Time for a tactical rethink at Arsenal?

Arsene Wenger is paid the big bucks to get things right; whether he delivers on those depends on your expectation levels and opinion. Therefore, my next statement purely depends on your viewpoint but, for me, Le Professeur certainly isn’t earning his wage when it comes to the formation.

Against Aston Villa we returned to the 4-2-3-1 formation that clearly favours our personnel and adds greater balance to the midfield. It certainly isn’t a coincidence that the game at Villa Park saw Mesut Ozil return to the assist and scoresheet.

Given our comfortable performance and win over Paul Lambert’s side, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to see Arsene Wenger send the side out against Tottenham Hotspur in the 4-1-4-1 formation. The 90 minutes that followed was a direct result of the formation; the performance highlighted all the flaws with the chosen formation: a lack of understanding of each player’s position and role, a lack of impetus/drive due to players getting under each others feet and an all round lack of leadership.

Again, the Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey combination continues to hinder the side. It’s a lovely sentiment that Le Professeur wants the British duo to work at the heart of the Arsenal midfield but it’s negligent and foolish to keep persevering with it, especially if you aren’t going to play the right players around them.

If Wenger wants Rambo and Jack in the middle, you can’t then play Mesut Ozil on the left hand side of midfield because, naturally, he will come in and eat up the space of Jack and Aaron. Furthermore, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is someone Arsene views as a centre-midfielder so, no doubt, Ox wouldn’t have had the instructions of get wide, use your pace and explode past the full-back – the former Southampton player is built to be a superb wide player but that’s for another article.

I’m all for Wenger experimenting with formations, trying to fit our wonderful array of midfielders in but, as Einstein once said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.