WHY THIS JUST MIGHT BE OUR SEASON.

WHAT I’VE LEARNT SO FAR: WHY THIS JUST MIGHT BE OUR SEASON

So while the rest of the football world turns their attention to the international matches, I (with many others I’m sure) find myself hung over like a teen after a night out. Wanting nothing to do with this rather annoying international break then, I took some time out to pen down five reasons that I think are going to play a key role should we finally win something this season:

i.                    Strength in depth:

In seasons past, we’ve often had to contend with the tag “injury-ravaged”. We often had a first 11 as good as any other team around, but our bench was somewhat short of quality. It was genuinely difficult for Wenger to rotate the squad even if he wanted to, and he couldn’t “mix things up” in order to deploy a “plan B” when things began to go pear-shaped. Take our 8-2 mauling at the Old Trafford last season as a case in point. With six players missing in the regular line-up and no quality to adequately replace them, the Arsenal just couldn’t turn in a performance. Outings like these cruelly exposed one of our major weaknesses…lack of strength in depth.

This season, however, finds us in very good stead. With new signings coupled with some players coming back at just the right time, we have genuine premiership quality in just about all areas of the pitch. There is stiff competition for places in the starting 11, not to forget quality players from the academy coming through as well. This way, no one gets complacent, team performances get better, and more importantly the manager has options that he can use whenever he wants a change of tact.

ii.                  No longer a “one-man team”:

Again in previous seasons, Wenger has never been afraid to build the team around a certain player. Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, all these former greats have enjoyed being called the “talisman”. However, we somehow always managed to find ourselves losing a “talisman” with almost every transfer window, and this meant grooming another “talisman“ as well as changing the club’s system of play. While this seemed to work for the most part, whenever the “talisman” struggled then the team struggled too. Last season, van Persie scored 30 (41%) of Arsenal’s 74 goals in the league. Of the ten games that we lost then, he failed to score in seven of them.

It then comes almost as a relief when, at the beginning of this season, Wenger came out and said that this season he would look to spread the goal-scoring burden across the whole team. It then makes it harder for teams to stop us from winning games, and also lifts some pressure off poor Giroud who has taken a lot of stick from the fans and the media alike.

For those who said that we relied too much on one player before, this takes care of that then.

iii.                Change of system:

So this season we lost Alex Song to Barcelona. Most of us (this writer included) thought that we had to replace him or else our season would collapse before it even began. Right? Wrong. Even I stand corrected.

The conventional style of the game dictated that teams had to have a no-nonsense, tough-tackling, out-and-out defensive midfielder who would act as a foil for the back-line and break up the opponents’ attacks easily. Chelsea has Mikel, and Barcelona has Busquets (and now Song).

 However, the modern game is such that this is no longer a requirement in football. Clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Real Madrid have all enjoyed success without having an out-and-out defensive midfielder, and hopefully we will add ourselves to this list. With Song having departed, Wenger now fields Diaby and Arteta as the deep-lying duo in the middle of the park, and this has proved to be a master-stroke (thus far). This new system has proved to be more effective and efficient, with Arteta playing as the deep-lying midfielder, Cazorla orchestrating all our attacking play and Diaby acting as the box-to-box player. The midfield is looking more solid than ever, and with Wilshere soon returning from injury our midfield will be unplayable.

iv.                Santi Cazorla:

Three games into the season and this Spanish midfielder is already looking to be one of the best buys of the season, turning in two man-of-the-match performances against Sunderland and Stoke and scoring his first goal for the club in the third game against Liverpool last weekend. He has so far been given a free role in the hole behind Giroud, and his vision, passing, dribbling and ability to shoot from range has rightfully earned him great praise.

The midfield metronome operates best in the little pockets of space that opposition midfielders leave while attacking, leaving him well-placed to spark off counter attacks. His close control and quick feet make him good on the ball and at keeping possession in tight spaces, and his vision for a pass means that he rarely is off-target with his passes (long or short). In fact, he completed 65 of 72 attempted passes against Liverpool, translating to a stunning 90%. His movement in that free role is also evident; he received 71 passes in the same game. His play-making abilities are remarkable; in the previous game versus Stoke he completed 93% (27 of 29) of his passes in the attacking third of the pitch, and his 14 attempts on goal also go to show that he has an eye for goal.
I could go on and on with more mind-boggling statistics, but bottom-line is this: Santi Cazorla is proving to be a real gem in the midfield three for the Arsenal this far, and with only three games gone we are probably yet to see the best from him. He could prove to be the game-changer in big games like he proved against Liverpool, and I just can’t wait to watch him in action for us again.

v.                  Steve Bould:

Out of our three summer signings, the signing of the season thus far is…none of them. It’s Steve Bould! Three games into the season and we are the only team yet to concede a goal, who would have thought it? The new assistant manager has gone about transforming the team into one defensive juggernaut, and the outcome is simply outstanding. Especially when you think that it’s been done without two of the back four in Koscielny and Sagna. Our start to this season (defensively) is the best we’ve had in the last 10 years.

SEASON:	GOALS CONCEDED (AFTER 3 GAMES)
2002/2003	4
2003/2004	1
2004/2005	4
2005/2006	2
2006/2007	3
2007/2008	2
2008/2009	1
2009/2010	4
2010/2011	2
2011/2012	10
2012/2013	0

This defensive improvement is no better embodied by one Kieran Gibbs, who has successfully completed 81.8% of his attempted tackles so far this season.

