So where has it all gone wrong? Four points out of the last fifteen is simply not good enough for a team in hunt of the Premier League title. Despite defeating AC Milan in the San Siro and becoming the first English team to do so in the process Arsenal’s form has been ropey since their demolition at the hands of United in the F.A Cup in February.
Quite simply, Arsenal’s young talented squad seem to have lost their belief, they will come back stronger for it, but for this season it’s too late. That, in addition to Eduardo’s horrific injury against Birmingham seems to have taken the wind out of the Gunner’s sales.
So how has such a talented squad not been able to turn it around? Arsenal have recently been criticised repeatedly for not being able to put opposition away, they try to walk the ball into the net time and time again, and don’t actually get there. At the start of this season things were different, Adebayor’s aerial ability meant goals that Arsenal didn’t usually score, but they have dried up of late as Adebayor has received ever closer attention from opposition defences.
The most interesting case of Arsenal failing to produce came against Middlesbrough recently. At the final whistle Arsenal had barely snatched a draw through a last minute header, yet they came off the pitch with 85% of the possession for the entire match. For no less than 77 minutes of that match the ball was in Arsenal’s possession and yet they still only managed a draw.
So what went wrong? Repeatedly Middlesbrough found themselves so compressed that their midfield line was set just outside the area, with their defensive line just inside the area. No team in the world is going to play through nine players in just twenty yards of pitch. It took some heroic tackling and some great blocks, but there simply was no way of playing through that mass of bodies.
The problem with Arsenal is almost that the football they play is too good. Their midfielders and full backs are so adept at keeping the ball, at passing at moving in the middle of the pitch that they end up compressing the opposition before them. Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, all go back to their centre backs, resort to playing long balls forward from time to time, and increasingly hit on the counter with pace. Arsenal do not, by keeping the ball in midfield for such long periods the opposition are forced to drop deeper and deeper and, as in the case of the Middlesbrough match, there is no way through.
So is this good football? Well, not really, good football is winning football. When Arsenal are at their best they are sublime, cutting teams apart with intricacy and pace, but they need to strike from deeper or the space they need to play disappears. Technically they are brilliant, probably the best, but a lot of technique is in the mind, and you have to be willing to nip past players and take some fouls to play Arsenal’s type of football and subconsciously at least, I would imagine Arsenal’s players are a lot less willing to do that now than at the start of the season.
Next season Arsenal will be back and stronger, I don’t think that they will win the Champions League, Chelsea loom in the event of Wenger’s men defeating Liverpool, and a final against Barcelona or Manchester United would have Arsenal as second favourites. They do play brilliant football, but they desperately need a ‘plan B’ and the ability to go to it.
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