Kevin Whitcher
The forthcoming Premier League season is already shaping up to be a fascinating one, principally because of the character managerial names that will be facing one another at the bigger clubs, and those who we are already familiar with whose reputations have been enhanced by their debut seasons in 2015-16. The Online Soccer Betting has Manchester City under Pep Guardiola as favourites, with Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United second favourites, and presumably based on last season, Arsenal marginally shorter odds than Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. Add in the fact that Spurs should, in theory, be even stronger, Jurgen Klopp will have had an opportunity to impart his ideas in a pre-season and buy in players he wants, Everton are enjoying new found wealth and trying to spend it under Ronald Koeman, Slaven Bilic taking West Ham to a new stadium and there is a lot to capture the imagination. For what it’s worth, my view is that Chelsea are pretty generous odds for the title, given they have no European distraction and a manager who I suspect will have similar impact to Mourinho’s debut season in the Premier League. Most of his players won the league only 14 months ago before effectively going on strike to get shot of the manager.
So what of Arsenal? The Euros have given us food for thought with the form displayed by Ozil, Giroud, Koscielny and Ramsey, whilst Alexis Sanchez’ Chile retained the Copa America. Conclusion: Wenger has some pretty decent players to work with, but he isn’t getting the best out of them.
France played a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1 depending on how you want to look at the roles of Griezmann and Payet. And yet, how often did Griezmann go central and play off Giroud? He was certainly a lot more advanced than Payet a lot of the time, and sometimes, it felt more like we were watching a 4-4-2 line-up.
Let’s for the moment, imagine that the stories of a Higuain – Giroud swap deal have no substance and picture Arsenal having to try and make do with the players they have. It’s not something anyone really wants to contemplate, but assuming Atletico are not going to sell Griezmann any time soon, solutions may be possible in-house at London Colney.
Is Alexis Sanchez such a different player from Griezmann really? He’s played up front for Chile with a strike partner, and could fulfil the role of the pacey more mobile front man playing off Giroud.
How then, to accommodate Ramsey and Ozil? Both want to play a central attacking role. Ramsey had less defensive responsibility in the Welsh side and played to support Bale and either of Sam Vokes or Hal Robson-Kanu. He was effectively playing the position Ozil occupies at Arsenal. It’s a tricky one. In a 4-4-2 it could work if, let's say Granit Xhaka and Coquelin were both played to allow the full backs to advance and provide the side with width. That would allow both Ozil and Ramsey (nominally one on each flank) to float around the midfield and cause havoc, although it does place a huge amount of reliance on the full backs, and Xhaka and Coquelin would have to work hard to cover them. An alternative solution might be to play three at the back with wing backs, and not start Coquelin. This would place a huge onus on Xhaka to play a Gilberto-style role, but at least one of the back three would be able to cover a break on the flank. Ramsey can be tigerish, but his positional discipline might need some improvement to stop his side getting over-run in midfield with such a system. Additionally, a centre back (or two) needs to be purchased, depending on whether or not Mertesacker would be able to hold down a place in a system that can ask a lot of the central defenders in terms of covering the a larger area of the pitch.
It’s a quandary for the manager. How to get the best out of his attacking players. He has changed the formation of his side before. Getting rid of three at the back in 1997, and then playing Cesc Fabregas as an advanced midfielder behind a front two in 2009 - a formation designed to get the best out of the Spaniard - and these days, a lone frontman supported by two wide attackers.
As it stands, I suspect his preferred starting eleven would be: Cech – Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal – Cazorla, Xhaka – Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez – Giroud. In reality, I believe he would choose to improve on Gabriel and Giroud if he could strike the right deal in the transfer window, and we can’t yet say whether Cazorla can be as influential back in the position where he established a good partnership with Francis Coquelin. There is an argument to play Coquelin and Xhaka and drop Cazorla, especially if he does not invest in a more dominating centre back than Gabriel (let's forget the fading force that is Mertesacker, who is likely to become next season’s Arteta figure in the dressing room).
Arsene Wenger has three quarters of a very decent team, but it needs strengthening and he needs to come to a solution of how to get the best out the players he has. If he can respond on both these counts, Arsenal have a chance of actually being in next season’s title race. We watch and wait.
