Chelsea preview: banish the ghosts at Stamford Bridge

Our first big game of the season has finally arrived and it’s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

This will probably sound smug, especially in the light of our midweek demoralising defeat, but I don’t think we’ve been better suited to beat Chelsea in the league for a long time. The reason is simple: their atrocious form.

You do not need me to tell you Chelsea only garnered 4 points in 5 games. You also don’t need me to tell you the Blues currently sit 17th in the league. Or that they have, indeed, conceded 12 goals. You also surely know Chelsea suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in God-knows-how-long.

What you probably don’t know is that Chelsea conceded most shots on target this season: 38. In simple terms, they average almost 8 shots on target (against) per game. Barring Azpilicueta, there is no defender on form right now. Ivanovic, Terry, Zouma and even Cahill are far from their best. Same can be said about Matic, Cesc, Hazard, Costa etc. etc. It’s easier to count those who are on their game, but it looks like two of those will miss the clash: Willian and Pedro.

But I got a bit sidetracked here. The point I was trying to get across is not so much Chelsea’s bad form overall, but rather their horrible defensive record this season. Arsenal, meanwhile, has one of the best offensive records.

Before you scream at me: “But we only scored three goals!”, I’ll elaborate on what I meant: we are poor finishers (for now), but excellent creators. We top the league in chances created (87), big chances created (17) and shots taken from prime positions (33) (these stats courtesy of 7amkickoff). Finishing is the easiest problem to address, so I’m sure we’ll get better in this regard as the season progresses.

But what’s even more interesting is that Arsenal has one of the best defensive records, with just three goals conceded, while also restricting opposition to 3 big chances and only 9 shots from prime positions. We are third in the league, which is about where we deserve to be, however, it’s easy to see where, how and why we have the potential to improve. And now onto the game itself.

Team news update

“We have no injuries and we left Ramsey and Bellerin behind [for the Zagreb game]. They integrate into the squad again. Mertesacker may still be a bit short, I have to decide that today (Friday).”

That’s that, basically, though I regret dearly we have neither Welbeck nor Wilshere to shake things up from the bench at least. This is especially relevant since Arteta, our only midfield option, played 90 minutes against Zagreb, while Oxlade and Campbell hardly grabbed their chances to stake a claim at the starting spot.

I also wonder whether we can find room for some youngsters on the bench, strange as it may seem. Not necessarily tomorrow, I’m talking in general. Shame we don’t have Akpom or Gnabry at hand, but we do still have Iwobi and Jeff. The former looks a particularly tasty option for me, as I was hugely impressed with him energetic display against Lyon. Iwobi looked powerful, fast and every bit as able as the seniors who surrounded him. Hope we’ll see him in action against Spurs in the cup.

Squad and approach

Cech, our full-backs, Aaron Ramsey and Francis Coquelin will, and should, all come back straight in. Apart from maybe Debuchy, their stand-ins did little to convince they are worthy of a starting place.

From where I am standing, there are only two real dilemmas for Arsene Wenger: Mertesacker/Gabriel and Giroud/Walcott. Regarding the German it looks like he’ll be a bit short, so I personally wouldn’t risk him. No need for him to have the first game of that intensity after a month’s break, especially since Gabriel is performing admirably. However, Wenger was full of praise for Per, something that may hint he’ll return sooner rather than later:

"He has a lot of class on the pitch and after the game. He is well respected, also in the dressing room, because he is always 100 percent committed and gives everything for the team.

Every day he works with 100 per cent commitment. They are typically German qualities but even more typically Mertesacker.”

As for striker, Arsene said he’ll make a late decision on that front:

“At the moment I must say that is a decision I still have to make tomorrow morning. I try to use the best solution that gives us the most efficiency offensively.

Every game is different and that is why I don’t deny at all the quality of Walcott. I am very happy that he scored so many goals in so many starts. He shows as well that when he comes on, he can score as well, which he did in Zagreb.”

Might he be playing little bit mind games with Mourinho? Oh the sweet suspense. Mourinho is probably pulling his hair out as we speak, not knowing which central defenders and approach to use because Giroud and Walcott are so vastly different. But then again there’s a suspicion lurking at the back of my mind Mourinho wasn’t being honest regarding Pedro’s and Willian’s availability, so we are going to see whether he likes the taste of his own medicine.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Bellerin - Gabriel - Koscielny - Monreal - Coquelin - Cazorla - Ozil - Alexis - Ramsey - Walcott

As for our approach, it’s difficult to say what we might do. We are used to dominating possession and space against The Blues, but that’s because they allow it, knowing we are unlikely to hurt them this way.

However, we showed willingness to cede possession in the Community Shield. We started brightly, dominated the game, scored the goal and then gave the ball away. This approach proved efficient in the extreme, as Chelsea failed to break through our organised defense, while we got brilliant chances to make it 2-0 right at the death, catching Chelsea on the counter.

And I suspect we might adopt this approach from the off at Stamford for several reasons:

1. Chelsea need a win much more than we do. For us a draw would be an acceptable result, even a good one in the grand scheme of things
2. Chelsea are suspect on the counter. Rediscovering their defensive nous when parking the bus is easier, doing so when playing in the opponent’s half with gaps between midfield and defense is harder
3. Our usual domination tactics may not lead to anything against Chelsea, but we have the perfect counter-attacking weapon in Theo, with Cazorla perfectly able to supply him from the deep

However, knowing Arsene Wenger, I won’t be surprised if he adopts the usual domination approach.

The verdict

Zagreb game may be a different competition and it may not hugely affect what we do on Saturday, but it was still our last game, one which we lost. Thus we need to bounce back. A win is probably the only way to do that.

As always, I believe we have what it takes to win. This feeling is somewhat reinforced by Chelsea’s recent league travails, but only so much. It is the Premier League, it’s Chelsea we are talking about, they will be hell-bent on beating us and they also have the quality to do it. They are the reigning champions, after all.

Here’s hoping we can what needs to be done. Come on you Gunners.

Back with a review

Zagreb 2-1 Arsenal: mental collapse proves costly

After a loss I almost always swear and say I won’t write a review. The truth is, I will. I’ll even go as far as to say you are more likely to see a review of a defeat from me than a review of a resounding win. I’ll explain why.

A little over two years ago I started a blog, which served a dual purpose of relieving my relatives of constant babbling and keeping my English alive. I wrote posts almost every day (definitely every two days). Their quality was, let’s just say, below par. I didn’t care at the time: I knew I was just a novice learning his trade, I didn’t have a lot of readers and I mostly wrote them for myself. It was my outlet, a place where I could express everything I wanted, my grief included.

Fast-forward two years and a lot of things changed. The quality of my posts improved, my audience grew (thanks, Dave) and I’m, in fact, now writing for a website, not just for my blog. But one thing remained: I still use my posts as an outlet, as a means of expressing anger, joy, sadness, frustration or whatever else is on my mind.

Which brings me to my original point: I’m more likely to be here after a loss because this is a place where I can speak my mind freely and know my thoughts will resonate with people. The fact I can share my grief or, at the very least, just put all that bothers me in writing, helps ease the burden. So here goes my review of our yesterday’s debacle.

The rotation

Wenger made six changes to the side that dominated Stoke. Ospina, Debuchy, Gibbs, Arteta, Oxlade and Giroud all came in.

After the defeat Arsene was accused of rotating too much. I presume the same people would have chastised the Frenchman had he put out our strongest squad, especially if these players looked legged against Chelsea.

That’s not the important thing for me, however. The important bit is that the players who came in should have been more than capable of beating Dinamo Zagreb. Just look at who came in: all, bar Ospina, were starters a year ago. The Colombian, meanwhile, was a part of a team which had a storming end to the season.

The problem

“The problem is not the problem, the problem is your attitude to the problem”.

Our yesterday’s problem was not Dinamo Zagreb. Our problem was that of mentality. We didn’t turn up. We expected to walk the game. We thought Dinamo would be easy prey given their Champions League travails. And we were wrong.

I always fancy Arsenal’s chances in any game as long as we fulfil two simple requirements: turn up with the right attitude and play 11v11. It’s when we fail to meet either problems arise. Yesterday we failed to meet both.

