Well what do you know, Arsenal can still beat a team they are supposed to after all! The Gunners welcomed a struggling Newcastle side to the Emirates Stadium Saturday for a clash that saw fewer goals than the fans would have liked, but 3 points none the less. The victory saw the Gunners catapult over Tottenham and Burnley, keeping pace with 4th place Liverpool, who emerged from the weekend with an easy 4 goal victory. The win might not have put many fans at ease, as the attack still struggled for inspiration at times, but with the race for top 4 and the financial security of Champions League football as heated as it had ever been, there is little room for bemoaning the nature of a victory. Arsenal will face West Ham for the second time in just over a week on Tuesday in Carabao Cup action before hosting Liverpool in a pivotal match next weekend.
From A Certain Point Of View
What a difference a few days makes. Following two consecutive draws and the continued dominance of the runaway train formerly known as Manchester City Football Club, all of the talk among Arsenal supporters was that the Gunners were closer to the relegation battle on points than they were to challenging Manchester City for the title. The Gunners sat in 7th Place, with Liverpool, Tottenham and the surprising Burnley having recently overtaken them in the table once again. As the more level-headed and neutral supporter will readily tell you, however, things are never quite as bad as they seem in North London. After Saturday’s victory, the Gunners now sit in 5th place, just one off the pace being set by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, and still only 8 back from Manchester United, who have been hit with a recent rash of injuries while being roundly criticized in the media for their negative, Mourinho tactics.
In short, every league position but 1st place (barring the most monumental collapse there has ever been in the history of the sport) is up for grabs as the Gunners plunge deeper into the holiday period. Fans can either look at the 5 losses Arsenal have already had and see regression, or they can look and see that despite a season long struggle for results, the club still find themselves in the thick of the top 4 battle. The truth, as is often the case, likely lies somewhere in between the two extremes, but fans should not be too negative about the team’s prospects, as one could only point to the Manchester City game as an example of the Gunners being thoroughly outplayed by their opponent. The results do not always match the performance, but over the course of the season, teams that play as well as the Gunners, creating the most chances in the league along the way, tend to do pretty well in the end.
Tactics Talk
For the second consecutive match, Arsene Wenger sent his team out in a 4 at the back formation, but despite how it was being presented in the pre-match graphics, it was not exactly the familiar 4-2-3-1 of old. Instead, Wenger had his team in an altered shape that is much more aligned with a traditional 4-3-3 or a German 4-1-4-1. In this new shape, Granit Xhaka is finally playing in the role for which he is most suited, as a deep lying, between the lines orchestrator who functions as the fulcrum for most attacks in the centre of the pitch. Mesut Ozil is aligned more centrally than he is in the 3-4-2-1 and he has dropped even deeper into the midfield than Jack Wilshere at times to get on the ball. The centre backs split wide in possession with Xhaka slightly ahead in between, and the wingers (Alexis Sanchez and Alex Iwobi on Saturday) aligned inside of the overlapping fullbacks and a few paces behind Alexandre Lacazette, who lead the line as the sole striker.
Wenger has said that he may continue to alter the formation this season when appropriate for individual matches, as he might still go with a trio of centre backs against their top of the league rivals. The recent switch could be largely to do with Aaron Ramsey’s recent injury as well, because his work rate is essential to the Gunners’ success when he and Xhaka are alone in the centre of the park. No fan should expect Wenger to morph into Sir Alex Ferguson late in his career, who practically willed his team to the title in 2013 with bespoke game plans and alignments for nearly every team United faced that season. Pragmatic to a fault, Wenger surely is not, but he thinks deeply about the game and is certainly capable of inspiring his side to win in ways that aren’t necessarily pretty. It remains to be seen which formation Wenger ultimately settles on for the critical run up to the end of the season.
A Master’s Stroke
Mesut Ozil continued with his scintillating form against Newcastle on Saturday, netting the game’s only goal on a world class volley and looking a threat almost any time he touched the ball. The goal was a reminder of how sublime he can be sometimes, as he almost lethargically stroked a top-spun ball under the crossbar and over a desperate defender. In the new 4 at the back formation that Arsene Wenger has experimented with over the last two matches, the German has looked right at home working once again from a more central location and dropping deep into the midfield to get on the ball. His defensive work rate continues to impress, and fans and pundits alike are taking note of this new side to his game.
There is no question that there are few creative forces in football on par with the playmaker when he is in this sort of form, and there are few fans out there who would be disappointed if he decided to extend his stay in North London. Unlike his Alexis Sanchez, Ozil has largely avoided criticism this season for his contract situation by continually putting in top quality performances for the club. If he is not committed to the Gunners’ cause this season, it certainly doesn’t show, and it would be hard to say where the Arsenal attack would be without his creative drive this season.
Lac-Annoyed With The Boss?
With 17 minutes to go in the match, fans were alarmed by the reaction of summer signing and leading goalscorer, Alexandre Lacazette, who cut a dejected figure to the sidelines after Wenger subbed him off for his international teammate, Olivier Giroud. After a brief clap to the fans, the striker angrily threw his gloves to the turf as he walked by his manager to the bench. From the stoic Frenchman, it was about as close to an outburst that we are ever likely to see. However, without knowing the source of his frustration, it would be hard to say for sure whether his ire was directed at Wenger, or if it was merely a product of a frustrating stretch of games for him.
Though he has recovered well from a hamstring tweak a little over a week ago, the possibility remains that his minutes were being managed to avoid injuring himself again. Still, it would not explain why Lacazette has been taken off before completing a full 90 minutes in every match he has started but 2 this season. Fans are beginning to question the logic behind subbing off a player that scored so many of his goals for Lyon in the final 20 minutes of matches when the tiring defence opens up for opportunistic strikers looking to pad their tallies. The fans have caught on to the trend and his subbing off is likely to be met with similar dissent from the stands in the future.
Holiday Fatigue?
Fans have found yet another outlet for their frustrations in Arsene Wenger’s comments surrounding the recent glut of fixtures that invariably arrive this time of year. The Frenchman’s claims of a tired squad are finding little sympathy with a fanbase that has seen its stars rested for most of the winnable non-league matches that the Gunners have played this season, including all Europa League and Carabao Cup matches. With Champions League football not on offer this season, shouldn’t the starters be getting plenty of rest? Surely once a week matches are easy enough for a professional footballer?
Despite the grumbling from the fans, this is one of the most critical periods of the season for the club. As we have seen in years passed, an unlucky run of injuries is all it takes to derail a once promising season. It was an innocuous 5 goal autumn victory against Ludogrets last year that put Santi Cazorla’s playing career in jeopardy, after all. Arsene Wenger has a very difficult job to do this time of year, as the fans do not have access to the same information that he does, and making a call to rest and rotate players in need of a break falls to him, even if the players show no obvious signs of fatigue. Fans will harangue and harass the Frenchman for his squad choices (they always do anyways), but only he, in consultation with his medical staff, has the whole story. Keeping players like Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey healthy will be essential to the team’s fortunes come the end of the season, and while Arsenal have made strides on the injury front in recent seasons, there must be a marked improvement this season in the general health of the squad this season to keep their top 4 hopes alive.
Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox
