There\’s less tip-tap by Arsenal now, less of a five-a-side style, not so much passing for the sake of passing.
And it’s not the Cesc show any more.
Fabregas is a good goalscorer, and was already at the club, so Wenger changed the style to 4-3-3 to push Fabregas further forward and score more goals.
That was cheaper than buying another striker for big money and putting him on big wages.It’s always about costs, really.
Nowadays Walcott and van Persie are good mates and the team is winning most games. Gervinho is quick and unselfish and his final ball is better than his shooting.
Arteta and Ramsey are quite similar but Arteta\’s passing is more precise and his set-piece delivery is a valuable asset that will continue to be a valuable asset, while Ramsey has a bigger engine and is a more natural goalscorer.
Nasri can run long distances quickly with the ball and protect it very cleverly, so it\’s hard to tackle Nasri without fouling him. That\’s good when you\’re winning the game, or hanging on for a draw.
Like Fabregas, Nasri is creative, inventive, very resourceful, but his fancy tricks often slow the game down.
So Arsenal\’s current style, when compared to last season, is a like cartoon with all but the most crucial lines removed.
It\’s simplified but still effective and maybe more effective.
Van Persie is scoring more goals from crosses. Instead of always passing to Fabregas, Arsenal cross the ball and they now cross it far better than before.
If the crosses are more accurate, mor epenetrating, Van Persie can stay in the middle, refining his positional play. He’s not moving into positions to play balls to Fabregas or Nasri, although he does play Gervinho in behind the defence.
The 4-3-3 system functions well because the middle unit of Arteta, Song and Ramsey play well together, backing each other up if one of them loses the ball.
That\’s because there\’s a respect there, they realise that they need each other, it\’s more of a democracy than it was when the gifted Catalan was colonel of the regiment.
Last season, Fabregas didn\’t want to be there. But Song does want to be there and wants to do more than he did before, Ramsey really wants to be there because he lost a year to a broken leg, and Arteta wants to play for a bigger club in the Champions League, a competition he could never play in if he stayed at Everton.
While Gervinho is away in January, the team might get Wilshere back. But he\’s not a left winger.
Would Wenger switch to 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 in January?
I don\’t think so. He’s a very dogmatic, very schematic coach wants to play better in every game and he does that by constant practice, rehearsal and encouragement. I can’t see him changing the formula, unless he loses big players for a long periods.
Most interviews by footballers tell us nothing, which is why I never read them.
The last one I read with Xavi of Barcelona.
But the Wojciech Szczesny interview in The Sunday Times told us stuff
The gobby Pole has personality, ambition and bottle. Which we all knew anyway.
He said that after the 8-2 hammering at Manchester United,Wenger changed the way Arsenal train and decided to sign experience. He said, “We’ve had disappointments before but that game was the point where it got embarrassing. Looking back, I think it did us a favour because we realised we really had to work much harder, stick together and defend better.
“We always used to train as a whole team. When we did attacking it was as a whole team and defending was the same. Now we’re split into groups and the defence works separately, under Pat Rice. We know our jobs and communicate better.”
The keeper said they now man-mark at set-pieces !At last!
The defence trains separately? It only took 15 years.
We\’ve been telling him that year after year after year. Just as we have been saying the team needs some experienced players that the younger ones can learn from.
“The manager bought players who have brought back the spirit to the dressing room. I think when we went to Old Trafford, we didn’t actually believe we could win. Now, we’ve signed Arteta, Yossi , Mertesacker, who have played at the top for a long time and that’s made a difference.”
Hallelujah!
In sum: Arsenal\’s attacking style is less varied, less dependent on one player, but more efficient and direct. With better defensive organisation.
My guess is that Arsenal make fewer total passes in a match now than they did when Fabregas and Nasri played. Those virtuosos took turns to conduct the orchestra, so the music was rather more complicated.
Of course I have no stats to back up that comment. It’s not based on a proper analysis, it’s just a line off the top of my head, just my guess, my impression, my stab in the dark, something chucked out into cyberspace for discussion.
The team is different now. It has changed in personnel, in character, in style.
Instead of trying to doing some of the things that Fabregas and Nasri did, Van Persie plays in a narrower zone and concentrates more on scoring goals. That is working because more balls are coming to him. Many of them from wide positions.
Last season Fabregas was Arsenal’s best player and the main man.
This season Robin van Persie is the main man, the headline-maker, the danger-man. Myself, I thought he would miss Fabregas on and off the pitch, and that his game would suffer for the first months of this season.
Instead, RVP has improved, found more focus, more authority. He’s more of specialist now.
He does fewer things but scores more goals. Those goals mean more now because Vermaelen and Szczesny give Arsenal a much stronger spine than they had last season.
Van Persie has always been a goalscorer. But he\’s now become something slightly different. He\’s become the match-winner.
Yes, it\’s worrying that he\’s the only match-winner. A club as big Arsenal should have more than one match-winner.