ARSENE WENGER; TACTICALLY SPEAKING (PART 2) AND A TRIBUTE TO THE DEPARTED

Greetings to all, and as always my sincere appreciation to everyone who has taken time out to read previous posts on this blog and for your feedback on the same. Now, last week’s post was the first of a two-part series where I try to highlight five tactical wins for Arsene Wenger over the course of the recently concluded 2014/2015 season. I spoke about the signings the manager made and the loan dealings in January as the first two tactical wins, and if you haven’t caught a glimpse of that you can take a look by following: (lloydnixx.blogspot.com/2015/07/arsene-wenger-tactically-speaking-part-1.html
Here’s the second part of that post.

1. Game management:

After some freak results in the 2013/2014 season (3-6, 1-5, 0-6, 0-3) it was pretty evident that we needed a change of tact if we were to avoid similar results last season. In fact, we generally showed a distinct naivety in our approach to “big” games even before 2013/2014, which of course led to Patrice Evra famously commenting that it was “men against boys” whenever we played Manchester United. So what changed this past year? With the exception of the 2-1 reverse against United at the Emirates, we tightened up and adopted a defensive discipline that was previously not associated with Arsenal, certainly not under Arsene Wenger. We watched some proper “1-0 to the Arsenal” stuff, but we need to clear two issues up here. First, not every close win could be attributed to defensive discipline and shrewd game management. The late wins over Crystal Palace at the Emirates, and away at Anderlecht for instance featured particularly tepid Gunners’ performances. We did just enough to win those games, and only just. Winning ugly is the hallmark of champions, isn’t that how the cliché goes?

Secondly, game management does not simply refer to defensive shape. It points towards discipline and a blend between the potency of attack and the application of tactics and logic. Rather than trying to win it “the Arsenal way”, we simply did what we had to do to win without exposing ourselves to the opponents’ arsenal. Most pundits give the excellent 2-0 win over Manchester City as an example to prove this point, but wins over Newcastle, Burnley and Manchester United in the FA Cup were just as similar. Even the 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund, where the possession was pretty even (52%-48%), is still comparable with the 2-0 win over City (62%-38%) if based on this parameter alone. We managed to nullify the opposition threat, winning more aerial duels and posing a significant threat going forward while at it too. Controlled in possession, disciplined without.

2. Reconfigured Arsenal midfield:

Now of course there is an element of luck to this particular point, seeing as Francis Coquelin was recalled from his loan at Charlton Athletic amid a defensive injury crisis at the Emirates. We were without Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere at the time. The club was thus forced to bring back Coquelin on the 12th of December, 2014, and he made three substitute appearances for a combined total of 13 minutes before his first start against West Ham on 28th December. Perhaps Coquelin was initially no more than a stop-gap measure, but he ended the season as the club’s second best player of the season despite missing virtually half of it. We won more games, conceded the fewest goals and got the highest points tally of any team since Francis Coquelin made his first start since his return. In the 20 league games since 28th December, we won 14 games (two more than Chelsea), conceded just 14 goals (five less than Chelsea), while scoring 39 goals (second only to City) and accumulating 45 points (three more than Chelsea). So Arsenal worked better as a functional unit with Coquelin in the team.

But this is not just about Coquelin. The manager had to find a way to fit Coquelin in the system, and so he did by asking Santi Cazorla to sit in deeper alongside Coquelin. So good was Cazorla in this withdrawn role that Aaron Ramsey had to make do with a role wide right when he made his return from injury. His re-discovery of the role of the deep-lying playmaker was particularly fascinating and enjoyable to watch as he destroyed teams from deep, finishing the season with seven goals and 13 assists.

3. Alexis Sanchez as a no. 10?

Does anyone else remember a little period in November-December 2014 when Alexis was deployed behind the main striker, whether it was Danny Welbeck or Olivier Giroud? Well, according to statistics from whoscored.com, Sanchez made four appearances as a no. 10, scoring six goals. It’s also over this period that Sanchez received his highest whoscored.com rating of 8.91, scoring braces against Sunderland and Burnley and single strikes against Anderlecht and Swansea.

