Mr Arsenal Blog's tactics weekly. 

6th October

Welcome back to my weekly tactical review of The Arsenal's premier league games. Apologies for there not being a blog last week, but I had many things to sort out and simply didn't have time. Apologies. Well, what a great comeback that was by the boys this afternoon. We started the game so brightly, created many many chances to score the 1-0 we didn't take them, however we were looking very threatening and very sharp indeed. However which ever way you look at it, we were not clinical enough at all, were hit with the "sucker punch", and we were punished. This is something that we must improve on, because it seems to happen far far too much, and it could cost us at some point the victory, luckily today we pulled through. In the end we won the game (3-1), which is excellent, but what were the key tactical points we can analyse from this game? Why did we win the game? Why were we put under pressure at certain times? Was there a tactical experiment on the part of Arsene Wenger at the end there? I will discuss these things now.

First things first we have to talk about the issues that Andy Carroll caused our defence throughout the game, How should this have been dealt with? Well for a number of years Arsenal have often been vulnerable to teams who play with a big strong, physical centre forward who looks to get on the end of long balls into the penalty box. This was the case today. As soon I saw the Hammers' team sheet today, it was clear that this was going to happen, as often as possible, to really subject our defence to pressure in behind, especially between the centre half's and the goal keeper. Sure enough for lots of the game, West Ham bombarded the box with balls for Carroll to either attack himself and shoot, or, lay it off to the likes of Kevin Nolan in that "second striker" role, or Diame e.t.c, whipped it from the wide areas through Vaz Te or Matty Jarvis. The way Arsenal dealt with this was going to be key to the way in which this result panned out! As it happened we were sceptical in dealing with him at times, but overall despite the fact that he did cause us lots of problems I think we did deal with him reasonably well. He is the sort of striker that will always cause problems for any defence. But I do think we could've worked harder in the centre of midfield to really hassle and harry West Ham to stop them having the space and time required to launch those balls into the box, and at times we were guilty of allowing too much space for Carroll to get into good attacking positions for his team. But I was pleased with how we always fought for the second ball at the back.

One thing that a team must do in terms of their defensive organisation is to communicate constantly and create and maintain, a flat back 4. For lots of this season we have been disciplined and strong off the ball. However there was that moment today where Kevin Nolan was played through by his team mate in behind the back 4, was clean through on goal, and would surely have scored, were it not for a great tackle by the big man, Per Mertesacker at the back for us. The reason why I mention this in this review, is because of the way in which he was played onside by Carl Jenkinson on the right hand side. This could have been a really big moment, and could really have cost us, thus it's something that we have got to be mindful of in future weeks and months, in the games ahead. The back 4 must stay disciplined, and not switch off and allow people in behind them, onside, like we did with Nolan today, and probably should have gone 2 1 down. That clearly would have changed the game completely!

Another interesting tactical point from this game, arose from a substitution that The Boss made after we got to 3-1 in the lead. He took our winger Lukas Podolski and brought on the centre half Laurent Koscielney. Thus we went to a 3 at the back system and it also seemed that Walcott went to a more central striker role. I found this very interesting indeed, and I believe that whilst this was clearly intended to really close out the game, which is not something we see often from The Gunners in the Arsene Wenger era. However in addition to this I believe that Arsene may have been "tinkering" a little bit, and perhaps experimenting with a new tactical idea. What would this mean for the team? Well if we say that it was 3-2-3-2 kind of shape with, 3 centre backs 2 wing backs 3 midfielders and 2 strikers, what could this mean for the side? Well firstly obviously on the face of it would allow us to play 2 strikers which is something that we have not done for some time. This could be good, at it would also allow us to play Theo up there alongside another stronger striker. This is something City have tried as well as the likes of Italy and Juventus in particular as well. I don't like this shape however, as I believe that it leaves you very vulnerable in the wide areas, both offensively and defensively, think it can leave you very narrow in attack and then defensively I believe you could get caught out easily and get outnumbered. Will be interesting to see whether or not Arsene does ever use this shape!!

However on today's game overall (as you can see with the picture below, we dominated the game created many many chances and deserved the win. I believe that the three goals that we did score were of a great quality. It is a pleasing win, especially when you consider that on the whole we dealt with their arial and physical threat, and in the way players like Santi moved the ball around was fantastic. Hope we can continue to get wins at tough away grounds.

Now leaves me to discuss my man of the match and my man of the month for September. Man of the match today for me Santi Cazorla. This player just epitomises what is great about Spanish football right now, and he isn't even guaranteed to play for them, which is quite a thought! But today he once again showed his incredible balance, technique, vision, awareness, skill. Put simply the boy has got it, whatever "it" is, he has it! He can do everything, and I am so excited he is playing for The Gunners, and I hope that people up and down the land, and around the world begin to acknowledge just how good this lad is. He is TOP TOP class. Some of the passes he has made and the vision he has shown, for example his pass through to Giroud today, have been incredible. Such a great player!

My player of the month for September, easily could be Santi because as I said he has been fantastic for us really all season. But it is in fact Carl Jenkinson. I think he has been absolutely exceptional all season so far, and his improvement on last season is just staggering quite frankly. Against Man City he was outstanding, against Chelsea last week despite the fact that we lost he was exceptional. His work rate is great, he is extremely athletic, and defensively he has improved immensely. He doesn't lunge into tackles and get manipulated as maybe he did last season, and all in all he has been great for us. When Sagna is fit and ready for the first team, the boss is going to have a real headache to decide who to play at RB. To be honest on the evidence of the season so far, I would play Jenkinson, I think he has been nothing short of outstanding.

Now we have the international break, and after which we have Norwich away, where hopefully we will play well again and get a good 3 points.

Thanks for reading, and GOODBYE!!

UP THE ARSENAL!!!

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