What's Missing?

Fantastic win today, no doubt about it. If nothing else, the best bit was that we won three much-needed points, and rebounded a bit from the home loss to Bayern Munich midweek. Still though, despite the win, there's still something missing. Something fundamental. The tactical difference between this season and seasons past. What is it? It's something we've lost, something we we've long been renowned for.

It's our passing style of play,

Watching Arsenal play as of late, it's clear we've been very good the second half of games, when three points are on the line, when it's important. The second half of games we've been increasing the tempo, accuracy, and quality of our passing. Then we score a goal. Then confidence returns. We pass even faster, more accurately, with more flair. We score more goals.

Arsenal under Arsene Wenger are a passing side. We've been known as a club who play some of the most beautiful football in Europe. But when our passing fails, everything else follows suit.

Confidence is what enables the team to play at its best, and right now confidence is low. What effect has this lack of confidence had on the team? What has it done to our playing style to make it less effective?

The major difference is in our passing. Right now, our passing is frustratingly slow. I've noticed this more and more in the last few months, and it only seems to be getting worse. It's especially slow at the start of games: the reason we haven't been starting games well. The quality of our passing is low, passes aren't accurate, what passing happens ends up being sideways or backwards, and there's a lack of creativity.

Is the lack of creativity and speed of passing because of individual player skill? No. It's because of a lack of movement and understanding among players. Have you watched this Arsenal team at the start of matches. The stroll up and down the pitch, nobody moves, nobody seems to want to make a run into space to be open for a pass. They simply stand their waiting for the ball to come to them. Then when they get the ball and everyone else is doing the same thing, there are no passing options. This leads to errant passes as the players try speculative or unlikely passes, forced by the lack of movement.

When we're confident, the running off the ball is there, and the players are able to use their inherent creativity to find team-mates. Only a few seasons ago we did this very well. See this video below for an example. It's from a 2007 game against Tottenham. The passing isn't awe-inspiring or unordinary, and it doesn't lead to a goal. But it's fascinating to see the style and quality of our passing, especially compared to how we play now. Watch the movement off the ball, the quickness of the passing, and the confidence we exhibited.

Notice the difference between then and now? Look at the overlapping runs, the constant movement off the ball, and the accuracy of the passing. We're just not doing that anymore. We have the players to pull it off. Rosicky's still here, Santi Cazorla can do that, Diaby knows how, it'd be easy for Wilshere, and even Podolski, Giroud, and Walcott could pull it off. When we're confident, we can do it (look at the Cazorla goal against West Ham, which featured a wonderful passing buildup.) When we're not, we don't.

Confidence is key. Arsene Wenger knows it, and he's been trying to get it from the players. They're simply not responding as well as they could. What to do then? New players tend to help, winning important matches helps, but there's one way that we as supporters can contribute.

Support the players. Don't jeer or boo them off the pitch. Be vocal in our support, sing the players' names, be the twelfth man. Lift the side rather than bemoan the fact the players don't have that confidence already. We can do that, can't we?

I'm just as unhappy as the next supporter about our current run of form and the way the season has gone. And we have every right to be unhappy. But if we just throw our support behind the team, let them we know we have confidence in them, it just might make the difference.

Confidence will return. And results will follow.

 

Has Our Winning Streak Begun?

With the 1-0 win up at Sunderland on Saturday, we have now have a 4-1-0 record the last five matches. And none of the games have been particularly easy victories. Are we on the cusp of a large winning run?

In seasons past, there has seemingly always been one section of the season, usually lasting two or three months, where we show the world the Arsenal team we wish we always were. Win after win, we climb the table, reinforce our place among Europe's elite, and justify Arsene Wenger's management philosophy.

Last season we had two such winning runs resulting first in a meteoric rise up the table from 17th to 5th, and then a rise from 5th to 3rd, solidifying our place in the Champions League. In previous seasons the winning streak often propelled us to 1st place for weeks at a time, leading many to believe we could be a serious title threat. All before our season will fall apart in the Spring.

With Arsene saying a few weeks ago that we can no longer afford to lose any more matches, it seems as though the team have taken this to heart. Since the comments were made, we indeed haven't lost. Our wins haven't been easy or against weak opposition either. Our last two 1-0 wins were against teams who, at the start of the season, we couldn't beat.

What's the difference? Why could we only manage 0-0 draws against these teams before, and now we've been able to win instead? Much has to do with momentum and confidence. Most teams are this way to a certain extent, but it seems like Arsenal are especially confidence driven. Wins build upon wins, and as confidence grows, so does our points tally. But one bad loss or one massive disappointment can shatter that confidence and end whatever streak of victories we may be on.

It's not a positive attribute of the team that we're so confidence-driven, but seeing as we are, it's important to ride the momentum and achieve what we can while we're in the streak. Here then is the real question: how do we maintain momentum despite a major setback?

