Premier League: 4 Things Arsenal must do against Chelsea 

A new era was set to dawn upon Arsenal as they took on defending champions Manchester City in their first game in the 2018/19 Premier League season. Not only was it the first game where Arsenal played under new manager Unai Emery, it was also the first game Arsenal played without Arsene Wenger in the stands since August 1996. The French manager's 22- year reign over the club came to an end after a disappointing season where they finished 6th in the Premier League and got knocked out of the UEFA Europa League in the semi-finals.

The fans gathered in numbers at The Emirates. There was a feeling of positivity around the stadium and the fans were excited to see a new, fresh and revamped Arsenal. The fact that Arsenal also had a fairly successful pre-season excited the fans even more. Unai Emery propped up a few surprises before the game as well as during the game. The inclusion of 19-year-old midfield sensation Mattéo Guendouzi in the starting 11 as well as playing Aaron Ramsey in a more forward role were just a few of the many changes that were clearly visible compared to a side Arsene Wenger would field.

However, it didn't go as planned for the gunners as they suffered a 2-0 defeat. One could argue that Manchester City is not a fair judgment of things to come for the North London club as Manchester City are the defending champions with a team that looks almost unstoppable. Whereas, few Arsenal fans claim that the team needs time to adapt to the new ideology and that they will up and running in the next few games. The positive to take from the game is that the defeat wasn't as humiliating as the three defeats they suffered last season. But Arsenal fans would have surely loved at least a point from the game if not all three. So what went wrong for Arsenal? Here are five things that Arsenal must do in order to get the best possible result against Chelsea next week at Stamford Bridge.

#1 Leno and Torreira must start

Arsenal FC v Manchester City - Premier League

Arsenal had a fairly busy transfer window as they brought in five new players - Bernd Leno from Leverkusen, Sokratis Papasthatopoulus from Borussia Dortmund, Lucas Torreira from Sampodaria, Mattéo Guendouzi from FC Lorient and Stephan Lichsteiner from Juventus. This might be one of the last active transfer windows for the gunners as Stan Kroenke has taken over the club after buying Alisher Usmanov's shares of the club. Considering £557m of the funding was borrowed in the form of loans, it doesn't look like Arsenal will find its footing financially over the next few years.

Therefore, cheap and quick business will be key in modeling the club over the next few years and Unai Emery has seemed to do just that. By bringing in players for an individual transfer fee not more than £27m, he has cleverly answered the problems that the club faced and provided squad depth as well. But why did two of the marquee signings not feature in the first game of the Premier League? A possible reason is that Torreira had returned late from the World Cup after Uruguay reached the quarter-finals and didn't reach optimum fitness in time while starting Leno in a big match like Manchester City could surmount pressure on him and he could fail in his debut which would destroy his confidence (Claudio Bravo anyone?)

However, the two players have shown what they can do at both club level as well as international level. Torreira's performance against Portugal in the World Cup received plaudits from pundits around the world as he marked Cristiano Ronaldo and effectively kept him out of the game. His ten minutes against Manchester City were enough to get a preview of what the Uruguayan can do. He was not only defending and intercepting City's quick football but he also gave an excellent through ball to bring Aubameyang into the game, but the Gabon international was a few inches offside. Starting Torreira against Chelsea will allow Torreira to show his defensive skills as well as his ability to read the game well. He will be important in stopping the 'Sarriball' fast-paced football and starting attacks of our own with dangerous through-balls to the likes of Lacazette and Aubameyang. He could also be vital in marking Eden Hazard - Chelsea's most dangerous weapon. Bernd Leno, on the other hand, is a young promising goalkeeper. Cech has grown old and might well be past his prime now. This was evident in his ball distribution which was mostly short sideways passing and his slow sloppy play. He nearly kicked the ball into his own net on one occasion. Although Cech produced some world-class save, Bernd Leno should get the nod over him and assert his position as no.1 goalkeeper.

#2 Özil has to play centrally

Özil's creativity was hindered due to his position on Sunday. A central position allows him to control the game much better.

On Sunday, Arsenal seemed to be shaped in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 with Ramsey filling in the no.10 role whilst Özil and Mkhitaryan played as inverted wingers. This saw Mesut Özil continuously cutting in and roaming around the field to get the most of the ball. However, a disastrous performance followed. He made only two key passes throughout the game and had five bad touches. He barely created any chances and kept losing the ball. His continuous instinct to stay in the middle of the park didn't allow Arsenal to use the width whilst his duty to maintain position didn't allow him the freedom to express his creativity.

Mesut Özil has played at the central no.10 position before with great success. He has gotten an all-time high of assists in one season during the 2015/16 season where he played at that position. With the likes of Aubameyang and Lacazette in the team, a centrally placed Özil can continuously spray balls into the final third where the two strikers will be the most effective. Özil's creativity on the pitch is second to none, he can see through-balls that no one can even imagine. Playing in a central position allows Özil to control the game as well as put his creativity to complete use.

#3 Use some natural width up front

As I said before, Unai Emery played with two inverted wingers who don't usually play out wide. While Mkhitaryan still sticks to the sides of the pitch, Özil tends to rotate around the pitch to get as much of the ball as possible. This leaves a hole in the wide areas of the pitch. In order to make up for this lack of width, the two fullbacks push up to provide width. This, in turn, leaves Arsenal exposed at the back and prone to quick counters. WIth a team like Manchester City that can turn defense to offense in a blink, Arsenal failed to cope with the speed and was many a time caught on the counter.

The fullbacks already had their hands full with the likes of Raheem Sterling, Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker and Riyad Mahrez and going forward to provide width made their day even more tiring. The four players mentioned above exploited this and occasionally found themselves creating chances in the final third of the pitch. All this, due to the lack of natural wingers in the starting 11.

Arsenal desperately requires a winger who can use the width and continuously feed balls into the box. Pierre Emerick Aubameyang who seemed to fill the role of left winger once Lacazette came on could do the same for the entire duration of the game against Chelsea. The failed pursuit of Ousmane Dembele could also see the youth such as Reiss Nelson and Alex Iwobi step up and stake their claim as serious wingers of the team. Deploying wingers will allow Arsenal to play a more spread out game compared to the compact game they were forced to play on Sunday

#4 Aubameyang and Lacazette need to play together

The duo can produce moments of magic together. With a change in formation for Chelsea, the two can easily exploit the flaws and weakness of

centre-back

David Luiz who has looked uncomfortable in a back four.

Many Arsenal fans were excited at the prospects of Lacazette and Aubameyang finally starting together under the new manager. However, Unai Emery decided to play Aubameyang and start Lacazette on the bench. However, when Lacazette came on in the 55th minute, he changed the game towards Arsenal's favor. Arsenal played with a higher tempo and a more precise and successful movement. They attacked with intent and Lacazette was in the middle of them all.

Furthermore, keeping two clinical strikers up top allows more flexibility and easy rotation amongst the two. This can also lead to using decoy runs by one of the two to shift the opposition's attention. Imagine this, Lacazette drifting wide and attracting the fullback as well as the center-back of the opposite team. Whilst this goes on, Aubameyang makes a piercing diagonal run into the box free of markers. The pace of the two strikers can see the partnership thrive on counters. With clever one-twos and a quick passing game, Aubameyang and Lacazette will find themselves in front of the face of goal plenty of times. As they are two strikers who have a high conversion rate, this can lead to great success for the gunners.