Most of Sanchez’ work in these matches came deeper in the middle third, dovetailing with Cazorla who featured primarily on the left over this period. This also meant he was heavily involved in possession for the Gunners. Take the game against Sunderland for instance, where he had 96 touches of the ball, had five attempts on goal and three on target, as well as making six tackles. He led all players in these categories, and was 2nd on the number of passes attempted (70) with an accuracy of 84.3%. Against Burnley, he scored twice, had seven attempts on goal and five on target, meaning he was the central figure in all that we mustered going forward. He also had 85 touches, the second-highest of all players. If anyone watched the Copa America final, Sanchez had a somewhat similar role when Chile faced Argentina in this game, sparking off a lot of attacks for Chile before making late runs into the box to get into a scoring position. This is perhaps what Mesut Ozil doesn’t do enough of? But that’s a discussion for another day.

As a purist, however, I did find one issue with Alexis figuring in this position. This can be best illustrated by his passing accuracy over these four matches. Against Sunderland it was 84.3%, but nowhere near as high in the three games since- 70.6% against Burnley, 72.6% against Anderlecht and 70.7% against Swansea. Retaining possession may not be everything, but I do find that my heart beats more calmly whenever we have the ball.

OF INTEREST THIS WEEK:

German international and hash tag King #Lukas #Podolski # #PrincePoldi has sealed his move to Turkish giants Galatasaray in a €2.5 million deal. The Gunners will, interestingly, also receive €500,000 every season that Galatasaray qualify for the UEFA Champions League, for the next three seasons.  Podolski will be earning €3 million annually at his new club, and Galatasaray do retain the option of extending his contract for one more year as per the permutations of the deal. The move will really come as no surprise to Arsenal fans as the acquisitions of Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez last summer relegated the German to the role of a bit-part player really. Podolski made just two starts (against Southampton in the Capital One Cup and away to Galatasaray in the Champions League) and 11 appearances off the bench over the past season, scoring thrice. He then moved to Inter Milan for the remainder of last season, where he managed just one goal and one assist to show for his efforts. I’m just glad that Arsene Wenger was real enough with him and agree on a move that was beneficial to all parties involved, not least for Podolski himself. And so, after a creditable 31 goals in 82 appearances in red and white, thank you for the memories and Godspeed Lukas. You swung your sledgehammer of a left foot against Montpellier, Bayern Munich and Galatasaray, and I shall never forget.

A rather more sentimental exit this past week saw the 10-year relationship between Abou Diaby and Arsenal come to an unfortunate end. While his undoubted abilities had seen him hailed as the club’s next Patrick Vieira and led to former France national team manager refer to him as the best midfielder France had in 2008, his 10 years at the club yielded only 180 appearances and just two appearances over the last two seasons. His atrocious injury record curtailed, for all we know, what might have been the moulding of the next Arsenal midfield great, and I can only imagine how devastating it must have been for the Frenchman.  Here’s to better times ahead. Finally, David Ospina has been in the press recently talking about his desire to see out his contract with the club. 

“Next season we’ll work next to an excellent keeper in Cech, who is recognized and admired, and I’d be honoured to share with him, he’s a player with great experience.”

Earlier last month Wojciech Szczesny was also in the media talking up the prospects of learning his trade as understudy to Petr Cech, and of course this poses a problem for the manager as we have to let either the Colombian or the Pole move on. Current reports point towards a move to either Fenerbahce or Everton for Ospina, and while Ospina seems ready to stay and fight it out for his position at Arsenal, he doesn’t seem to be totally averse to a move to Merseyside either.

“There are some possibilities of working on other teams, and I always look and analyze things…Everton are a competitive team, and showed good things in the league last season. It’s a club to consider and a great opportunity.”

Definitely a situation to keep an eye on. Till next week folks.

ARSENE WENGER; TACTICALLY SPEAKING (PART 1):

Greetings to you, and I trust you’ve all been well this past week. Many heartfelt thanks to everyone who took time out to read last week’s post, and for the positive feedback that received as well. I’ve had a rather unpleasant week that I would rather be left in the confines of history; therefore excuse the lack of a proper pre-amble…straight into the football.

As promised last week, this post will largely focus on Arsene Wenger and what I felt were five of his most key tactical wins over the 2014/2015 season.

