For Arsene Wenger, central midfield rotation is key to success in 2013/14

Arsene Wenger is not a manager who is very keen on juggling squads (Getty Images)

I hope the above thought process makes a degree of sense and it is all relevant based only on the premise that Wenger will rotate more this season as I have proved he has in the past. This is certainly dependent on there being 6 or 7 players at Top 4 Premier League/International level and not 3 or 4 as we have seen in the past 6/7 years.

One final thought/suggestion and your thoughts on this would be interesting. Our short bit of historical research throws up another possible dynamic for me. We know that Petit had famously never played in midfield before he joined Arsenal and within a season he has won a domestic double and the World Cup as a DM. We know have been reminded that in 2001 and 2002 after he left quite often Wenger’s go to holding midfielder was Gilles Grimandi, also signed having played his whole career as a centre-back. So what?

Well we have 5 top class players in my opinion in Rosicky, Cazorla, Wilshere, Ramsey and Arteta, none of whom is an out and out defensive midfielder in the sense that many supporters want. We also have two international centre-backs in top form and an international and experienced right-back playing centrally as if he had played there all his life.

On top of this we are being linked with Toby Alderwerield who can play at centre-back or right back, as well as Ashley Williams still. Does this potentially create an opening for our skipper Thomas Vermaelen to operate in front of the back four as a genuinely defensive midfielder? Given the fact that Wenger has done this so successfully with Petri and Grimandi and according to Vermaelen wanted to do it with him, is this such an outlandish suggestion?

It was fascinating doing this research and it sent me in a direction I was not expecting. Suffice to say, I am of the belief that we need one truly top class central midfield addition to be able to rotate effectively without the performance level of the team dropping. It may be Cabaye but it just could be TV5!

Lastly for those who scream for superstar individuals please remember it is a team game and it is the chemistry of the collective in the engine room that will determine if we challenge not necessarily the stellar name. If you don’t believe this I will leave you with the 2001/02 double winning midfield once more and then give you the midfield they beat to the title, winning it in their own Manchester back yard.

Arsenal CM 2001/02 – Vieira, Parlour, Grimandi, van Bronckhurst and Edu

Manchester United CM 2001/02 – Keane, Scholes, Veron, Butt and Beckham

I rest my case.