I’ll return to the subject of Giroud a bit later and focus my attention on our mentality for the time being. It’s the second time we turned up with that attitude this season and the second time we lost. You see the simple connection? Twice we were overconfident and twice we were punished for our arrogance. Yesterday we were immobile and pedestrian and not only the new faces were to blame. Bar Gabriel, Koscielny and probably Ozil, everyone underperformed hugely (Theo gets an honourable mention for a well-taken goal).

Alexis was invisible all night (only 2 shots, both off target, only 36 attempted passes), Cazorla went into hiding (0 shots, only 2 chances created, both from set-pieces), leaving Arteta to mop up the mess, Gibbs ducked for the second (he fucking DUCKED), however it was Oxlade who is my pick for worst performer. His numbers in full:

1. 40 touches (in 60 minutes). Ospina had 30, for comparison’s sake
2. 1 shot (blocked)
3. 17/22 passes. Only 17 completed passes in 60 minutes
4. 1 chance created
5. 0/4 crosses
6. 2/4 successful dribbles
7. No tackles or interceptions (even attempted). Remember, he was supposed to help out Debuchy
8. One runner he failed to track
9. One own goal

Yes, I know the own goal itself was an accident, however, Oxlade should have done better before the ball rebounded off him into the net.

The case of Olivier Giroud

He didn’t deserve to be sent off, simple as that. Two bookings for dissent and a flailing leg respectively were as soft as it gets. Yes, I would like Olivier to be less articulate on the whole and more cautious when already on a yellow, but I think we know he would not have been sent off for these things in the Prem. As much as we like to moan about Premier League referees, their standard isn’t as low as it currently is in Europe and definitely not as low as that of our yesterday’s official.

However, what I liked far less then the sending off was the reaction of our fans. Olivier was immediately accused of every cardinal sin the fans could have come up with and I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

For starters, he actually had a very good period prior to being sent off. He forced the keeper into a spectacular save from a corner, hit the post from the only chance Oxlade created that game and did everything in his power to drive the rebound in. He held up play as usual, battled up front on his own with no help from teammates and movement between the lines, so labelling him a donkey for the performance is lazy and inaccurate, to put it mildly. I’ve dealt with the sending off above.

We also shouldn’t forget that out of the three goals scored in the League, two came from Olivier Giroud. One he created himself with a beautiful shot, the other was from a big chance. Ollie only took one big chance out of five in five games, but before you start moaning he’s a bad finisher, I’ll say that:

1. He is actually at 20% conversion rate (which is not at all bad for a Prem striker)
2. Theo fluffed 4 chances out of 4 against Stoke ALONE, yet didn’t get half the critique the Frenchman got

So get off Giroud’s back. If we are to be successful this season, we need Ollie on top form, which can only happen if he knows he has our backing.

The aftermath

We knew from the beginning topping the group wouldn’t be easy. Topping any group with Bayern in it is not easy. In that sense yesterday’s result hasn’t changed much. I’m pretty sure we’ll still qualify. If we want to qualify from the first spot we still need at least 4 points from two games against Bayern. What changed is that we no longer have the luxury of slipping up against others.

Now we put ourselves together, get our regulars back into the starting XI and go to Stamford Bridge with the right attitude, Cordon off the area where our Champions League memories reside and focus on the Prem. We are on a decent run there.

That’s all from me for now. Back with a preview.

Until then

Dinamo Zagreb preview: all about building up momentum

Well, this is awkward. A few times a season such a thing happens: we play a team I know nothing, or next to nothing, about. And yet I have to write a preview.

In such cases I try to concentrate more on what we do and how we approach the game and this is exactly what I’m going to do now. However, you can check out this article if you want to learn a little about our opposition.

Team news update

The big news is that Jack Wilshere will have to undergo a surgery on his ankle. The operation and subsequent rehabilitation will see Jack sidelined for around three months, in a year when staying fit was pivotal for Jack’s stake at a starting spot.

