Things are suddenly looking rosy for Arsenal fans. The Gunners thrashed an abject West Ham United 5-1 on Saturday night to move up to second place in the Premier League. But, has that win only papered over the cracks that Arsenal have in their squad? They did deserve the win, but how much of that was down to their own brilliance and how much of that was down to West Ham being abject?
Last week, Arsene Wenger fielded a much-changed squad in the EFL Cup quarterfinal against Southampton. The result was a disaster. The Gunners went out of the cup, losing 2-0 at home.
Also read: UEFA Champions League 2016/17: Basel 1-4 Arsenal - 5 talking points
Arsenal’s first eleven is among the best in the league, maybe in Europe too. The duo of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have carried Arsenal’s attack on their shoulders. Chelsea legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink recently called Alexis as good as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
That is not the only positive in the squad for Arsenal. Arsenal have conceded the third-fewest goals in the league so far, behind Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. The signing of Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia has helped immensely in that regard, with the German and Laurent Koscielny forming a formidable partnership at the heart of Arsenal’s defence.
Here are the options that Arsenal have in the different positions.
Goalkeepers: Petr Cech, David Ospina, Emiliano Martinez
Right-Backs: Hector Bellerin, Mathieu Debuchy, Carl Jenkinson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Centre-Backs: Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny, Rob Holding, Gabriel Paulista
Left-Backs: Nacho Monreal, Kieran Gibbs
Central Midfielders: Mohammad Elneny, Granit Xhaka, Francis Coquelin, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla
Attacking/wide Midfielders: Mesut Ozil, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Alex Iwobi
Strikers: Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud, Lucas Perez, Danny Welbeck
Out of those strikers, only Alexis and Giroud have seen a semblance of game time this season. Perez started last week against Southampton and disappointed although he did find form in the Champions League game against Basel, netting a hat-trick. Welbeck is ruled out for large parts of the remainder of the current campaign.
Giroud has had a reasonably weird season and has not started a single game in the league. In Arsenal’s 14 league games this season, the Frenchman has played only 130 minutes. He played 21 minutes against Sunderland and 17 minutes against Manchester United, scoring two late goals against the Black Cats and the equaliser against the Red Devils. Those three are his only league goals this season. He has one other goal in the Champions League, having started two games.
But clearly, Giroud is not a striker that suits Arsenal’s style of pass and move. He is clearly Wenger’s Plan B if things aren’t going his way. To suit Giroud’s strengths, Arsenal need to play the ball to their wide players and pump the ball into the box. Neither Theo Walcott nor Oxlade-Chamberlain nor any of Arsenal’s other designated wide players are the traditional kind of winger who cross the ball at every attempt.
Over-reliance on Ozil and Sanchez
So, Wenger has been forced to play Alexis in the striker role. The Chilean has done the job so far, but Wenger is only a Sanchez-injury away from an absolute crisis. The Chilean has 13 goals and five assists for Arsenal. The Gunners have scored 47 goals this season and Sanchez has been directly involved in 18 of those – basically one in every 2.5 Arsenal goals has Sanchez directly involved, either scoring it or creating it.
You add Ozil to that list and there are seven more goals. Ozil has eight goals and four assists but five of those goals had Sanchez on the other end. So, basically, either Ozil or Sanchez has been directly involved in 25 of the Gunners’ 47 goals this season.
They need more contributions from the likes of Walcott, Iwobi and Oxlade-Chamberlain. Walcott had a flying start to the season, but his form has fallen recently. Since October 22nd, Walcott has scored only one goal – in their 3-1 victory over Bournemouth last weekend.
Chamberlain has scored 5 goals this season, with two of them coming in the EFL Cup 4th round win over Reading. Iwobi and Perez have not yet scored this season.
Arsenal have the numbers in attack, but squad depth is not just about the numbers. There is the small question of quality too. It is safe to say Arsenal don’t have anywhere near the quality required to replace Sanchez or Ozil, should either of them miss out through injuries.
Solid midfield but lack of depth at the back
The midfield is one area where they look solid, with enough options as cover. Francis Coquelin and Granit Xhaka have recently grown to be Wenger’s preferred duo in midfield. The Egyptian, Elneny showed a lot of promise initially, but even his form has tapered off. Ramsey has time and again shown his class, not least at Euro 2016. But he is just recovering from an ankle injury and finding his way back.
But possibly Wenger’s biggest concern is the defence. Per Mertesacker has not played a game this season and they look very suspect especially at right-back, with Hector Bellerin missing. Carl Jenkinson’s performance against Southampton last week must have proved to Wenger that he is not the answer.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles impressed on that day after he came on for Jenkinson, but the youngster is still a few steps away from being Premier League quality. Gabriel has played there recently and not done his reputation any harm, but without Bellerin, that spot is a huge concern.
But that may just be because of what Bellerin adds to the team. His sheer pace is obviously terrifying for oppositions, but that is not the only facet to his game. His decision-making, the timing of his runs, his conviction in whatever he does on the pitch make Arsenal look a lot more convincing.
Obviously, Mustafi and Koscielny have been miserly, but both Rob Holding and Mertesacker don’t look like they can fill in there, at least in the period heading up to Christmas and the New Year. That is the period when the fixtures come thick and fast and squad rotation might be a necessity. From tonight until the 7th of January, Arsenal play seven games and it is highly naive to expect the same team to play every one of those games.
So, Arsenal do have among the best first XIs in the league. But in terms of back-up, are they good enough? The answer possibly is that they have the numbers in terms of depth but the quality might leave something to be desired.
For Arsene Wenger, it will be crucial to pick up silverware this season and for that to happen, he needs his entire squad to stand up and be counted. It is all good that Sanchez and Ozil are playing as well as they are but the fringe players have got to step up a notch and ensure that their star duo get adequate rest heading into the business end of the season.
If that does happen, there is no reason why Arsenal cannot be fighting to achieve big things this season. But the problem is, that is a HUGE IF.
