So, after a disappointing result away to Leicester, it's transfer deadline day, and calls for Wenger to sign a striker have reached fever-pitch.
Firstly, some thoughts on yesterday's game:
Starting line-up: Szczesny; Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Flamini; Alexis, Ramsey, Cazorla, Özil; Sanogo
So it seems that 4-1-4-1 is here to stay, and Özil remained on the left side, despite revealing in a recent interview with the Telegraph that he feels strongly that his best position is the 'number 10' playmaker role, through the middle. He also mentions that he prefers the right, where he has played for Real Madrid, to the left, where he was positioned for Germany in the World Cup. This makes Wenger's insistence on Özil playing on the left all the more strange. Some possible explanations are that Özil is just positioned there while he is regaining full match fitness, that Wenger wants to make space for both Wilshere and Ramsey to play in the two central midfield positions, or that Özil is positioned on the left as this allows Arsenal to break more quickly when we regain possession of the ball in our own half.
Sanogo was chosen to lead the line as centre forward, and while the line-up suggested that Özil and Alexis were the wide players in our formation, they often came inside to find space and help to orchestrate our attacking play. Sanogo offers a more physical presence up front than Sanchez, and it seems to me that, when Wenger chooses either Sanogo or Giroud to play as centre forward, their role is less about scoring goals and more about occupying defenders, providing an out-ball for our midfielders, holding up the ball and playing in our supporting midfielders, running beyond, to score the goals. So, for me, the responsibility to score goals in this system lies as much with the four midfielders as it does with the striker. With Alexis now with two goals in two games, he seems to be doing his bit.
A strength of ours last season was our solidity against the teams in the lower half of the Premier League and this was apparent again yesterday. 4-1-4-1 means that there is less confusion about which midfielder should be staying back to defend and, generally, I felt that we looked quite solid defensively. The way we conceded our goal was unfortunate as Koscielny had just been involved in a severe clash of heads and shouldn't have been on the pitch - a fully fit Koscielny wouldn't have been so confused as to where that cross was heading, and would have competed much more strongly to clear the ball. Koscielny went off as soon as the goal was scored, replaced by Chambers. While we looked fairly solid for the majority of the game, we did start to leak more opportunities as we were pushing harder and harder for an equaliser.
We seem to have been doing just enough to get by recently, picking up reasonable results without playing anywhere near our best. Our fighting spirit has been called upon several times, but our formation and system of play has looked quite incoherent, with players seeming confused about their role in the team. Compared to the Everton game, I actually felt that we looked more coherent in our forward play yesterday, and yet this was the day when we got found out.
We undoubtedly have some brilliant players, particularly in Özil, Ramsey and Alexis, and Wenger's challenge is to find a system in which these three can all perform at their best and contribute effectively to the team. While Özil and Alexis were positioned as the two wide midfielders, it was actually Debuchy and Monreal who were providing the width by overlapping, with Flamini dropping back to cover defensively. Özil and Alexis had quite free roles - free to go wide, come inside, swap wings - play where there were opportunities. While this looked incoherent against Everton, it was this freedom that led to our first goal against Leicester. Özil broke down the right (not the left, where the formation suggests), with Sanchez initially popping up on the left, then joining Özil on the right, then drifting left again, into the box and holding his run brilliantly to create the opportunity to score.
From this point in the game, Özil played on the right and Sanchez on the left. Having these two players positioned wide, but with freedom, gives us much more opportunity to break at pace. Quite often when we won the ball back in our own half, Ramsey was the player driving forward through the centre with the ball. Having Özil and Sanchez out wide meant that there were always plenty of options for him to choose, and these are two players with the awareness to pick out the runs of others, and make the breaks count. Sky Sports were eager to point out that we had 24 shots on goal in yesterday's game, more than in any game we played last season. This statistic, however, is quite misleading, as there weren't many clear-cut scoring opportunities.
I feel that Ramsey's suggestion that we need to be more clinical is about right. Having said that, I think it's wrong to suggest that this is purely down to the striker, be it Giroud, Sanogo or Sanchez. If our system is to be effective then we need goals from Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere and others. Having said that, it's easy to imagine that a striker of the calibre of Falcao or Cavani may well have made the difference yesterday. While Sanogo was not as bad as some are making out, getting into some decent positions, he missed a few half-chances and missed one great chance to score, with the keeper making a good save.
What makes this more frustrating for Arsenal fans is that in recent years there are several players who, reportedly, we have had the opportunity to sign, namely Suarez, Higuain, Jovetic and, more recently, Fabregas, Balotelli and Remy. For me, it's not the failure to sign these individual players that's most frustrating, but the failure to find a system that makes the most of the players we already have. For example, we are far from playing as well as we played against Napoli, or Norwich, last season, yet we have added Alexis to our squad. Alexis has made a great start, but that doesn't automatically make us better than before.
It is frustrating seeing other teams, and particularly Chelsea, making the most of the players they have, and displaying the kind of free-flowing attacking play that we have been well-known for in the past. Chelsea have been particularly ruthless this transfer window, signing Costa and Fabregas - two World-class players in positions where they were most lacking last season, but what makes it worse for us Arsenal fans - much worse - is seeing Fabregas being so instrumental in their good play. I'm not sure if I feel better or worse that we could have signed him but chose not to! Perhaps it could have been us that scored this goal:
http://t.co/DlRIfdjaJt
I must admit that watching this is like rubbing salt in the wound. All sorts of emotions are exposed when I see Cesc Fabregas a the heart of what looks like a Chelsea team in with a decent shout for winning the league. And he could have been playing for us! It invites us Arsenal fans to bring into question Wenger's judgement.
So why did he turn down this opportunity?
Well it seems that the main reason is that this time last year we spent £42.5million on Mesut Özil, who fulfils a similar role in the team, but is yet to find the same place in our hearts. And this season we have chosen to spend our money on Alexis Sanchez. If, at the end of last season, you had asked what qualities our team lacked, then I would have mentioned pace (particularly with Walcott injured) and players that are willing to run at defenders and take them on. It seems to me that we couldn't have done much better than adding Alexis, where these qualities are concerned.
If you look at the Chelsea goal again, the main players involved are Hazard, Schürrle and Fabregas. I would choose Alexis over Hazard for his ability to run at players, and I would choose Walcott or Ramsey over Schürrle for their ability to make intelligent runs to break behind the defence and score. And if you describe Fabregas' contribution to the goal, one of vision and perfectly executing a one-touch through ball, then you find yourself describing exactly the qualities that Özil possesses. My point is that it is not the individual players that we lack in scoring this kind of goal, but the free-flowing understanding between our attacking players.
While I would be delighted for Wenger to add a few more players to the squad, particularly in the key positions of centre back, defensive midfielder and striker, what we most lack is the system which gets the best out of the players that we already have. Let's wait and see what Transfer Deadline Day brings, but without losing all hope should we not sign every one of the superstar players we've been linked with.
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