For a long time now, one of the most talked about factors of the Arsenal team, often seen as a weakness but always a topic of debate, is the central midfield area. And more specifically, the most deep lying or defensive part of it. Now the club captain Mikel Arteta has had his own say on the matter.
Many of us still think that Arsene Wenger needs to sign a strong and energetic player to do the sort of job that our former captain Patrick Vieira did and the fact that the Frenchman led the invincibles to the Premier League title 10 years ago without losing a single game seems to support that theory.
Until the boss does go and sign someone like Sami Khedira or Morgan Schneiderlin, though, the Gunners have to find a way to succeed with what we have got. And that usually means playing either Mathieu Flamini or Arteta in the role, with either Aaron Ramsey or Jack Wilshere alongside them in a more box to box role.
But after Wenger played Arteta and Flamini together once again in the away win at Sunderland, the Spaniard told Arsenal Player that he feels good playing next to the Frenchman and even suggested that the tactic could benefit our best player at the moment, Alexis Sanchez.
Arteta said, “I felt really comfortable with [Flamini]. Last year we played some important games together and I think we understand each other well.
“We wanted to give a bit more freedom to Alexis, playing a bit behind Danny [Welbeck], more like a 4-4-2, which we haven’t played for a while. It worked – I think Alexis did very well today so we’re happy for him.”
Wenger has suggested that 4-4-2 might be an option for Arsenal again this season, especially when Olivier Giroud recovers from his tibia injury, while having our two most defensive midfielders might be an option to shore up the spine of the team and offer our makeshift back four more protection.
However, where does that leave Wilshere and Ramsey, two of our most creative and dynamic midfielders? Do you think the Arteta and Flamini pairing can be anything but an occasional option Gooners?
For sure they can work together. The question is how good they can work together and how effective ? Against Sunderland they closed almost everything down. I wonder how the game against Chelsea would have looked if these two would play together.
Dont get too excited . Sunderland were sh*te going forward. Worst in the league right now…so cant judge bybthat game
We have tried these two together in countless big games-it didnt work and it wont now.
BUY A DM IN JANUARY SCROOGE MCDUCK
Surely they can work together,
But in salsa ,.. not in football.. This is man’s game,.. We need a big bully in midfield like Carvalho or Khedira.
Putting Khedira and big bully in the same sentence invalidates your argument. Even Carvalho. If you want a big bully you think of Toure, Kondogbia, Gatuso, Makelele, Davids etc. These are pitbulls. Not Khedira or Carvalho.
OT: Mourinho is such a scoundrel. He thinks his team drew to man united because of the referee and that Chelsea’s only threat to the title are the referees.
Can someone smashing his head so that he’ll remember that foul on Sanchez by Cahill, Brainslave constantly pulling Sanchez’s shirt but escaping, and Fabregas’ handball. This guy is a disgrace to football.
I hate him even more now.
This will only infuriate the refs especially in the away games. Let him continue. Never interrupt the enemy when they make a mistake.
What do you expect from a douchebag !?!
*smash his head
Mourinhos a winner , he will just regenerate
You hate him bec you are jealous. The tackle was dirty but a yellow card was something which was expected, Cesc handbwall was outside the penalty area.
Kos, could have seen the red card, Welback aswell and Cahmbers too. This means 3 times we where spared from the ref to damage us even more then losing to Chelsea.
I’m not jealous. That is your presumption, plus your further analysis are rubbish.
watch the game a new, relax a bit and then come tllk again.
So you’re telling me Cahill’s challenge was only punishable by a yellow?
What i said was that a yellow card was not a surprise. The ref was very forgiven to both sides of the teams. Chelsea have beaten us fair and square to the 3 points.
Did I ever say the didn’t beat us fair and square?
Cahill should have been sent off and that was The first major blunder made by the referee. It would have been a game changer.
You did not, but i did say so. He should have, but he was not. We should have won but we did not.
@Ks… If the ref had sent off Cahill in the first place then our players would not have been infuriated like they were. They went in for those tackles because of Chelsea’s persistent sly niggly tackles… Ivanovic the master..
And had the ref sent off Cahill in the first place then there is no way our players would have gone on to make those frustrated tackles
As Budd said, of course they can work together but not that well.
I’d prefer Kondogbia/Ramsey, Kondogbia/Arteta, Kondogbia/Wilshire, Kondogbia/Rosicky and so on.
Two ageing players who only have the ability to sit back and be cautious, (side ways passing) is not ideal.
I doubt considering the game against sunderland as a point of references for the success. Let try them with the teams with lethal forward in the top four. All in all we still need a world class CDM and CB the most. Although we will always be behind our team.
Arteta and Flamini are both ageing, so not the solution, but a stopgap.
Khedira is injury prone and not getting any younger, so we need a decent younger DM….but I ain’t holding my breath!
Old Mr stubborn will make do with what we have as per usual.