Individual records aside though, and a few statistics will show why we’ve been this successful in our defending so far: in our previous game against Liverpool, Jenkinson completed 4 tackles; Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Arteta and The Ox completed 3 tackles while Cazorla, Diaby and Podolski completed 2 tackles. Podolski made four clearances from his own penalty box, and in fact his average position on the pitch was even deeper than that of Gibbs! It’s clear then that this season we are defending more as a unit, rather than leaving most of the defensive work to only the back-line and defensive midfielder. Should we continue to do this, more clean sheets will definitely be coming our way.

Hope this kept you occupied during this boring period, till next week then!

MATCH DAY 3

MATCH DAY 3:

LIVERPOOL VS ARSENAL:

Two games into the season and no wins registered, it might be safe to say that Arsenal’s season had simply not started yet. Even worse, we were yet to score a goal, and having played Stoke and Sunderland (at home) that’s saying something. So it was fitting, then, that our next outing would be against a club with a somewhat similar story to ours, Liverpool. The clubs would face off both badly needing a result to kick-start their season, and the pressure told as both sides looked to impose themselves early on in the game. But one could distinctly tell that this game would be different from the first two for the Arsenal. While Stoke and Sunderland looked to defend from deep and were more than willing to let us dominate possession, Liverpool set out to compete in midfield and, with Joe Allen, control the game. From history, Arsenal plays better when put up against teams that play more open football, and this fixture turned out to be no different. Thirty-one minutes on the clock and a loose Steven Gerrard pass sets up a swift counter-attack for the Arsenal, with Podolski finding Cazorla and running into space to receive the return and smash the ball past a helpless Pepe Reina. Minutes later and it should have been 2-0, this time Diaby flying through the middle and slipping in Giroud in yet another counter-attack, only for the Frenchman to fire wide of the upright. This looked eerily like the missed Sunderland opportunity, with Giroud again making the right runs but simply lacking the composure to finish. Truth be told, he still looks (and plays) like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. Or more like RvP’s 30 goals last season on his shoulders maybe. Anyway, heading into the break, despite Liverpool having played more football, we were ahead where it mattered most.

It was simply more of the same in the second half, where Liverpool’s passing was easy on the eye yet lacking in end-product, while our passing was both. Sixty-eight minutes in, and with Cazorla thriving in the spaces left by the Liverpool midfield, he profited from a Podolski through-ball to drive the ball hard and low past Reina and put give us a two-goal cushion. The final whistle was greeted with sighs of relief from the Arsenal fans worldwide and rightfully so. Two goals scored, none conceded, and two of the three new signings finally off the mark. We are currently the only team left that is yet to concede a goal. Another positive was the solid nature of our performance, especially in midfield with Arteta and Diaby providing a solid base from which to spring our attacks. Actually, goals aside, Diaby was the man-of-the-match for me. Wenger always said that a fit Diaby was the best midfielder in France, and coming off a performance like this it’s hard not to see why. Someone rightly said that he might be an upgrade on Alex Song. An imposing physical presence in midfield, strong on the ball, exceptional dribbling and an impressive awareness of everything that goes on around him, he might just go on to be the box-to-box midfielder that we’ve been lacking for a while now. This performance will have given him a great (and much needed) confidence boost, and he can only go up from here. It also goes to show us Gooners the value of being patient with a player, and vindicated Wenger’s choice to stick with him as well.

It would be cruel not to give a mention to Jenkinson for keeping Sterling in check for most of the game, though this appeared to have an adverse effect on his attacking as he spent most of his time keeping an eye on the tricky teenager. He also looked a little nervous with his clearances but an otherwise solid performance from him. His counterpart Gibbs, however, had no such worries, bombing forward at every available opportunity. This left Podolski having to sit that little bit deeper and defending against Borini and then Downing (not that difficult you would imagine though). Credit to our centre-back pairing for keeping a lid on Suarez, and to Steve Bould for yet another clean sheet. I’m beginning to wonder how long we can keep this up? With more illustrious opponents in the horizon, we might find out sooner rather than later.

With two of our new signings having opened their accounts however, all eyes will turn to Olivier Giroud. Yet another gilt-edged chance missed and people are beginning to talk. Is he good enough? Is the Ligue 1 too easy? Can he mix it with the big boys? Is he the next Chamakh? I say he needs to score, and soon, for his own good too. Any sort of goal, even a Gallas-esque goal off his back would do him a world of good in getting the monkey off his back. For the rest of us, we would do well to give him time (it’s sounding like a chorus now) to find his feet. We also need to work on our crossing, as many balls into the box were not good enough for Giroud to profit from.

This win puts us in good stead heading into the international break, and with Southampton coming next, our immediate future looks safe. Our fullbacks will have to defend from wider positions though, to prevent crosses coming in for Lambert, but otherwise we should be okay for this one.

One question though, this game proved that we play best when our opponents set up to play football. What happens when we come up against one that doesn’t, that will let us have the ball and won’t let us counter-attack? Up to you Mr. Wenger.

Oh, and our third-choice keeper now has more clean sheets than both Manchester clubs and TOTTENHAM HOTSPURS. Well I’m just saying…

Till next week then!