1. Signings:

In what was arguably the first summer transfer window after which we were left with next to no complaints whatsoever, the manager brought in Alexis Sanchez, Calum Chambers, Danny Welbeck and David Ospina. The signing of a goalkeeper was necessitated by Lukasz Fabianski’s switch to Swansea on a free transfer, and we wasted little time in snapping up David Ospina from Nice after he starred for Colombia in the 2014 World Cup. It was tough going for the Colombian early on as he struggled with both injuries and lack of playing time, but once he got a crack at first-team action he took his chance with both hands as he benched Szczesny till the end of the season. Ospina out-performed the Pole in almost every statistic one can pull up: 8/18 clean sheets (3/17 for Szczesny), 0.61 goals conceded per match (1.24 for Szczesny), 3.18 saves per goal (1.4 for Szczesny), and the list goes on. Ospina was part of a much-improved Gunners back-line in 2015, and credit is due to him for it.

Danny Welbeck was a signing that perhaps split opinion. He’s quick, puts a good shift in, and can do a job out wide, but his goal return was poor (29 goals in 142 appearances for Manchester United). While his goal return is yet to reach the desired levels (8 in 33 last season), I feel he’s done nothing but improve our forward line. It was pretty evident that we needed an auxiliary centre forward to compliment Olivier Giroud after the 2013/2014 season, and Welbeck did exactly that for us. He, alongside Alexis Sanchez, also allowed Arsenal press higher up the pitch whenever we lost possession and improved our potency on the counter-attack due to his pace. Just a little more in front of goal Danny, that’s all we ask.

Calum Chambers was an interesting signing for me. I knew little of Chambers before he began deputizing for the then injured Nathaniel Clyne at right-back for Southampton last season, but what struck me the most even then was the ease which he showed when in possession. When he played in the Community Shield and subsequently in the league at centre-back, I was absolutely convinced his future was in the middle and not wide. He still looked as comfortable as ever in possession and solid enough without it, though the regularity with which he picked up bookings was particularly worrying (five yellow cards in his first five league appearances). His honeymoon sort of ended with that roasting by Jefferson Montero when Swansea beat us 2-1 at the Liberty Stadium, but he’s had a solid first season nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing more of him next season, perhaps at DM?

Alexis Sanchez. Haven’t we run out of superlatives to describe this guy already? Do you remember whom else they said that about? Thierry Henry. How many goals did King Henry score in his debut Arsenal season? 26. How many goals did Alexis score in his debut Arsenal season? 25. Arsenal’s 2^nd marquee signing after Mesut Ozil cost the club 32 million pounds, and 25 goals and 12 assists in 52 appearances later it was money well-spent. Over certain periods last season Arsenal were coasting simply on the brilliance of the effervescent Chilean, and he definitely deserved winning the Arsenal player-of-the-season award. In fact, my only regret was that he scored four braces but is yet to score a hat-trick for us.

 2. Loan Dealings, and the Signing of Gabriel Paulista in January:

Arsene Wenger also shipped a number of players out on loan for various reasons, and I feel he got each and every one of those loan moves spot on. Carl Jenkinson went to West Ham on a season-long loan where he established himself as the Hammers’ first-choice right-back, featuring in all but six league games and assisting two goals. In January, we moved the hashtag king Lukas Podolski to Inter Milan and he scored once in 18 appearances. Joel Campbell went to Villareal on loan and scored once in 16 appearances. Yaya Sanogo moved to Crystal Palace and scored once in 11 appearances. Meanwhile, Arsenal scored 55 goals in 2015.

The January transfer window also saw the signing of Gabriel Paulista from Villareal, another move which I felt was facilitated by injury troubles in defence, especially with Laurent Koscielny. The Brazilian centre-back has also acquitted himself well despite making only eight appearances, with a crazy 81% (17/21 aerial duels won) success rate in the air (Mertesacker’s was 70% and Koscielny was 56%). 

OF INTEREST THIS WEEK:

The club finally made the move official-Petr Cech has joined Arsenal on a “long-term” contract for an “undisclosed” fee. Hmmm. Anyway, having a living Premier League legend in goal excites me, and Cech is likely the closest we have come to replacing David Seaman. Which also got me thinking, when did we last make a signing of Cech’s caliber from a direct (ish) rival in the Premier League? Danny Welbeck was deemed “surplus to requirements” by Louis van Gaal, and before Welbeck it was Mikael Silvestre (remember him?) also from Manchester United in the 2008/2009 season. Before Silvestre came William Gallas in a swap deal with Chelsea for Ashley Cole in the 2006/2007 season. Meanwhile, we lost Ashley Cole, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie and Bacary Sagna to Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United over the same period. What point am I driving at here? It’s nice to see the roles reversed for a change! This is a signing that signals at least the beginning of a shift in the balance of power in England’s top flight, and hopefully Cech will win us the league this season so that we can really drive this point home.

