To borrow from the overused cliché, there are three things certain in life: death, taxes and an Arsenal collapse. It was all that was keeping their rivals in check, however, and since Arsenal’s collapse from the top of the table in March, consistency gave away to unpredictability and it was anything goes after that.
Arsenal were a bit like a buoy: resisting pressure forcing upwards from below, staying afloat until the pressure became too much. As such, it was also a regret that The Gunners couldn’t last the course; there were a number of factors which contrived to culminate all at the same time in that all-too-familiar collapse in March. The injuries to Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and then Mesut Ozil in succession irreversibly unsettled the dynamics of the team that the returns of Lukas Podolski and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were unable to offset. That is an important point because the statistics show in the relatively scant minutes Ramsey, Podolski and Walcott have played, they have always made a contribution.
Their unavailability also exposed some teething issues with the squad such as the reliance on getting runners beyond Olivier Giroud and an inexplicable susceptibility to the high press. In those key games in March, those weaknesses came to a head. Some argue that the big defeats to Chelsea (6-0) and Liverpool (5-1) away boiled down to Arsenal just starting the game poorly and as such unable to recover. However, as any analyst will tell you, repeatability usually hints at a trend and Arsenal continued to commit the same mistakes again and again, pushing up the pitch too eagerly as if anxious to make a stylistic impression, and then being hit on the break.
For the better part of the season, however, particularly against the sides below fifth place, Arsenal have often been too good for their opponents and the final match of the season, the 2-0 win over Norwich City, was almost an encapsulation of how they have generally been this season. Initially there were moments of edginess and sometimes Arsenal’s play was lacking fluency. Indeed, Arsene Wenger even admitted himself, in the early parts of the season, that The Gunners perhaps weren’t “playing that well.” But then they have moments, such as Arsenal’s opening goal, where everything suddenly pieces together and they produce a moment of pure technical brilliance. That it ended with Aaron Ramsey volleying the ball from a tight angle wasn’t a surprise given the season he has had, but one has to look back at where it started from with Laurent Koscielny showing the audacity to risk losing the ball in a dangerous position to start the attack by passing the ball in between two Norwich City strikers.
As such, despite the obvious disappointments in the league – though that can be offset by FA Cup glory – this season has been a joy to watch if only for those moments you won’t find in any other team: football played with extraordinary delicacy but also with a daring as moves can break down at any given moment and lead to a counter-attack. But when it works, it culminates in perfection. And what neat symmetry that, following Ramsey’s wonder-strike on Sunday against Norwich, perfection was achieved earlier in the season, against the same club, when Jack Wilshere finished off a beautiful team move to score the goal of the season. That’s the Arsenal Way.
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Norwich-Arsenal, despite the meaningless of it, was actually a performance from Arsenal which was typical of their season. As such, I won’t be doing a standard match analysis; instead I’ll be highlighting the key players of the match and the contribution they’ve made during the season as a whole.
Aaron Ramsey
Aaron Ramsey’s rise confirms the idea that finishing, if not a learned skill, is an acquired skill. And certainly, The Welshman attributes his improvement in front of goal to finally mastering inner-calmness, trusting his game and good old practice on the training field. “I realised that I was getting stuck back in again: ‘I’m winning the ball back, I’m feeling good out on the pitch again. I’m happy out there,’” he said. “And then I carried that on, worked on a few things in pre-season, like composure in front of goal and taking longer instead of rushing things. And I just think you always have to believe in yourself – I always knew it was there.”
Indeed, his improvement in front of goal sometimes can obscure what an well-rounded player he has become and why he’s so integral to the way Arsenal play. Against Norwich, as per usual, he was everywhere, winning tackles, making passes and of course, scoring another impossible goal. It wasn’t just the finish though: Ramsey has an intuitive understanding of space, of where to be and when to make the right run. For the second part of the season, Arsenal had been missing those runs from deep that glue Arsenal’s passing game together. Because without somebody breaking into space, who have Arsenal’s myriad of ball players got to pass it to? Instead, play in that period would look soporific, lacking urgency and easy to pick off.
