Arsenal line-up: Szczesny; Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs; Arteta, Flamini; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis, Cazorla; Welbeck
That's now three good results on the bounce, and it was nice to see a half-decent performance for a change. Our last two performances against Anderlecht and Sunderland have been very poor, but this demonstrates that it is getting the three points that is the most important thing. Despite poor performances, good results give the team confidence, which then leads to better performances, hopefully allowing us to build further upon this sequence.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was our most improved player and is starting to look like a decent wide player, able to break at pace, take players on and put in decent crosses. We still, however, look like we lack understanding in our attacking play and are still being carried somewhat by Alexis. What a great couple of goals from him, with the headed goal, in particular, demonstrating the fight and grit lacking in some of our other players. That's now 7 goals in 9 league starts for him.
I thought that we looked better when Ramsey came on, as his running made our team more dynamic and gave the player on the ball more options. Before that, too many players had roles that were too similar and they were getting in each others' way rather than complementing each other. For example, both Arteta and Flamini were sitting back, with neither really making runs into the space ahead of them, in order to link midfield and attack. It was a similar story further up the pitch, with Chamberlain, Alexis and Cazorla all coming inside and dropping deep together, leaving Welbeck isolated up front. Ramsey, in contrast to this, was constantly making runs to get into space and give the player on the ball more options. While he is not the best defensive midfielder, he never stops running and is tenacious, so we didn't suffer defensively.
Our attacking players still need to develop more understanding, so that when one drops deep the other two make runs in behind and stretch the opposition defence. This was about the only thing missing from Chamberlain's game today but Cazorla, on the other hand, was really struggling, often slowing our play down and looking lethargic. It started to look like nothing was going to come off for him in this game, and he started to lose belief in himself. Walcott's return will be important, and I look forward to a line up that contains Alexis, Özil and Walcott all together. My choice would be to play Özil centrally, as I feel that Alexis could be really effective positioned on the left, but with the freedom to cut inside when necessary - I felt that he did a lot of this in the game yesterday, despite being positioned centrally.
I thought that Monreal was pretty good today, but he has a long way to go to be able to effectively replace Koscielny. This is a tall order, as there's not really anyone else in the league who can offer the same dominance, mobility and assurance that Koscielny provides.
Right now, Alexis is the main man and carrying the team. It's really interesting how players can really thrive when they are main man, and while Alexis' confidence is now sky high, Cazorla seems to be suffering and unsure how to contribute. Yet it was only a couple of seasons ago that it was Cazorla who was thriving, when he was our best player and main man. We currently have a wealth of strong attacking players, with the quality to be the 'main man' in a Premier League team; Alexis, Cazorla, Özil, but also Ramsey and Wilshere. Our challenge is to find a way that all of these players can contribute effectively to the team.
The 'main man' in a team tends to be someone who the other players look to pass to, to dictate the play, to create something that makes the difference, and it is always a challenge to get more than one man in a team to take on this role. It's worth remembering that this problem was also very present in the Invincibles' squad, as we saw Reyes struggle to fulfil his potential when in the shadow of Henry. Fabregas was only really able to become the main man after Henry left. Some players prefer not to be the main man, but to be subordinate to the team, and struggle when they are expected to be the main man. I wonder where Özil fits into this...
If we are to create a successful team then we need as many of our key players as possible to be able to take responsibility for making things happen at key moments. We need players who are happy being subordinate to the team - the oil in the engine - allowing others to have the limelight. Bergkamp was that rare player who was able to play both of these roles seamlessly, taking responsibility when necessary, but also supporting other key players.
While our recent results have been quite good, they have all been games that we are expected to win. Where we really need to start improving is in picking up some good results in the games where we aren't the clear favourites to win. While we haven't had any of the collapses that were so demoralising last season, we are yet to have any results that exceed expectations. The next couple of fixtures look promising, against Anderlecht and Swansea, before a couple of tougher fixtures against Man Utd and Borussia Dortmund. These will provide us with our next opportunity to finally win some games where we are not the favourites.
A reasonable target for this season might now be to finish second or third in the league, which would demonstrate improvement over last season. Liverpool, Man Utd and Spurs are having their own difficulties, and Man City look fallible, but it's already difficult to see anyone catching Chelsea, despite only being 10 games in. While aiming to finish second or third isn't the most satisfying goal for the season, it seems that we finally have the depth and variety of players required in attack, and what we really need is for our attacking players to develop the understanding necessary to win the league next season. We will also need to fill the glaring gap in our squad at centre back, and improve on Flamini and Arteta in defensive midfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment