Rosicky's Our Man Again

So then, with four wins in a row and and 7 wins out of our last 9 in the Premier League, we are now the form team in the league; and it couldn't have come at a better time. Where in years past we were the team that always suffered a traditional late-season collapse (the reason we failed to win the 2007-08 Premier League title), now for two years running we've hit form in the latter stages of the season. This year it's especially important we continue: Champions League football hangs in the balance.

But exactly what is it that's contributed to our strong end-of-season form? First is necessity. Last season and this we've found ourselves at the end of January in 5th, needing to improve to be in the coveted top four. This necessity has brought out the best in the players again. So often when our backs are against the wall, and it seems all is lost, we produce moments of magic to save ourselves humiliation. It's all about the mentality, and when we need it, we always seem to find it. 

Second is experience. When Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri left in the summer of 2011, Le Boss was forced to go out and rebuild the squad quickly. He bought such players as Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta. Players with experience. Lucas Podolski and Santi Cazorla, bought last summer, have almost equal levels of experience. In addition, the remaining members of the squad have done some growing up of their own, Theo Walcott for example. The squad as a whole is now older and more experienced.

This experience often shows when the situation is grim and results are sorely needed. The "business end" of a season is when the contrast between inexperience and experience becomes clearer than ever. Lately, we've been producing when it matters, showing how far we have indeed come. 

One man has exemplified our squad's experience and consistently found form at the end of the season: Thomas Rosicky. Said Arsene Wenger after the victory at West Brom on Saturday, "He’s an important player for us...every year he gives us a little push at the end of the season. That is very important." Indeed he does.

I've always been a big fan of Rosicky. He truly deserves the nickname he earned whilst playing in Germany: Little Mozart. He dictates play, has the perfect touch, excellent vision, and once in a while even an eye for goal (remember this beauty? http://youtu.be/yUAr1Qagefs). He's a beauty to watch. 

Arsene Wenger expressed his hope that our number 7 will finish his career at Arsenal. I hope so too. While his fitness hasn't always been the best, when he is fit, he's deadly. And if he continues in his current form, he may, for the second season running, inspire us to reach the Champions League once again.

Is Rosicky worth the patience he's been shown over the last few years with his injury struggles? How much of a part will he really play in the run-in. Leave your thoughts below. 

Fab 4

Where To Go From Here?

The loss against Sp*rs Sunday hurt. It hurt pride, hurt confidence, and severely hurt our chances of being in next season's Champions League. So where do we go from here? What needs to improve, and what are the chances they will?

 

   

Honestly, every aspect of our play needs to improve if we're to accomplish our goal of being in the Champions League next season. With that in mind, let's break it down area-by-area.

 

Goalkeeping

I'm a fan of Wojciech Szczesny. I love the spirit and the attitude he has, and I love that he's a self-proclaimed gooner. But he hasn't been fantastic this season. His reflexes are good, and positioning's not bad. Even his distribution is usually pretty good. But if there are faults, they are in two areas. First, he lacks authority in the box. He doesn't warn his defenders enough of danger, doesn't call for the ball enough, and at times only punches the ball wildly away.

 

That's part of the second problem. His horrendous parrying of the ball has led to several conceded goals this season. When he punches the ball away, more often than not they fall straight to opposition attackers. And when a shot comes in on goal, Szczesny so often parries the ball straight into the follow-up attacking runner's path you'd think it was on purpose.

 

The guy is young. A lot of these problems are due to lack of experience and that will improve in the coming years. I believe he'll go on to be one of our greatest keepers. But that doesn't help in the short-term, in the run-in. His improvement must be more rapid.

 

Defence

Contrary to popular media opinion, our defence is actually not bad. Arsenal have conceded fewer goals than Spurs, only one more than Manchester United, and just two more than Chelsea. From a statistical point of view we're in good shape. Why then is all the focus still on how terrible our defence is? Perhaps it's because, while we're actually not conceding that many goals, the ones we do concede are due to obvious, sometimes high-profile individual or collective errors.

 

There's no doubt at least one of the two goals conceded at the weekend to Tottenham could have been prevented with greater discipline and defensive shape. That's the real problem. Our defence doesn't need to be constantly abused by supporters, but instead they should be supported. Many of the errors they are committing is due to a lack of confidence. Support from fans in matches helps greatly in restoring that confidence.

 

If we already statistically have one of the best defences I the league, imagine what can be accomplished these final few weeks of the season if confidence is restored and individual errors are minimized.

 

Midfield

In general, the midfield has been the best part of our team this season. As far as attacking talents, there are few better in the league than Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere. Arteta and even Rosicky have been excellent as well. And once upon a time Diaby even got bored of the treatment table and put in a solid shift or two.

 

If there's room for improvement it's just in the area of defensive cover. Ramsey and Arteta can honestly do the job fairly well, and have on occasion this season. But both players like to attack instead of defend. And if they defend too deeply then they're unable to help launch attacks. We may or may not need a midfield enforcer in there, but since that's not going to happen before the end of the season, Arteta and Ramsey need to step up.

 

Attack

This is where the real problem lies. We have just not been prolific enough in front of goal this season. Giroud hasn't been scoring as much as should be expected of him, Podolski, while excellent, disappears from games, and oddly has also been disappearing from Arsene Wenger's team selections. Walcott is good but not great. While it would've been a real shame to see him leave, he's still a better right winger than striker. Santi Cazorla has contributed goals from midfield, but the rest of the midfield hasn't followed suit.

 

I could go on about our lack of attacking prowess and ways in which it can improve, but that's a post for another day. Suffice it to say, Arsenal are an attacking team, and if we're not scoring goals, we won't be winning matches, simple as. Our defence is okay and midfield is decent, so if we're to reach those Champions League spaces, our attack must improve. If it does in the coming weeks, we may just nick 4th spot after all.

 

Fab 4

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