Also, Chelsea have today confirmed the signing of striker Radamel Falcao on a season-long loan from AS Monaco. Did you know that 324 players across Europe’s top five leagues scored more goals than Falcao (4) last season? That’s 190 forwards, 122 midfielders and 12 defenders.

Right, onto a therapy of pizza and assorted junk foods this weekend for me. Keep an eye out for part 2 of this post next week!

Of Returns, the Season that was and Petr Cech

Hi. Hallo there. Hey! Did you lose weight? I know what you did last summer. I know you are probably wondering why I gathered you all here today.  Okay, so I didn’t exactly know how to start this blog post two years and seven months since my last post, so I decided to use up all my miserable one-liner attempts at small talk instead (see, this is why I don’t like cocktails and such). First off, here’s my most sincere of apologies to everyone, and especially to those who ever gave me positive feedback about the first six posts on this blog, for my hiatus. I will attempt to rebuild your faith in me once again. But on the bright side, I did not take a sabbatical like a certain football manager we all know; for a little while I began writing here, which was fun too. Oh and you might also wonder why I decided to make my return AFTER the season ended… “Isn’t that a bit like getting ketchup AFTER you already finished your fries Lloyd? Or taking a shower at the END of the day?” Let’s just say I’m limbering up ahead of August 2nd. But that’s enough with the boring stuff, time to talk football.
Let me begin by giving my two cents on a question I first heard (or read, rather) being discussed on Arseblog (and just in case Mr. Blogs or James or Tim Stillman somehow get to read this, I am a HUGE fan): “Was the 2014/2015 season better than the 2013/2014 season for Arsenal?” Well on the one hand we did finish the season with a lower points tally and a greater points difference between ourselves and the league winners. But on the other hand, we finished one place higher on the table, and we retained the FA Cup. And there’s the small matter of the acquisition of the Chilean dynamite that is Alexis Sanchez. I mean, Danny Welbeck, David Ospina, Gabriel Paulista-good job, you did great, but Sanchez! Then there was the unprecedented rise of Hector Bellerin and Francis Coquelin. From the obscurity of Charlton Athletic to being voted Arsenal’s second-best player over the past season, it’s been quite a story for the young Frenchman. Bellerin, meanwhile, took the league by speed, sorry storm, with the added bonus of becoming Arsenal’s fastest ever player.
We also owned Manchester this season! Well we beat City 2-0 at the Etihad and beat United 2-1 at Old Trafford on our way to retaining the Cup; and we generally avoided the heavy defeats that punctuated last season (5-1, 6-0, 6-3, 3-0). This was essential, not only for the immense psychological boost but for two other reasons. First, it represented a mental barrier, a hurdle that I feel it was critical for us to overcome. For a long time we lost the games against the big boys even before it started, and the naivety of “boys against men” was evident with every bad result. Before this win at Old Trafford, we last won there in 2007. Secondly, the manner in which these results were acquired was very much against the grain and not the “Arsenal way”. The 2-0 win over City for instance was the first occasion where many accepted that Coquelin was genuinely brilliant as a defensive juggernaut, and Cazorla put in a man-of-the-match performance in that deeper central role, displaying great dexterity and creativity when on the ball and proper positional discipline without it. We were defensively compact, disciplined and cautious when going forward, which nullified City’s attacking riches entirely. And that was one of the most beautiful performances I have ever watched Arsenal put in, even with about 32% of the possession. It is that sort of maturity that I wasn’t sure we were capable of having, and the tactical flexibility and mastery which we all thought Wenger was too stubborn to consider.
Another thing, I remember earlier in the season telling a good friend that for Arsenal to mount any title challenge we needed to go on a good run. And we did exactly that, winning seven matches in a row between March and April and going nine unbeaten before the 1-0 loss to Swansea. And they weren’t all pretty wins either; we beat Newcastle, QPR and Burnley by the odd goal for instance. Therefore, while I’m painfully cognizant of the fact that out title challenge fell away badly even before the turn of the year, all these factors put us in pretty good stead to get into the title picture next season don’t you think? A better squad, Alexis Sanchez, tactical flexibility, maturity, and consistency give me greater hope for what lies ahead. I don’t think we have ever been better placed to challenge for the title, and for this reason I say the 2014/2015 season was indeed better than the 2013/2014 season was.
OF INTEREST THIS WEEK…
Is that we are apparently this close to signing Petr Cech from that club in West London with the most annoying football personality of all time as their manager. According to this, the announcement should be forthcoming any time now. Rather than go on and on about how good Cech is, I’d prefer commenting on this article by Tim Stillman where he discusses the prospects of losing either Wojciech Szczesny or David Ospina. It does appear as this is one battle which the Colombian is set to lose, with his agent reportedly talking up links with Fenerbahce, but I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, Ospina has been solid if not truly outstanding, and has done little to vindicate us moving him on after one season. This is the point where I would normally pull up stats comparing the two, but this won’t be a fair reflection considering Ospina became our first choice after our New Year’s defeat at Southampton…about the same time Francis Coquelin became a the fabled DM we had been searching for all these years and played a huge role in our much-improved form in 2015. Coquelin came in, Cazorla sat deeper, we grew better both offensively and defensively, and Ospina essentially faced less goal attempts and had fewer “big chances” to save. I do, however, feel that Szczesny is (or will be) the better keeper of the duo even though I can’t really back this up with hard facts. What Szczesny showed over the course of the 2013/2014 season demonstrates the potential he has, and my decision on this matter is not influenced by this Facebook update in any way whatsoever. I am also trying to overlook the fact that Ospina is only 6 feet tall, which would be great for an outfield player but below average for a goalkeeper. How tall is Szczesny? Four inches taller. Bottom line is, if Messi or Ronaldo was made available to your team then you have to make space for the guy, so long as it improves the squad. This is the line of thought I feel Arsene Wenger is taking by acquiring Petr Cech, who is definitely world-class.
(UPDATE: Since writing this, I along with Arsenal fans from all over the world except South America woke up to rave reviews on Ospina’s performance against Argentina in last night’s Copa America quarter-final against Colombia. I’m still not changing my mind though).
Right, that’s it for this week. Next week we’ll get more tactical and technical as I look at exactly how impressed I was by Arsene Wenger last season, I certainly hope to catch your attention with that.

