It has often been said of Arsene Wenger that the Arsenal boss is either too stubborn or too confident in his team’s abilities to worry too much about how the opposing team will set up. That or the accusation that he has no plan B if things go wrong.
But do you really think that the prof could have achieved the success he has and continued to steer the Gunners into and then out of the Champions League group stages every year if he did not do any tactical planning before facing each team? Maybe his tactics are often quite similar, but I am sure that he will have done his homework on what to expect from Swansea City, especially as the Welsh club have a decent record against us.
Wenger has already spoken to Arsenal Player about one of Swansea’s danger men, Gylfi Sigurdsson, and he is well aware that Arsenal need to keep their play maker quiet, which sounds like a job for Mathieu Flamini to me. But that is not all we need to worry about.
Swansea have great pace in wide areas and in Wilfried Bony they have a pwerful and in form striker. Stopping crosses is sure to be a major part of our plans, while maybe the extra physical presence of Chambers would be better than Monreal in the middle. In Gibbs and Bellerin we have two very quick full backs but they must be disciplined.
Apart from that, Wenger has suggested that Arsenal need to stick to our usual game. If we can dominate the ball without being too adventurous, the likes of Welbeck and Alexis should be able to claim all three points.