For him the lay-off means he’ll miss a lot of football and will find it hard to break into the starting XI when fit again. For us it means Arteta is the only fir central midfielder on the bench. And, though I like the Spaniard a lot, he is just one man. I think it would be sensible to have at least one more option from the bench, be it a talented youngster or someone from the current starting XI. We’ll see how Arsene reacts, but it looks like he is content, for the time being, with having just Arteta as a midfield sub.

Everyone that was available against Stoke will be available today, so we should put together the usual good squad. However, with three players already out with long-term injuries, any further injury would see us looking at youngsters, so fingers crossed we can avoid it.

Squad and approach

“You need to find the balance between urgency and confidence and at times that is difficult as you can quickly be too confident and lose your urgency.”

Interestingly enough, Wenger has confirmed Bellerin and Ramsey were left behind (in London), so that they could get a rest. That means it will be relatively easy to guess who will play.

As highlighted by the quote above, Wenger will most likely use this game as an opportunity to rotate, so I think a slew of regulars will get a rest. It’s also important to keep other players happy, not just provide the starters with a breather.

The big decisions for me are who starts in goal and whether Arteta comes in for Coquelin. I’d say Cech is more likely to start, as we don’t have a tradition of rotating keepers in the Champions League. As for Coquelin, this is one of the few opportunities to rest the Frenchman, so I think Wenger will start Arteta over him.

“I think he has an eye for the goal. The quality of his receptions in the box is at the top. He will become a instinctive finisher when he has a couple of goals behind him.

He needs a few more goals to score a bit more spontaneously. He is quick and gets into good little pockets."

Does this mean Theo will start? For me it sounds like he will. I suspect he’ll lead the line against Chelsea on Saturday, so it’s important to give him a chance to build up some momentum.

Predicted line-up: Cech - Debuchy - Mertesacker - Koscielny - Gibbs - Arteta - Cazorla - Ozil - Oxlade - Alexis - Theo

As for the approach, it’s hard to say, really. Will Dinamo be forced to play even a little bit before their own fans or will they shut shop completely? If they want to make at least third place to subsequently feature in Europa League, their only chance is getting as many points at home as possible.

The verdict

“It is important we go to Zagreb highly focused and conscious at what is at stake there. You can be quickly out of the Champions League and we want to start well and we know we have a battle first to qualify with Bayern Munich [in the group].

We have Olympiacos and Zagreb first and we have to finish above them and the result will come down to that. I think it is important to start well.”

Well, that about sums it up. Having learned the hard way what complacency can lead to, we should go into this game with our usual attitude. If we manage that, we have the quality to claim the three points and kick off our European campaign.

So come on you Gunners.

Back with a review.

Until then

Arsenal 2-0 Stoke: profligate Gunners get the much-deserved points

I’ll start my review with two simple facts:

1. Jack Butland would be my MoM if I could have voted him. The man made 10 saves. That’s more than Petr Cech against Liverpool (8).
2. If you can’t enjoy the win and the performance because Arsenal were quite profligate again (or for any other reason), I suggest you find a new team to support or, even better, a new sport to watch.

I suspect the review will be a short one today, as I’m not feeling well. I’ll thus get straight to the point.

The chances we had

“Maybe if I wanted to be critical I could say that that there is too big a difference between the number of chances we created and the number of goals we scored but that will come quickly once you win your games at home.”

Frankly, we nearly played Stoke off the park in the opening ten minutes and we came out of that period without finding the back of the net, I admit I was worried. Games where you start like that and fail to score an early goal don’t always turn out the way you want them to, but luckily, it was not the case yesterday.

Ozil and Cazorla were our top players yesterday in terms of chances created, with 8 and 7 respectively (each got an assist for his troubles). Unless I’m much mistaken, Ozil created the same amount of chances yesterday as Fabregas in 5 games (lol). The German also tops the league in 2015 calendar year with 76 chances created. On a side note, Bellerin fancied 4 chances for his teammates yesterday, making him 3rd in this regard.