A Tale of Two Cities

Matchday 11 of the English Premier League saw a Tale of Two Cities being played out. Over in Manchester, league champions Manchester City-with their unbeaten home record at stake- rallied from a goal down to grab all three points with only two minutes to go. Even more ruthless were Manchester United, who at 2-0 down and playing away from home had it all to do. Come full time however, and Aston Villa were left reeling after a Chicharito hat-trick meant they left the Villa Park with all three points. Vintage United performance. We, unfortunately, find ourselves on the opposite end of the scale. 2-0 up and cruising after 23 minutes, you would expect a team of Arsenal’s caliber to simply see the game out. True to form however, we then proceeded to self-destruct and as a result Fulham almost pulled off a memorable win at the Emirates. Forget that Arteta missed a penalty late in stoppage time; we really should have been home dry by then. It was almost criminal the way we threw the three points, yet you could get the feeling that Arsenal fans have come to expect no less. Just as United fans know they will win regardless of the situation their team finds itself in. It’s just the stuff that champions are made of (pardon the cliché).

Now you definitely know that something is wrong when you spend the entirety of the game on the edge of your seat and with crossed fingers just hoping that the team doesn’t choke. And let’s be honest, this didn’t just start this weekend. It’s been more or less a recurring theme with the Arsenal in our last 7 trophy-less years. Our most recent final, the Carling Cup (now Capital One Cup) against Birmingham last year is a case in point. We change the players, but the result is still the same.