One good DM will give more straight to d defence as well as reduce the stress of the CDM so he can push more up and less down to defend always…. Do away with both an get One top class DM and a young strong up coming DM as backup and long-term DM …Wenger out still goes on
Even a blind man know the taste of salt…its really a big shame wenger doesn’t know the Problem of Arsenal….Arsenal hav lacked DM for God knows how long now n Wenger can’t fix dat…WEnger out
A team with out a good DM is like a car without breaks and we all know the effect..6-0, 6-3, 8-2…………..fill in the blank space….Wenger out..
We can savour the the victory while it lasts.
As for me, I think Sunderland is not our match. They played with stage fright owing to previous 8-0 debacle in the hand of So’tton.
However, the victory is a confidence / morale booster.
Wouldnt even call it that.
Two errors forced by sanchez, hardly a resounding victory.
Every knows we are in a slump an have been all season an last season.
Flamini and Arteta allow us to play a 4-4-2. Against the top teams I would like to see something like:
_________Welbeck Giroud
___Sanchez Arteta Flamini Walcott
Gibbs Koscielny Mertesacker Debuchy
___________Szczesny
This team is very well balanced. There’s enough variation in attack to cause any defence problems.
Both are not good enough for arsenal so when they both play the overall quality of our team drops dramatically.
I wouldnt mind seeing either of them next to a top quality DM when we play the big boys or tough away games at places like southampton.
Hehehe, as far as i remember playing Arteta and Flamini in the same line up is suicide. Should have bought Song back, as he is cheap, can play the Arsenal way, and can do the things 2 players in Arteta and Flamini combined do.
You see, this is the problem right there…
Arteta talking about working with Flamini…
Arteta will soon get a contract extension… Why?
Mertesacker, who is basically “gone” and “dead on his feet” (if he was not before), already got a long term contract (just a glimpse of the future at Arsenal… Basically nothing to look forward ).
Some fans said Flamini had a “bad” game against the Belgians… Forgetting he had to cover the back four on his own, correct Mertesacker constant errors during the game and do “lazy useless” Wilshere defensive work. That’s a lot a for one man…!!
In the Newspapers here he was marked 4/10, but was scored 7/10,8/10 and 6,5/10 in Germany, Belgium and Italy respectively…
Anyway, we are again paying the manager failures during the transfer market.
Everybody in world football is telling him that a proper DM will seriously improve the squad, but he won’t do it… Just because, in fact, everybody is telling him to get a DM.
No point in naming some certain players. There is no player beside Sanchez who is currently performing well. A problem which should be adresed at Wenger.
We need the quality CDM and CB. No discussion ~ Arteta , Per and Flamin all are not good enough for Arsenal.
Wenger : sanchez need to gel with the team.
The team can’t keep up of the sanchez energy so wenger has to bench him to let him know that (spur match).
Guys stop praised sanchez if not Wenger will do some thing weird, to show the world that he is been in EPL, long enough to know what he is doing.
Sanchez should have been “la cerise sur le gateau”, “the ice on the cake” on top of a DM, a CB and a utility player… But the guy in charge, “the deluded one” thought he knew better, again…!!
I dont know, their styles of play compliment each other… flamini is aggressive and a strong tackler whilst arteta reads the game well and has a good eye for a pass… the combination could work. the only problem i have is their physical fitness, they are both too slow in my opinion, this added to their age means it is not really the solution for arsenal. Bring in schneiderlin and we will be in a good position…
Whenever we used them together in the midfield we lose some of our creativity, which was a problem last year, they did not get an opportunity to play against any of the big teams, would be interesting to use against Manu.
It would benefit the defense for the moment having two in front of it until we get back confidence around there and we would not have to worry about wilshere or ramsay covering back, which has been a problem.
The major problem last year we did not have any runners and we had a more stationary forward in Giroud, now we have a lot of pace in the squad it could be interesting.
I know there are issues with both Arteta and Flamini, they are not quick, or strong so we could think of using a Coquelin/Hayden to give us that extra strength and pace in that area
LmFao….. The Arteta – fLamini axis! ….. Arteta should learn to keep a low profile sometimes (cuz he’s way past it already) plus flamini Looks like he could kill a lion (but really he’s so harmless)
for me…there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of the two working together…CDM position needs physical presence, pace, power, charisma, high defensive work rate,timed tackling,high reaction which neither of them have. A good CDM has at least one of the above attributes i.e
diame-power,physical presence
tiote-power,physical presence
modric-reaction
montolivo-reaction
cabaye-reaction
fernandinho-defensive work rate,power,physical ,presence
fernando-power,physical presence
see? you need one modric/montolivo/cabaye type and another tiote/diame/fernandinho type in your double pivot.
of course they can work together…to deliver a 4th place finish..no thank you…. both should have gone in the pre-season…only wenger could beleive that they were in a position to match opposition….if we dont bring in a quality DFM in december that means spending 20m and up we will be lucky even to scrape 4th
wtf does he think of himself. No offence to them but both these players are absolute shit & won’t even make bench for any of the so called top epl sides.