenal
games this season, so this is something to watch for going forward in terms of whether or not the number of giveaways is mitigated.
IS THERE ALREADY TOO MUCH RELIANCE ON AUBAMEYANG?
This might seem an absurd point given that Aubameyang has
only played one game for the club which was a comfortable 5-1 win where he got
(only) 1 goal (that was offside but shh) but like the last point details, with
the likes of Alexis and Walcott leaving the club recently, the idea seems to be
to have as many playmaker types as possible in the starting 11. The issue with
this (as we have seen in some Arsenal games recently) is such a midfield
requires an outlet ahead of them with the speed and power to give the
opposition enough to think about (in terms of runs in behind) which deters them from just congesting the space around the edge of their penalty box. This then
creates the pockets of space for these playmakers to work their magic be it
individually or collectively. We saw Aubameyang carry out that role effectively
in this game against Everton and based on his career so far, one would think he
would continue to do so using his blistering pace. The issue, however, comes
when you ask the question “What happens if Aubameyang is unavailable?”. This is
because the alternative (Alex Lacazette) is not blessed with such pace and for
all the quality he has shown thus far in his Arsenal career, we have seen him
struggle when he does not have people running off him. Many people thought that
this issue would be mitigated by playing Lacazette and Aubameyang together as
that may give a better-balanced attack, but it seems that Wenger is not
interested in that at least for the time being and given how much getting the
midfield to function without a back three has been a very stiff task that then
sacrificing a midfielder for an extra striker is likely to make more difficult.
This is one that is worth watching maybe up till the summer as ideally, the club would add a wide forward who
is also an above average technician to at least compete for one of the 3 spots
behind the central striker. However, before then, it will be interesting to see
whether this issue manifests and if it does, what attempts at mitigating it would
be employed. Also, as a quick aside, while Aaron Ramsey’s runs from deep do
mitigate this issue a bit, his recently spotty injury record means that it is
probably best to consider another option at least in tandem. Another option again is Danny Welbeck but he also has a spotty injury record and is far too profligate in front of goal to rely on.
WENGER STILL TINKERS UNNECESSARILY
Arsene Wenger in recent weeks leading up to this game vs
Everton has done two things that have left me a bit confused, to say the least. The first of which was
playing Laurent Koscielny on the right of the center back pairing with Shkodran
Mustafi on the left. This is eyebrow raising because to anyone who has watched
both players in recent years, it is quite obvious that this is the opposite of what both players would prefer. In trying to
come up with a reason for this, I felt that this might be a way to try to curb
the more adventurous instincts that Mustafi has shown throughout his Arsenal
career to this point but even that can not be justify the change especially when you look at how Mustafi has never looked comfortable. Against Swansea, this issue
was well on show as Mustafi’s positioning was almost always off
which led to a significant gap between him and Monreal who was the left back on the night which Swansea
profited from mostly through Nathan Dyer. Against Everton, Wenger
changed it back to what should be the norm with Mustafi RCB and Koscielny LCB
which begs the question of what the point was. In a similar fashion, the game
vs Everton marked Granit Xhaka’s return to playing at the base of midfield with
him playing from a significantly higher position in recent games. Having Xhaka
in this position was by no means the best use of his attributes and with it
being reversed now, it again begs the question of what the point was. The issue
here is that it is not an isolated incident. To cite an example, last season,
Arsenal started well with Alexis playing as a “false-9” type and Walcott
supporting him from wide right before without any warning, Alexis was back on
the left-hand side with Olivier Giroud upfront. We have also seen it with Alex Iwobi being switched from the left to the right of midfield for no apparent reason. This kind of tinkering while it
can lead to one or two pleasant surprises is ultimately risky and you would
think such things should be tackled in pre-season. With all the talk of Wenger
surrendering power off the pitch, there is sure to be more scrutiny on how
Wenger sets the team up on the pitch and tinkering like this will not inspire
confidence from anyone.
WAS THE SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW A WASTE?
In the summer Arsenal brought in Alexandre Lacazette for a
(then) club-record transfer fee as well as Sead Kolasinac with both set to have
crucial roles in the starting team going forward yet here we are at the start
of February and it does look like neither of these players is seen to be of
first 11 quality by the manager. There are rumours that Wenger went after
Aubameyang more out of disappointment in Lacazette than as in an attempt to
replace Alexis Sanchez. Now, while these are rumours, at least at the moment,
these rumours do not seem to be far removed from the truth and if the rumours
are indeed true, what does that say about the club that a player deemed worth a
club record transfer fee only six months ago is now not of the quality
required. Kolasinac, on the other hand, was a free signing but is reportedly on
a significant wage packet and in recent weeks, it looks like Nacho Monreal and
Ainsley Maitland-Niles (a midfielder by trade) have edged ahead of him in the
pecking order at left back. That is worrying. Against Everton, Lacazette did
not get off the bench while Kolasinac came on for Monreal at half time due to
what one can only assume was an injury. Kolasinac then proceeded to put in a
performance that will only strengthen his detractors claims with former Arsenal
Winger Theo Walcott leaving him ragged more than once. The picture by
the end of the season may well be very different but for these two signings to
be in such positions just six months removed from joining the club deserves at least some attention especially when you see that there is a running theme.
This running theme being that recent Arsenal signings do seem to have struggled
to fit in as required. The likes of Cech, Xhaka, Mustafi, Chambers, Welbeck
fall under this umbrella. Perhaps something along these lines has been deliberated on behind the scenes thus the rise of the “Gazidis Squad”? Only time will tell.
Emmanuel Pius-Ogiji
@Emma_V2
