In front of the onlooking Monsieur Henry, Arsene got the perfect present to celebrate his thirteen years in charge last weekend. Fat Sam’s lot were swept aside by a fantastic display of attacking football, as Arsenal twice came from behind to demolish sorry Blackburn. Six different scorers again summed up Arsenal’s season so far; a great team effort with the outstanding Cesc Fabregas at the very heart of their play.
As the games go by, Wenger is fine-tuning his new Barcelona-based formation to suit the players at his disposal from one week to the next, and with more bodies returning from injury, the team stepped up another gear. Here’s some analysis of the demolition…
True Flair on Both Wings
With Tomas Rosicky starting on the right flank and Andrei Arshavin on the left, Arsenal looked the real deal. Whereas the likes of Eboue, Bendtner or Eduardo have played these high, wide positions previously this season, Sunday saw how fluid they can be with the correct type of player in these critical attacking areas.
The ability and movement of both wide players in the front three was shown by how they were able to continually swap flanks against Blackburn without Arsenal losing any attacking potency, as this chalkboard illustrates.
Having players with such intelligence and an appreciation of space can bring out the best in Fabregas, too; both Rosicky and Arshavin often drifted inside, not only linking with Cesc, but allowing him the license to continue bombing forward.
As an example, this chalkboard comparison of Rosicky’s display high, wide right versus Bendtner’s in the recent Man City defeat illuminates the big Dane’s limitations in the role, whereas the little Czech wizard pops up all over the field, stretching the play and giving the team’s shape more flexibility.
The introduction of Theo Walcott to this Premiership campaign at the weekend and the continued rehabilitation of Rosicky will afford Arsene licence to really get the best out of this system. Of Arsenal’s 24 attempts on goal against Blackburn, a fantastic 16 were on target, a sign that they are really starting to click. Rosicky, at 6.9 in the FPL, is as comfortable in the role as Arshavin, and if (big if, I know) he can stay fit, will surely prove great value for money.
Diaby More Defensive
With Denilson out injured for a month or two, Abou Diaby has the chance to stake a claim for a starting berth sitting alongside Alexandre Song. In the club’s previous 2 Premiership home games this season, he’s played further forward, but being moved deeper not only suited the team as a whole (freeing Fabregas to join up with the front three) it allowed Diaby much more involvement in the game.
This chalkboard, showing his one-on-ones in the last 2 home games, illustrates his dynamism. Not only did he have more than double the amount of tackles against Blackburn than he did versus Wigan, the area on the pitch where he made them was far more expansive; from his own penalty area right to the start of his opponent’s defensive third of the pitch.
This chalkboard is an illustration of Diaby’s passing in both games. As with the tackles, he made twice the number of passes against Blackburn, and saw the ball in a lot more areas of the pitch. Similar in stature to Patrick Viera but not in calibre, Diaby has perhaps suffered as a consequence of any comparisons. Whereas Viera excelled in the middle of a 4-4-2, perhaps being one of the “2” in this 4-2-1-3 system is the position that suits him best.
Cesc Higher in the Middle
To get the very best out of the little Spanish maestro, the balance around him has to be spot-on, and the above examples allowed him to thrill us all with a performance of the highest quality.
This chalkboard is a comparison of Fabregas’ passing in Arsenal’s last two home games. At the weekend, more of his play was right in the heart of the final third of the pitch, giving him license to really hurt his opponents, with that outstanding haul of four assists and one goal a return for his endeavours.
This chalkboard illustrates his shooting potential when played slightly higher in the centre, too. A single shot against Wigan, but six attempts on goal at the weekend in addition to the passing performance shows why Wenger sees him essentially as a Platini-type player.
In what was one of the strangest and most frustrating FPL weeks in recent memory, this outstanding Arsenal performance reminded us all just why we came to love football in the first place. Sunday’s exhibition truly was “The Beautiful Game” indeed.