You don’t have to read many Arsene Wenger interviews to recognise his constant emphasis on the collective of football. His most devoted students, such as Robert Pires, Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas, have all been inherently unselfish players, noted as much for their goal provision as their goal scoring. Yet it’s not just an emotional bond the manager seeks to foster. Good football teams are all about chemistry, the right blend of qualities working in concert.
You won’t win the league title with eleven Ray Parlours but you also won’t win one with eleven Thierry Henrys either. In an age where people are as married to their opinions as they are their football teams, the temptation is to identify individual players and isolate them when a team is playing badly. Especially if we’ve previously insinuated that we’ve always suspected that they’re bobbins. It’s entirely possible and even probable that every team has its weak links. Yet more often than not, form, be it good, bad or indifferent, is usually a result of how the collective is functioning.
Injuries are a prolific frustration for an Arsenal fan nowadays. Yet much of the Gunners current woes lie not just in how many injuries they have to key players, but also in the types of player that they have missing. (I’m not suggesting that our poor form of late is entirely attributable to the treatment room. I wouldn’t expect our U-21s to lose by some of the score lines we have suffered this season). The manager suggests there is an issue of confidence at the moment, which I think is plain to see.
Yet it’s not just hearts and minds that are wavering. To embrace colloquial football parlance, Arsenal’s “legs have gone.” That’s not (just) to say that our dwindling collection of healthy footballers are gripped by fatigue, but all of the players that give the team energy, movement and purpose have all been simultaneously unavailable. This has led to Arsenal looking one paced, predictable and easy to nullify.
Everton and Chelsea were able to press Arsenal high and harry them in possession safe in the knowledge that nobody would run into the space behind them. It’s not just that Arsenal have had key players unavailable, but the ones we do have rely on our more kinetic players to cover their weaknesses. The reception Olivier Giroud received upon his substitution on Sunday was acidic. Mikel Arteta has also begun to feel the wrath of Arsenal fans too.
Whilst Arsenal could certainly improve on Olivier Giroud as a first choice striker, I think it’s fairly well documented that without the likes of Walcott and Ramsey around him, his attributes are rendered impotent. Likewise, the complaints abound about Arteta, that he’s too slow, that his legs are creaking and that he’s too cautious with the ball.
I would argue that he’s no slower, or less adventurous than Gilberto Silva, or Claude Makelele or Didier Deschamps or Dunga or many other screening midfielders you can name. Gilberto had Vieira or Parlour partnering him, Alonso had Mascherano, Makelele had Essien and so forth. Almost every player on the planet has weak points which need to be veiled by the qualities of his teammates. Without Ramsey or Wilshere, or even Koscielny in the back four, Arteta’s lack of mobility is much starker. It’s for this reason that Gilberto and Edu were hardly ever partnered together in the heart of midfield in the Invincibles side.
This at least partially explains why Santi Cazorla has looked rather average in recent weeks. He too isn’t hugely mobile. He opens up the pitch with his technique and he wanders into space, but he doesn’t pull defences around with his alacrity. Cazorla provides the conditions for others that like to do so. Rosicky has become such an important player for us of late because he possesses this kind of vitality. Unfortunately, his briskness troubles opposing midfielders more than it does defenders.
On Sunday, Arsenal’s back four was robbed of Gibbs and Koscielny too, with Vermaelen and Monreal deputising. This made Arsenal’s defence less portable. Basically Arsenal’s weaknesses are a neon welcome sign for opposing teams at the moment because we are missing the qualities to offset those weaknesses. Losing Özil, who is good enough to shoulder the creative burden alone, was the stray pube in Arsenal’s shit sandwich. I submit the situation would be much the same if we were to reverse the injury situation and peer into an alternate universe.
If, for instance, Arteta, Mertesacker, Giroud, Podolski and Cazorla were injured, a team containing the blue arsed fly qualities of Ramsey, Wilshere, Koscielny, Sanogo and Walcott without the disciplined, more positional presence of the likes of Arteta, Mertesacker and Giroud would be pulled apart due to its impetuousness. A big part of Arsenal’s issue at the moment is that there’s a touch too much valium and not enough amphetamine. But the reverse formula would probably be just as damaging.
For these reasons it is quite baffling that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain did not start at Goodison on Sunday on the right hand side. Especially given what we know about the attacking vigour of Everton’s full backs. The Toffees were able to harangue Sagna and Monreal and Wenger actually aided that strategy by playing a pair of wingers in Cazorla and Podolski that rarely offer the full backs a passing option. Martinez slit Arsenal’s throat, but Wenger handed him the knife.
The manager spoke after the game about “going back to basics” and it will be interesting to see if he reverts to the more cautious approach favoured at the end of last season. Arsenal urgently need to get over the line now and achieve their two glaring targets, Champions League qualification and winning the F.A. Cup. I do wonder if we’ll make a conscious attempt to having men behind the ball and becoming hard to beat as a first priority as we did last spring.
The glamour of the F.A. Cup may have faded over the years, but I cannot think of a year in my life time when it was so central to Arsenal’s ambitions. In 2003 and 2005, when we were truly spoiled, it felt like a consolation prize having finished second in the Premier League. In 2002 and 1998 the cup formed part of a ‘Double’ and therefore was not really recognised in its individual right. In 1993, we had already attained the league cup going into the F.A. Cup final against Sheffield Wednesday.
Even in 1980, Arsenal played a F.A. Cup Final and a Cup Winners Cup Final in the same week. So the domestic pot formed part of a dual storyline. You probably have to go back to 1979 for the last time the old trophy was this central to an Arsenal season. The Gunners must reconnect with their self belief; they’ve beaten Spurs, Liverpool and Everton to get to the semi final. They’re not there by felicity. Saturday ought to be viewed as an opportunity to relish rather than an itch to be scratched. LD.
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