Ramsey and Ozil are the triggers in the side because when they run, the rest of the team adjusts, sensing the moment to up the tempo. Ramsey pushing up from midfield, or Ozil dropping slightly deeper, transforms Arsenal system from what is nominally a 4-2-3-1 to something much closer resembling a 4-1-4-1, with the “four” behind Giroud usually vague, often interchanging positions and filling in for each other. Against Norwich, Podolski, who played on the left or in the previous game against West Brom, Santi Cazorla, on the right flank, would sometimes end up in central midfield after moves broke down such is the fluidity of Arsenal’s play. At times, though, the fluidity can be a burden and that’s what Arsenal have to build on next season. Ramsey’s energy to cover ground does so much to alleviate it but Arsenal need now to add more technical accuracy in the final third and plurality in off the ball runs.
Bacary Sagna
Before the game, Arsene Wenger maintained that the decision was now Sagna’s whether he wanted to stay at the club or not. However, whichever way you look at it, Sagna’s stance should now be hardened having been forced to play at centre-back in the final game of the season due to the absence of two of the main centre-backs. Wenger might have used the game as a way of showing Sagna his future role at the club but the way Sagna seamlessly slotted in might be better interpreted as a way of telling his manager that “you can’t possibly let this go.”
And Sagna’s right, he deserves better because he simply does so much for the team, whether it’s going up for headers at goal kicks, making tackles, running up and down the right flank or because of Arsenal’s bias to the right-hand side – 40% of their attacks originate from that side – he gets the ball a lot. That means whoever plays there must be technically good – an accusation levelled at Carl Jenkinson for not meeting the standards – and defensively solid too. Of course, Sagna leaves much to be desired in his contribution to the final third – and Jenkinson’s goal does less to argue his cause – and unless Wenger has identified somebody who improves on that aspect, he has no other reason not to find a compromise to keep Sagna at the club.
Olivier Giroud
Oliver Giroud started the game circumspectly, only touching the ball four times in the first 20 minutes, further playing to the frustrations that some fans have of him. But suddenly he was transformed, first playing Lukas Podolski through on goal with a back-heel and then combining with the same player again, trading a one-two before shooting too close for Paul Ruddy to save. Had he scored, it would have put the gloss on a great performance and one that we want to see more from Giroud. Because he ran the channels well, creating space for those third man runs that Ramsey, Podolski like to make and set up the winner with a fantastic pass, one which only one striker in the Premier League is likely to have picked out: Luis Suarez.
Indeed, Giroud is second to the Uruguayan for chances created from a centre-forward. Last week, Giroud also scored his first goal from a corner-kick. If somehow, Giroud adds all those parts of his game together in one complete package, the question will be who partners him rather than who replaces him.
Laurent Koscielny
Laurent Koscielny just signed a contract extension at the club. That’s great news for such a key player. However, I suspect it won’t reverberate much beyond Arsenal fans because for some reason – I blame Sky and BT Sport – others haven’t cottoned on to how good a defender Koscielny has become. Certainly, there have been high profile errors and red-cards – for France too – and it doesn’t help that in the big matches that are broadcast live all over the world, Arsenal have faltered massively. That makes it seem like Koscielny is some of a flat-track bully but he’s not because he’s had Adebayor, Lukaku, Suarez, Lewandowski in his pocket in certain matches this season.
What he is though, is an aesthete’s defender, technically brilliant, with a deceptive turn of pace and when he sees that the ball can be won, even if the striker shows a quarter of the ball for a split second, he will pounce at it with a velociraptor-like opportunism. One of his favourite moves is the “sombrero” as Patrick Vieira so expertly used to deploy to get out of tough situation, knocking the ball over the opponents after reading the through pass. Watch it here.
Likewise against Norwich, it wasn’t a defensive action that caught the mind but his pass in the lead up to the first goal. Johan Elmander came charging at him to put pressure on him while Alexander Tettey followed up by cutting out the sideways pass. The only option was to pass the ball back. What did he do instead? Pass the ball in between them, risking losing the ball in a dangerous position and taking two players out of the equation so starting the attack that lead to a superb Ramsey goal.
