Arsenal travel to the Etihad Stadium tomorrow, where Man City seem to have taken attacking football to a new level. With Pep Guardiola’s policy of making sure they score more than their opponents is certainly working, with 20 goals scored in their last 4 home games (and only conceding 2), which is an amazing stat no matter how you look at it.
So how can Arsene Wenger come up with the answer to counter Pep’s tactics? It appears that he has decided that the old adage of “attack is the best form of defence” is the way forward. This is what Le Prof said: “I wouldn’t like to come out on [our approach] but of course we will try to play our game. We will not hide,”
“When we go there, we want to defend well but you cannot go there and only be focused on just defending. We want as well to play, have the ball and create dangerous situations. The best way to defend sometimes is to attack.
“When you want to play football, you have to accept the risk and you have to play. If you want to play football, when you walk out on the pitch you have to accept the gamble and the risk. It is part of the game.
“After, you have to rate the risk. Is it a bigger risk only to defend than to attack if a team is very strong in attack? Maybe it is a bigger risk only to defend.”
He is right of course, any team that sits back against an attacking force like City is bound to be punished. Arsenal need to be at their best, holding on to the ball when they get the chance and then unleash our speedy wing-backs and strikers to surprise the City defence. I don’t care if City score 4 goals as long as we score 6!
Sam P