On overall, we created 24 chances yesterday (remember, a chance is a pass that leads to a shot), but the crazy stat is that out of those 24, 9 were big chances. A big chance occurs in a one-on-one, as a result of a shot from close range or in other scenarios in which you’d reasonably expect your striker to score. By taking 2 of these 9, our conversion rate went from 0% to 12% (last year we had a 45% conversion rate of big chances).

You can check out some other interesting bits here.

Theo Walcott vs Olivier Giroud

I’ll put it in black-and-white: Theo was extremely profligate. Out of 9 big chances we had, 5 fell to Theo: a rebound after Sanchez hit the post, a header, a one-on-one, a flick at the near post and, finally, a goal.

In simple terms, Theo had a bad day in terms of finishing. He scored the least easy-looking chance, yet horribly squandered everything else. Giroud would have been slaughtered for such a performance (indeed he was, when he failed to take any of his 6 big chances against Monaco in February).

The upside is, of course, that Theo did finally score. Also, he got into dangerous positions, ones in which Giroud probably wouldn’t have. I think a run of games will ensure Theo’s finishing improves and it looks like Wenger will give him a chance:

“He has chances. He can be a prolific goalscorer. When you come out of the game and look at the amount of chances he scored. The bigger the belief he has to score the more he will score. But he gets in good situations.”

Giroud, meanwhile, came on as a substitute and sealed the game in the 85th minute. But not before he fired wide with the goal at his mercy. It’s amazing, really. Ollie can screw up the easiest of chances and then score a worldie. I don’t have stats to back this up, but I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this.

However, I’ve liked what I’ve seen yesterday. Letting Theo rip from the start and then throwing on Giroud for 20 minutes looks to be a very good plan, one which suits both the players and the team. Theo’s impact is maximised when he starts (11 goals in 11 starts), Ollie is a devastating player from the bench. Hope we’ll see more of this over the course of the season.

By the way, do you get the feeling we cross the ball when Theo is on and then start playing through balls when Giroud comes on? It’s not the first time I get this feeling. Weird.

What next?

Among other things, Wenger vaguely touched on why Mertesacker didn’t play:

“He should not worry. He should just come back and play. It is good we have four centre backs and this produces a problem.

It is always a vicious circle and at some stage you just have to believe in your players and Gabriel has shown that he can play with Mertesacker, he can play with Koscielny and he can be a great defender.”

Does this mean Mertesacker has been dropped in favour of Gabriel? Cause Wenger didn’t exactly say “Per is short” or “Per hasn’t yet fully recovered”.

When I saw the squads, I thought that Mert just isn’t fully fit, yet from Wenger’s comments it looks like this wasn’t a decision based on fitness. Guess the next game will tell us more.

Our next game is the first Champions League game, where we face Dinamo Zagreb away. And a couple of days later we have a trip down the road to our old pal Mourinho. The poor lad isn’t looking too good these days, that with back-to-back losses and four points in five games. Hope we’ll be the final nail in his coffin.

Right’ that’s it for now. So much for keeping it short. Enjoy the win and I’ll be back with you with a preview of our midweek game.

Until then

The loss of Danny Welbeck doesn't mean we are short in attack - in fact, we have a plethora of options

Transfer window woes

Less than a day after the transfer window slammed shut with Arsenal failing to make any further purchases, a statement regarding Danny Welbeck’s health was issued on the official website. Unfortunately, the news was far from heartwarming, as it turned out Danny’s injury required surgery. a surgery which took place during the last week of August.

Arsenal’s fanbase duly exploded and you could see why: it was hard for the supporters to come to terms with the simple fact Cech remained our only acquisition, losing one of our forward options on the back of a summer when most considered an elite striker a necessity was the last straw.

The Club was once again accused of dithering, of keeping the supporters in the dark and, most importantly, of failing to recruit when the need for recruitment seemed so obvious. Gloomy predictions were up next: we are 1-2 injuries away from a disaster, our forward line looks incapable of scoring and we can just forget about mounting a proper title challenge. 4th, here we come.

This tune became almost laughable. In a hurry, everyone forgot that nobody of importance left our squad. It was forgot that the same squad (minus Cech) had a storming end to the last season. It was forgot that transfer window is not a panacea, something Rory Smith brilliantly summed up:

Remember everyone: your team's problems are caused and resolved by what has or hasn't happened in the transfer market. Nothing else.

