Arsenal playing football as we know they can and actually managed to do against Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday can be a thing of beauty. We have also shown some real spirit and defensive strength at times this season, but the question is how Arsene Wenger can make sure that his players produce these performances on a regular basis to give Arsenal any chance pf competing for the Premier League title?
When it clicks and you have the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in full flow but also functioning as parts of a well oiled machine, the Gunners have the ability to breach any defence and with a strong defensive line and midfield players who can control a game, there are the ingredients in north London to make a title winning team.
The squad also has strength in depth but you could say all this has been the case for years without Arsenal ever really getting close to being crowned champions, because there have always been games or even long periods when the Gunners have not produced anything like their best.
It seems to me that complacency and lack of focus regularly creep in and the boss must find a way to combat it. Perhaps strong competition for places in the first team will help and if it was me I would every now and then pull out a video of a game like Watford to remind the players what can happen if they slack off and make them recall how bad those times feel.
Do you think Arsenal can find the consistency we need to go with our current form?
Bob.
Get some one who is very much better than Ozil. Then release Sancez. Arsenal will be better without the duos.
If again we cannot win, get rid of Wenger. Then lure Jose to replace him. I am sure the winning mentality of our new manager will make our premiership dream come true. horray!!!
Yes we can!
I agree with the sentiment of the article but would like to point out that we haven’t really had quality and quantity until this season. Even now, we are still a couple of quality players away from genuinely being title contenders/title winners. For example, if we had Van Dijk and Vidal in the squad, you’d genuinely expect us to be title winners or within a few points. At this point, our squad is far behind Cities, who balanced so well over the summer with several quality fullbacks cb keeper etc.
Thought we should have got Vidal couple of years ago but would still do. Type of technical and aggressive CM we really need to stand up against teams imposing themselves on us…
Especially if this could convince Sanchez to stay!
And the funny thing is Vidal would have cost us less than 35M Xhaka who can’t defend to save his life.
When you watch The Arsenal you can see that we are more consistent than you think. Our pattern of play is to camp in the opposition half and leave two players defending slightly wide. This means that we leave big gaps behind the midfield and are very susceptible to the hopeful punt forward (as witnessed last night).
How we do depends on the opposition. Those with a good defense just close down space in front of us and break quickly and we lose. The lesser teams cannot do this. It has been the same for ten years. Mr Wenger is incapable of plugging the gaps.
Until we address our defensive shape we will be the same.
Hairdryer treatment a la Alex Ferguson. That would help.