One key may be experience. Whereas we used to be known as the youngest side in the Premier League, our average age almost always lower than every other team, Wenger has now opted to end the youth experiment and once again blend youth with experience. Will it pay dividends? It hasn't yet, but that is more than likely down to players' unfamiliarity with each other this season.

But it seems as though the players are finally starting to settle in, get accustomed to each other's playing style, and work together better as a unit. Cazorla, Giroud, and Podolski are getting used to playing with their team-mates. Monreal will follow. Wishere has adapted to his new peers. Walcott has grown tremendously and is now linking up better with others.

The team are growing together, and it's perhaps starting to finally pay off. Has our customary wining streak begun? With Bayern Munich around the corner and Tottenham still winning matches ahead of us, I certainly hope so.

3 Questions Needing Answers

As we enter February, having just waded into the second half of the season, our goals and ambitions have changed quite a bit from what we had envisioned only 6 months ago. As the season began, it seemed we would honestly be a force to be reckoned with.

At the time I wondered, was this side like the 2007-08 side who, when Thierry Henry departed, began to be closer together than ever before, started producing week-in and week-out, and mounted a serious challenge for the Premier League title? In fact, had the Eduardo incident and F.A. Cup defeat not happened so close to one another to break confidence and momentum, we may well have won honours that season.

Now here we were, 5 years later, and it looked as though history could repeat itself. Our captain and talisman had again departed, a few new signings were brought in, and in the early weeks of the season it looked as though once again we could regroup and challenge for the title.

And then it all fell apart.

Week after week it became evident that we are not at that same level. Our defence is shoddy, attack less-potent than it should be, and the spirit and determination needed to consistently perform is not there. So if we are to turn around our season and achieve our new goals, that of finishing in the top 4 in the league and possibly making a strong push for the F.A. Cup and Champions League, some questions must be answered.

1. Will our defence hold up? Needless to say it hasn't been excellent. Overall our defensive shape has been much improved this season, and Steve Bould deserves some credit for that. Something seen this season that was never really done before is that we now defend in two banks of four, which rotate and shift depending on the side of the pitch the ball is on. This shape is much harder for opposition attackers to break through than the sort of haphazard man-for-man defending that was the norm before.

Why then the continual leaked goals? Other than individual errors, which we are committing statistically more of than any other Premiership team this season, there are two tactical reasons for this.

First of all, our defensive shape doesn't always hold. When the opposition counterattacks we don't build our defensive walls of players fast enough. We have wingers such as Walcott and Podolski, who are by nature strikers. They are excellent in attack, but do not track back and defend as a traditional winger might do. This, and the fact that our defenders themselves are often pulled out of position joining in the attack, means that unless the opposing team are building their attack slowly, we're about as solid as melted butter.

Second, the times we've been most effective at defending and winning the ball back have been when we're pressing high up the pitch, allowing opposing players very little space, making them far more likely to commit individual errors. When we get lazy or tired and don't press as high or with as much intensity as normal, the opposition's players find far more space in which to work. With that space, coupled with the fact that failed high pressing means our defensive shape isn't there, they are far more likely to score, and have done far more frequently than we would like.

Strengthening our defence is certainly necessary, but the only way this was addressed during the January transfer window was to bring in a left back. Which leads to...

2. Was the signing of Nacho Monreal actually good for the team? And will it help? The man's a decent player, and while his first appearance for us at the weekend was a bit of a nervy, unpolished one, there were signs of good things to come. His crossing was good, he liked to join in the attack, and his defending wasn't bad. He was a solid signing and should have no problems continuing to slot in and adapt quickly.

But what about Gibbs? Sure, our young English left back has been injured and out of action for a few spells this season, including now (which is why Monreal's signing was expedited), but when he has played, he's been one of our outstanding players. Perhaps the best-performing defender we've had this season. Now he has genuine competition, and I can't help but feel as though the Monreal signing could seriously stunt his growth and development as a top player. I hope I'm wrong.

3. Can we be more consistent? That's key, and one of our biggest problems this season. We can be breathtakingly good, and embarrassingly bad, sometimes within the same game (e.g. Liverpool at home.) We've been starting matches slowly and going behind often. But then we've also sometimes been brilliant.

In the last few season, the average points total needed to reach the top four in the league has been 71 points. In order to reach that total, we would need to earn 30 out of the 39 remaining available. That's only two losses more we can afford - if we don't draw any games. Clearly, there's not much room for error. Arsene Wenger has admitted as much, most recently after our 1-0 victory over Stoke:

"I said before the West Ham game and the Liverpool game that we are in a  position where we can't drop points. We dropped points against Liverpool but we couldn't do it again today."

Consistency will be key to obtaining the points we need. Can we overcome seemingly psychological inability to be consistent? I certainly hope so.

We can make it to the top four this season, and maybe even mount a serious challenge for the F.A. Cup or Champions League. But our problems must be addressed and those questions answered. In the coming weeks, we'll find out if they will be.

Fab 4