We seem to lack the tenacity to grind out results at times; we don’t approach games with the mentality that says “We’re winning this game no matter what”. Some might say its die to lack of a back-bone in the team; others might say it’s down to a lack of leadership but these are all old excuses really. The captaincy has changed almost every season but the same frailty still remains. The belief just isn’t there, and this needs to be addressed with urgency. A player lacking confidence is bad, but a team lacking confidence might be catastrophic. Now more than never does the team (and the fans) need a pick-me-up to get us going again. Like stringing together a run of consecutive wins for example, this would represent a record that the players would like to keep going. Or maybe a player stepping up and putting in performances that would make other players look up to him, a talisman in the mould of RvP last season. I do understand that these are solutions that have been tried and tested and have only had short-term success.

Therefore I looked to the beginning of the season, and at that time it looked like a certain Steve Bould had sorted this out once and for all. Our defence had gotten that air of invincibility again; we did not look like conceding at all and we were defending as a unit. The result was defensive solidity, and a short streak of good form. Things have, of course, gone horribly hay-wire since. One can only imagine then, that something has gone wrong at the top. The rumours of the apparent rift between Wenger and Bould strangely coincided with the team’s dip in form as well. Players aren’t playing for one another anymore, and an example of this would be how Podolski doesn’t defend as much as he used to before. Might it be that Bould isn’t being given room to exact his influence on the squad as much as he did before? Sadly, we can do no more than to speculate.

We miss our Arsenal, we want our Arsenal back Le Prof.

4-4-2 ANYONE?

Following our most recent debacle against Manchester United, our record in the last five Premier League matches looks something like this:

ARSENAL VS:	RESULT:	SCORERS:
Chelsea (h)	1-2	Gervinho
West Ham (a)	3-1	Giroud, Walcott, Cazorla
Norwich (a)	0-1	----
QPR (h)	1-0	Arteta
Man. United (a)	1-2	Cazorla

That’s 6 goals in the last 5, a return you would expect from a Stoke or Sunderland, but not us. Indeed United have scored 14 while Chelsea have scored 13 over the same period. It’s simply not good enough.

All I’m doing is highlighting an already obvious problem that we’ve all witnessed especially since the Norwich game; we have become the personification of the term “toothless”. Podolski hasn’t scored (or looked like scoring) since his free kick against Southampton, Giroud has only scored once, Gervinho has looked lethargic at best since Chelsea…the list goes on and on. Most have complained that our attack has gone limp, is one-paced and over-reliant on little Santi, which is all true really. Now the next obvious question would be what to do about this. Glad you asked. Well this writer would like to suggest a change of formation; a subject that has brought up mixed opinions of course but that I (and a few other bloggers) feel is worthy enough to have a look into. 

To be more specific, I think a change to having two strikers is needed now more than ever. It would also be beneficial to all parties involved; not least of all Theo who’s been playing (and finishing) more and more like a striker in recent weeks by the way. Another advantage is that it allows for squad rotation and “tinkering about, which when translated means everybody will be happy now. The flexibility of this formation is also a definite plus. I took the liberty of dreaming up a few possibilities and this is what I came up with:

4-3-1-2:

Possible line-up:

Szczesny

Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs

Diaby, Arteta, Wilshere

Cazorla

      Walcott, Giroud

I particularly like this formation because it gives us greater attacking quality and intent while still maintaining control in midfield. I’ve gone with Diaby and Wilshere in because they are both good tacklers and can complement each other going forward as well. Diaby’s great technique and dribbling ability make him a great box-to-box midfielder and Wilshere’s tenacity and hunger for the ball looks a good enough combination for me. Cazorla will be in his usual playmaker role, but this time with two targets up front in the form of Walcott and Giroud. While this formation looks to lack pace n midfield, Walcott will provide pace where it matters most, and with Giroud’s aerial ability their partnership is bound to flourish. 

Chamberlain, Gnabry or Ramsey could come on for either of the midfield three, while Podolski/Gervinho could come on for either striker.

A more attacking version of this would of course be the diamond (4-1-2-1-2) formation, where Diaby and Wilshere would simply be moved further up the pitch. Rosicky for Cazorla is also another option.

There are more variations of the 4-4-2, but this appeared to be the best in my humble opinion as it is most in line with our style of play. This also doesn’t have to be used as our starting formation; we could start with our conventional 4-3-3 but convert to the 4-3-1-2 when the going gets tough. Walcott down the middle would catch out tired legs, or even centre backs on yellow cards with his pace, while also benefiting from knock-downs from Giroud and/or one-twos with any of the midfield three.

Enough said, now over to you Le Prof.