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Strength in depth is the key to winning the Premier League and Champions League; it really is that simple.
With that in mind, you can imagine a lot of football managers look at the options available to Arsene Wenger in the final third with a touch of jealousy.
With Mikel Arteta or Mathieu Flamini taking the position at the base of the midfield and either Danny Welbeck or Olivier Giroud spearheading the team; that leaves four positions for the nearly fifteen other players to vie for.
In our opening Premier League game against Crystal Palace, Le Professeur could’ve called upon Tomas Rosicky, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Joel Campbell – the same trio were on the bench in the next game against Besiktas.
Santi Cazorla dropped to the bench for the Everton game in place for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, two players most Premier League managers – if not all – would have as one of their starting XI.
Lukas Podolski was available for the second-leg against Besiktas – Mesut Ozil had returned for the draw at Goodison Park – with Joel Campbell and Tomas Rosicky again available to Arsene should he have seen fit.
Against Leicester City is where we really saw our strength in depth in midfield with Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez starting meaning that Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lukas Podolski and Joel Campbell made up the majority of the substitutes’ bench.
In our entertaining draw with Manchester City, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski and Cazorla had to settle for a place on the bench. In Dortmund, that trio again found themselves on the bench with Tomas Rosicky also there for added company.
Against Aston Villa, our most recent Premier League fixture, Abou Diaby was welcomed back to the 18 and joined Alexis Sanchez, Tomas Rosicky, Lukas Podolski and Jack Wilshere in the dugout.
Sure, we lack options in other areas of the field but let’s focus on the positives! And I haven’t even mentioned the injured Theo Walcott plus the exciting duo of Serge Gnabry and Gedion Zelalem.
“Sure, we lack options in other areas of the field but let’s focus on the positives”
too bad the positives are not scoring any goals and the negatives are allowing them.
Another way of looking at it would be to query just how we have collected this surfeit of midfield forward players yet have little or no cover in the defence.
yes we have options in midfield but not in defence,only kos,per,chambersand gibbs.
It is really great to have such embarrassment of riches in these central/attacking midfield positions. However spare a thought for other departments and it becomes clear why we are horribly inconsistent. Again compare the said players we are talking about and their colleagues in chelsea or Man City. You will notice that while arsenal players are the delicate and fragile types, the chelsea lot are the rough and tumlbe types combining finesse with a lot of grit. So while our players are only able to mix it with “pepper less” teams, we seem in a quandary with a team of grafters.
Wengers love for delicate/intricate attacking play is well known. To satisfy this taste, he has an unquenchable taste for lithe and ball-playing midfielders who can pass, hold on to the ball as well as pay in an eye-pleasing manner. It seems he loathes midfielders who combine grit with the aforementioned qualities. Perhaps the only exception being Viera, who in my own opinion in all of Wengers eighteen years seems an accident. For example, Arsenal had no need for Ozil when he was bought but Wenger wont allow such midfield talent to just pass him by. You will recall that the team as at the time was crying for investment in other areas.
A question to ask is; who are arsenals most expensive players – Ozil, Sanchez, Carzola. By comparison who are the most expensive players in say Man U, Man City, Chelsea?.
The real cost to Arsenal is that Wengers uncontrolled appetite for more midfied players leaves his teams always terribly unbalanced. It is so easy to play Arsenal that it must now rank as the first lesson any new premiership coach learns – frustrate them, suck them in, then one long ball and arsenal concedes. I am already seeing this scenario against chelsea on sunday and I ask when will wenger learn.
Barely two weeks into the new season and arsenal are in crisis. Thank God that Giroud spared our blushes and was injured early before the transfer season ended, else wenger would have continued in his folly of believing that Sanogo will come good. May be we don’t see what hhe sees, but whatever he sees, time and again, over so many years, it has spelt doom for Arsenal.
We shouted that the defensive midfield position should be addressed. It was not by coincidence that Liverpool, Man City and chelsea ran riot playing arsenal last year. But what did Wenger do? Trusting a man no doubt prodigiously gifted but unable to be useful to the team since he was signed – how many years ago on account of one injury or the other is simply stupidly gambling with the hopes and emotions of arsenal lovers who have over a long time almost worshipped Wenger.
We were so many goals behind the top three last season but after acknowleging this fact, rather than buy a proven striker to compliment Giroud, his love for midfielders led him to Sanchez. Please Wellbeck was an after thought!
It is either that old age is catching up with Wenger or that he has lost it. I am often tempted to say sometimes that he doesn’t care any more. We are treated to some wins againstq crystal palace, aston villa and their ilk. In real prestige games wher bragging rights come into play, arsenal fans will always take away the sour taste.
The above is not to run down Wenger who is already a legend but to alert him that he is unwittingly destroying that legend. This for me is the irony!!!.
Dan Egwu
Sorry , you didn’t like the first reply . You are right we have a large number of midfield attacking players that’s a positive .
BUt !