Arsenal’s new arrival’s Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan seemed to slot seamlessly into the team against Everton, and as Arsene Wenger said “they looked like they’ve played for us for years”. The setup with those two and Ozil (and Ramsey!) made us into an irresistible attacking force which was shown by us racing into a four-goal lead over the Toffees before half-time.
Arsene was duly impressed after the game, and thought that Mkhitaryan linked up as well with Ozil as the German did with Alexis. “They look like they can play together,” Wenger said. “We had before this, Mesut and Sanchez, they had a privileged understanding but we can be creative, we can be mobile. Our game is based on that.
“In the first half we were quick, mobile, technically very sharp and we finished very well as well. Overall, the two new players integrated well into our game and they looked as if they had played for us forever.
“Our challenge, I think, is to find the balance. We are a very offensive team, we want to play that kind of football, but we have to find the balance between attacking and defending and that will certainly be our challenge between now and the end of the season.”
It is a bit of a misnomer to say we want to be an attacking team but need to sort out our defence. If our strike force can pin back our opponents in their half and score hundreds of goals, then why should we try to persuade them to go back and help the defence at all times. We should just accept we are going to let in a few goals with such an ageing (or inexperienced) defensive line-up, buut just make sure we score more than them.
As they say, attack is the best form of defence, no?
Sam P