There are no tactics. There is no training. There is no human error or excellence. There are only transfers.

Rory then went on to produce a quite fascinating article for ESPN, in which he gave his explanation of just why the transfer window is loved so much and why it’s unlikely to change in the near future.

In fact, I believe we had a good transfer window, one which would have been viewed as such by more people had we picked up more points in the opening games, say, 10 out of 12. People would have just taken a look at the table (because looking at the table is crucial in early September) and seen we are not far away from City. City, who have spent over 150 million pounds on players they didn’t really need and will have problems cramming into their squad.

But our stuttering start, during which we’ve scored only one goal had people looking at the transfer market in search of a killer striker who would score more or take his chances better. Amidst all that, one little detail was ignored: there was no striker on the market we could have bought for reasonable money and who would have presented a substantial upgrade on Olivier Giroud. In their article Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail!) hailed Arsene’s transfer policy, while saying the exact same thing which has been blindingly obvious all along: our Premier League rivals overspent, quite likely didn’t get good value for money and didn’t substantially improve or, more importantly, didn’t improve in the areas which needed improving most.

The author argued his point very well (among other things he also backed Arsene’s decision not to reinforce central midfield), so I won’t repeat what he said here. What I will do, though, is quote him on Benzema and Cavani rumours:

By all accounts he tried very hard to bring in one of the few strikers in Europe better than what he already has - Karim Benzema.

It's not easy to buy top-class players, and it is not sensible to drastically overpay for them. Arsenal went up to £50million, and were rebuffed. Any more money would have been ridiculous for a man who, at 27, would have next to no resale value if he flopped over the next two or three years.

The other name linked to Arsenal was Edinson Cavani - the man most fans desperately wanted Wenger to sign on deadline day. Why?

Last season, in Ligue 1 - a significantly easier environment than the Premier League - Cavani scored 19 times in 35 games. That's a strike rate of 0.54 goals/game - nearly identical to the 0.52 scored by Giroud in a tougher league (and when you throw in the fact that Giroud's all came from open play, while Cavani netted two penalties, the Arsenal man's record is actually more impressive).

What message would it send to the players Wenger already has at the club if he was desperately trying to replace them with expensive stars who are not better than what he already has?  

Cavani might have improved Arsenal's squad, but at £50m-plus he would have been a terrible signing in terms of value and, again, at the age of 28 would be almost worthless at the end of what could turn out to be a disappointing spell.

All of this finally brings me to the point I wanted to make in this piece (800 words in I finally get to this point): how can we compensate for not bringing in another striker? Who do we deal with it knowing Welbeck will be unavailable up until Christmas? Well, I think there are a couple of solutions we (or rather Arsene Wenger) can try out.

Continue with Giroud as our main striker

That’s the most obvious, easy and likely solution. We know what we’ll get with Olivier up front, the team has become accustomed to seeing Giroud spearhead our attack over the last three seasons. If Arsene really decides to continue with the Frenchman as our main threat, both will have to get ready for critique coming their way. Giroud will score a lot of goals, but not enough to please the fans, but, crucially, he’ll miss quite a few chances and will be reminded of this by our fans at every opportunity. As for Arsene, he will naturally get blamed for not finding an adequate upgrade in the market.

However, there’s a case to be made for omitting Giroud and trying someone else. It will yield the double benefit of putting the Frenchman out of the firing line and changing our style of play, something that can ultimately lead to us becoming more effective in front of goal.

As Tim Stillman pointed out in his column for Goonersphere, it doesn’t look like Wenger planned to use Giroud as a main man for so long, which can prompt him to try and bring his original plan to fruition:

For the first game of the 2012-13 season, Podolski started as Arsenal’s central striker, with Giroud on the bench. I think it’s fair to assume that this was Arsene’s long term intention, for Giroud’s physical presence to provide a much desired Plan B.

