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Unai Emery, the Spanish manager of Arsenal, was appointed by the club with a lot of expectations at the beginning of the ongoing football season. He was supposed to usher in a new era at Arsenal after Arsene Wenger’s 22-year-old reign. However, he has not succeeded in his endeavour yet, as Arsenal find themselves reeling at the 6th position in the league table and lost very badly against Manchester United in the FA Cup too.
Quite naturally, Arsenal’s supporters are not pleased at all and would have expected better performances under their new manager. They have also signed some new players like Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira, but the onus is still on Emery to deliver. Arsenal suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester City last Sunday, and have been overtaken by Manchester United in the league table now.
In this list, we'll take a look at 3 things Emery can do in order to revive Arsenal’s fortunes.
#1 Playing a high defensive line at times
Arsenal do not have a particularly young defence, as most of their defenders like Laurent Koscielny, Stephan Lichsteiner and Nacho Monreal are on the wrong side of 30. They have been able to keep only 4 clean sheets in 25 matches in the league so far and conceded 36 goals. Moreover, they suffered a 5-1 defeat against Liverpool, which underlined their defensive frailties.
It is quite understandable that Emery would have to rethink his team’s defensive strategies. He needs to recognise that his ageing defenders will find it difficult to indulge in penalty-box tussles with younger forwards from the opposition teams.
Therefore, they should try playing a high line at times, and try to play the opposition forwards offside. It would take some discipline and practice on their part but could prove to be a very useful tactic in countering the offensive threat of the big teams.
#2 Adding width to the attack
Arsenal have played a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2 in most of the matches this season with Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick-Aubemeyang as the two forwards, but their attack has lacked width most of the times. Alex Iwobi has struggled to adjust tactically to the team’s formation and has not been able to provide much impetus to the attack.
Emery’s questionable personal equations with Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey have made things worse, as those two could have solved their problems in attack. Ozil has the ability to veer towards the wing and deliver crosses. Ramsey, too, is capable of stretching the opposition defenders wide.
Arsenal probably played their best football of the season in their 4-2 win over Tottenham in November, and they had sufficient width in their attack in that match. Torreira and Ramsey repeatedly ventured into the flanks to win balls and deliver crucial passes to the forwards in that match. However, Torreira has been bogged down by the defensive duties in most of the matches since then, and Ramsey has mostly played as a substitute only.
Emery could think of addressing this issue by readjusting his team’s formation somewhat. Maybe he should play Aubemeyang as a wide midfielder and Lacazette as the lone forward in a 4-5-1 formation.
#3 Signing a young striker who could be used as a substitute
Arsenal have been lacking a proper back-up striker in their line-up, who could be used as a substitute for either of their regular forwards. Denis Suarez has been signed from Barcelona recently, but he is not a typical striker and more of a winger rather.
Most of the big teams in the Premier League have a back-up striker in their squad; Liverpool have Daniel Sturridge, Chelsea have Olivier Giroud, Manchester United have Romelu Lukaku, and Manchester City have Gabriel Jesus, all of whom regularly come in as substitutes.
Arsenal would do well to sign a young striker, who can be used as a substitute to trouble the tiring opposition defenders with his fresh legs. Both Aubemeyang and Lacazette have performed reasonably well for the Gunners this season with 18 and 11 goals respectively, but they need a good back-up in big matches. For example, Arsenal could go for a young and energetic striker like Rodrigo of Valencia or Mauro Icardi of Inter Milan.
