When you have a long standing relationship with somebody, telepathy begins to build. You find yourselves able to second guess their mannerisms, facial expressions, vocal inflections and elements of their speech. When your football team has had the same manager for some 17 years, you find yourself able to second guess, if not exactly what the manager is going to say, how he is going to say it. And frankly ‘Arsene bingo’ just isn’t much of a challenge anymore.
Wenger’s love of automotive imagery is well rehearsed. His teams run on ‘petrol’, and often have trouble releasing the fabled ‘handbrake.’ In fact, the handbrake isn’t so much fabled as cursed, so linked is it to our failures by the manager. However, this season, Wenger has probably had cause to link his love of vehicle related adjectives to the positive qualities his team have demonstrated.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, Wenger likes his team’s in game intuitiveness to develop independently. Arsenal’s ability to evaluate and interpret in game situations has taken on something of a pattern. We have now won ten of our nineteen home games by two goals to nil this season. The pattern has become very familiar and has largely centred on the Gunners’ ability to shift gears at certain times in games.
For the first half, Arsenal don’t over-commit to attack, being sure not to be breached. Their game plan is contingent on them not conceding first and having to chase a game. Arsenal have only trailed 6 times this season. In the second half, Arsenal tend to release the handbrake and once the game is safe at 2-0, they shift back into neutral and close the game out. Many have asked the question as to why the Gunners haven’t given any team a good shoeing this season. By opening up and going for the jugular at 2-0, you’re just as likely to concede as score and put the game back into the balance.
Recent Arsenal teams have kept their foot on the accelerator with the game seemingly won and whilst it has reaped some rewards, we’ve also seen enough 4-4s and 3-3s and 5-4s down the years to know it’s not a strategy you can really hang your hat on. One of the key components of Arsenal’s ability to navigate games through intuition has been the fluctuating role of the midfield three. Especially for the player positioned betwixt Arteta / Flamini and Özil. Our number 8 if you will.
The performance of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain against Crystal Palace surmised this rather neatly. In the first half, he was relatively cautious, playing close to Mikel Arteta in and around the centre circle. In the second half, Chamberlain deserted the ‘double pivot’ alongside Arteta and played 10-15 yards further forward. (Özil occasionally dropped deeper to collect possession from Arteta). The payoff was as instant as it was obvious, with two goals to show for his second half display.
Arsenal have a number of midfield options that can facilitate this ‘gear change.’ Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain and even Tomas Rosicky (does Abou Diaby still figure in these lists?) are all comfortable sitting alongside one of the screening midfielders and are equally comfortable playing closer to Özil and Giroud. Something that the aforementioned players also share is an ability to drive the team up the pitch.
Wilshere, Rosicky and Chamberlain are very adept at doing this with the ball; Ramsey is good at bombing forward from deep without it. Having this sort of option has allowed Arsenal to control the tempo of games. It also probably explains why Flamini and Arteta have struggled as a pairing of late. Flamini has a surge of energy but his instinct is not honed to burst forward when his team has the ball. His eyes light up (his engine starts revving?) when the opposition have possession. As such, he isn’t able to help Arsenal shift from back to front foot in quite the same way.
The interchangeability of Arsenal’s well-oiled midfield machine has also enabled different players to step up to the goalscoring plate at different times. Santi Cazorla was voted Arsenal’s Player of the Month for January after a fairly indifferent spell by his own exalted standards. Injury and the lack of a proper pre-season partially explain this. But the Spaniard has had to recalibrate this season. He spoke earlier in the month about his increased defensive responsibilities.
Özil now his hands on the steering wheel (ok, ok, I‘ll stop now) of the team from a creative standpoint, so he has been given the freer role in the team, leaving Cazorla’s job more defined. (Though Özil is certainly no slacker in terms of tracking back). Aaron Ramsey’s new found penchant for arriving in the penalty area in Bryan Robson-esque fashion was stymied slightly when Theo Walcott returned to the team, as he became the player to bring the thrust in the final third.
With Walcott and Ramsey taking injury enforced pit stops (last one, I promise), Cazorla has been given license (that one wasn’t even intentional) to work more closely to the opposition goal. The upshot is that he managed 5 goals and created 8 chances for teammates in January. So Wenger doesn’t just have plenty of midfield options in terms of personnel, but he has personnel that can assume different roles within Arsenal’s preferred tactical function.
One of the great strengths of Ferguson’s later, less venerated United sides was its flexibility. Ferguson had 22 players that could potentially cover 50 different functions between them. Though lacking in superstars, it was a lean, smart squad. For the likes of Ramsey, Wilshere and Chamberlain, they have the opportunity for a consummate, rounded education and what’s more, if they resist the type of wanderlust that cost us the services of Nasri, Fabregas and Song, they will simultaneously increase their mutual understanding.
You would imagine that a successor for Arteta and Flamini would need to be acquired via the transfer market. Because Arsenal dominate possession in most of the games they play, it is difficult for them to groom defensive midfielder players internally. It’s usually better to recruit these players from sides that are more accustomed to playing without the ball- Arteta at Everton being an example. It meant that off the ball discipline was already programmed into his DNA when he arrived.
The likes of Denilson, Song and even Diaby had their growing pains trying to learn it on the job at a team like ours. It would appear that Wenger is planning to spend big on the position too. He tried to sign Lars Bender last summer and was reportedly interested in Luiz Gustavo. Once those targets withered, he turned his interest to Gareth Barry and Mathieu Flamini, who were both clearly intended as stop gaps before a younger, more ‘box office’ player is available to fill the position. Yet for the time being, Arsenal’s midfield engine is looking well lubricated. LD.
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