For the first few games of the 2014-15 season, Alexis started as a centre forward, with Giroud again sealed in the envelope marked Plan B on the bench. This worked to good effect at Goodison Park when Alexis was hooked at half time and Giroud bagged a last minute equaliser. His predilection for changing games from the bench is very good; he almost unwittingly talks himself out of his preferred job in that sense. Giroud starts most games, but he has been left out of plenty of big fixtures. He was omitted from the starting line-up for a Champions League tie against Bayern Munich and for F.A. Cup matches against Liverpool, Everton and a semi-final against Wigan.

Last season, Theo Walcott was preferred in the F.A. Cup Final (where Giroud again scored from the bench). Olivier is clearly on a temporary visa as Arsenal’s starting forward until Wenger can find someone better, because he does not omit other regular picks from big matches in the same way.

Playing Walcott as a centre-forward

When Theo signed a luxury contract back in July, it became obvious you don’t just leave a player on such wages on the bench. Yet it was just what Arsene did for the first three games of the Premier League: Walcott came late on for Giroud against West Ham to try and rescue a point, a similar switch was made in the game against Liverpool with the scored locked, while in-between (against Palace) Walcott was an unused sub.

When Theo finally started a league game at St. James Park, he was utterly useless barring the first 15 minutes. Of course, the sending-off changed the landscape of the game, robbing Theo of space he thrives on; yet one could make a case most teams will play this way against us, both home and away. That means Theo won’t be able to help us much, as he wouldn’t be of much use in a direct battle against English physical centre-halves. In that case the Newcastle game may have been a demonstration by Wenger on why exactly Walcott can’t be our main striker.

However, I don’t think Wenger will abandon using Theo as a striker altogether. I’m not basing this assumption on anything, though, it’s just a hunch of mine.

Playing Alexis as a centre-forward

I believe it was the original idea when Arsene bought the Chilean a year ago. We didn’t see much of Alexis as a centre-forward since then; however, this can be explained by a combination of factors: Giroud’s injury, the acquisition of Danny Welbeck, no adequate cover on the left flank, Theo’s prolonged absence. By the time Giroud and Theo returned, Welbeck and Oxlade sustained injuries, while Podolski and Campbell were shipped out and Cazorla rediscovered his mojo in central midfield.

But I don’t think Wenger abandoned that particular idea of his. As I’ve said countless times it’s much easier to find a left winger and move Sanchez infield than find a striker and keep Sanchez on the left. Why am I so keen on playing Sanchez through the centre and why do I think Wenger might try it out? Simple: Alexis is world-class. It’s much easier to teach Alexis how to become a goalscoring machine as a lone forward than to find such a goalscoring machine.

Alexis could follow into Henry’s and Van Persie’s footsteps: both started as wide forwards, both were world-class, both were able to make that transition with resounding success. I believe Alexis can repeat this feat.

Playing with a false nine

By this I mean trying either Ozil or Ramsey up front. Both players are very intelligent, both are good finishers and both can (I believe) therefore play on the shoulder of the last defender to great effect by making darting runs.

Furthermore, Ozil and Ramsey will also be able to seamlessly interchange positions with Alexis/Oxlade/Walcott/Wilshere, allowing any of the lot to finish attacks.

I know this is a very unlikely scenario, that’s why I saved it for last. However, after giving it some thought I realised this formation has its benefits:

1. Ramsey and Ozil are both very effective in the final third. Both are attacking-minded players, who will be able to greatly influence proceeding by basically performing the role of a centre-forward, albeit they will influence it in different ways
2. This style of play will allow to accommodate both Alexis and Walcott/Ox. Oxlade can undoubtedly improve his end product, but there’s no denying he is a good finisher when he has the chance
3. It will also allow to cram in most central midfielders, something Wenger looks hell-bent to do anyway. Only this time every central midfielder will play in his preferred position, or very close to it
4. Finally, we’ll have the added benefit of utilising Giroud as a devastating weapon from the bench

Wrapping it up

The point of this article was to show that even without a new centre-forward, Danny Welbeck and resorting to Joel Campbell’s services on a constant basis, we have enough variety in our squad to mount a proper challenge. I hope I managed to do just that.

Right, enough said. Voice your opinions in the comment section below.

Until later