First off, let me begin by saying I am more than satisfied that Arsenal are top of the league as it stands and I am actually very impressed because we have managed far better with the injuries that we've inevitably suffered than I thought. If you'd said to me after the Norwich game at the end of November that we'd win six matches from the next seven fixtures, including wins against Olympiakos away and City at home, I'd have snapped your hand off without any regret. But what is concerning me is the frequency of our midfield getting swamped by the opposition. The Flamini and Ramsey pivot was actually very effective against Manchester City, much to my surprise. In fact, this is the only match where I felt it worked well. But in some of the fixtures that we've won, it has got me worried for some of the future games that we have coming up, especially away from the Emirates. A common pattern emerged in yesterday's performance whereby Ramsey and Flamini were not close to each other on the field nor were they close to Newcastle's midfield. We allowed the likes of Colback, Tiote and Sissoko to have so much space and time on the ball, without putting any pressure on them to push them back. When they had the ball, we were defending too deep and they were passing it around freely because we weren't harrying them or making any real attempts to win the ball back. There was no reason to be so overtly cautious against a side who had previously had their midfield get schooled by the sparkling Darren Fletcher and Claudio Yacob. The subsequent effect of this was that they could carve us open in midfield because our players didn't foray forward at the right times and they weren't protecting the back four at the right times, so Newcastle had the pockets of space to manoeuvre in the middle of the park, leading to us looking very susceptible on the counter. This also happened against Sunderland where they were mightily unlucky to not have got something from the game and were in with a shout of getting something until injury-time. Against Villa, we were in cruise control after going 2 goals up. But even in the second-half of that match, we surrendered possession easily and were letting them create openings (not that they actually led to anything meaningful). The Southampton game was where we were ruthlessly punished for not being combative enough in midfield. The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think that the current Flamini-Ramsey pivot is dynamic enough to control teams such as Liverpool, Stoke, United, Everton or Spurs away from home. Yes we've been getting good results overall, but against sides of a higher calibre that have more intelligent and technically gifted players than the likes of Newcastle and Sunderland, it will certainly be a problem. We've done well so far, but there are far sterner tests to come in the next few months and the warning signs have been there for a while - we need reinforcements in our team. Obviously not 5-6 new players, but 2-3 for sure, especially with the setbacks that some of our players have had with injuries and potential outgoings because I can't see the likes of Debuchy, Arteta, Rosicky or Wilshere getting much, if any, game time for the rest of the season.
Agree this is a concern. Ramsey likes to get forward and Flamini can't shield the back four on his own. Hopefully the addition of Elneny will help to bolster the defensive duties in midfield.
I agree Brunel it is a worry, good points raised as well. We can only hope that either a) flamini shows his earlier energy and tenacity or b) one of Elneny or Chambers can step up - but it's a very steep learning curve! I think having Sanchez back will make a big difference, perhaps with Campbell on the other wing and Theo upfront for some games. This would give us far greater energy/work rate on the flanks which will help our centre midfield. I saw a stat on bbc's analysis of the Newcastle game - it said that oxo and Theo on the flanks had the poorest successful duels stats in the entire team, only winning around a third of their duels, for comparison Colback and Wijnaldum won 70% of theirs. This obviously didn't help either our central midfield or our fullbacks (who had their poorest games for awhile). But as Brunel says a big problem is Ramsey charging upfield all the time, hopefully against the more obvious threats of Liverpool and Everton he will stay back, as he did against citey
One of the things I notice about Coquelin's absence is that when our fullbacks push up the pitch, we don't really have anyone willing to take the responsibility to cover for them. Coquelin always used to do this when Bellerin/Monreal bombed up the pitch and it meant that we had an extra body at the back, thus reducing our chances of getting hit on the counter so easily. We really miss his maturity and doggedness in the middle of the park.
You make some very good points and I always thought that the biggest threat to us not being consistent would be coming from the middle of the park. The Flamini and Ramsey partnership seems to lack proper cohesion to protect our back 4. Smirnoff makes a good point of Sanchez's return will help things. But doing the simple things like keeping the middle of the park tight so that our unit is sufficiently protected, which Coqs did so well. What this highlights is the need for reinforcements in the middle of the park and getting in a tough DM/CM type player will make a difference, whether that is Elneny or someone else. In the meantime, the Flamini and Ramsey partnership needs to be more disciplined or alternative player(s) should be used in the interim.
Against City the whole team sat deep and Ramsey and Flamini had to focus on keeping there shape, sitting in the middle of the park and keeping things tight. Flamini was clearly directed to stick to Silva like glue, he didn't give him any breathing room which meant City never got in between our lines. The issue since then is we aren't playing games were we can just be defensive and hit the opposition on the counter. We've played some of the lesser teams who we expect to go out and attack which means a very different task in midfield. It means Ramsey and Flamini have to have the discipline to know when to go forward and when to sit back, also Flamini is not instructed to be sitting in the hole marking a dangerous opposition player. This results in more space in the middle and a lack of cover for the back four. In the more defensive games I think the Ramsey-Flamini combo can work well, but in the normal games were things are more open and fluid between defense and attack they get caught out positionally far too often. It's probably also worth noting Flaminis energy levels didn't seem the same yesterday as normal and I wonder if he was carrying a slight knock. Im not sure how to correct the issue though without changing around the players and we currently can't do that.
I would be worried if we were loosing these games. One thing we have seen repeatedly from Mourinho and Fergusons teams is the ability to win even when not at their best. We all know we can play better than we have been lately so if anything, I'm more optimistic than normal. Our form will improve.. if we can stay top in the meantime then we may well win the league.
