What sort of team does Arsene Wenger want Arsenal to be?

Arsenal’s season has been an unqualified failure and they have proven their critics right with unerring accuracy. Back to back FA Cup successes, the arrival of established stars in the transfer market and some encouraging results against the ‘bigger’ sides in 2015 seemed to suggest this current incarnation was free of some of the characteristics that plagued previous Arsenal sides. Perhaps more than any other club, there is a whole tapestry of stereotypes and loaded vocabulary used in discussions of Arsenal; some of them justified but others heavily embellished.

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One such piece of accepted wisdom is that Arsene Wenger is tactically ‘inflexible’. He sticks too rigidly to a premeditated style of play, refusing to adapt to the strengths of his opponents or to change in the face of bad results. The famous Albert Einstein quotation that insanity is ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’ is often hurled in his direction.

This season, however, Arsenal’s main problem has been the exact opposite; they do not have a clear playing identity and their style of play looks muddled. The two teams above them, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur, play more or less the same players, in the same system, against all of their opponents, be it home or away. Arsenal meanwhile, seem to be in a constant state of flux and caught between two stylistic stools. Regular watchers of Arsenal this season will have been forced to ask themselves this question: what sort of team does Arsene Wenger want Arsenal to be?

It’s been a peculiar season in all sorts of respects. The narrative that Arsenal were going swimmingly until February and then collapsed needs addressing. In truth, quite a few morbid symptoms were present at Arsenal from the outset. The early season defeats to West Ham United, Olympiakos, Dinamo Zagreb and Sheffield Wednesday were bad signs. There was a purple patch of around six weeks in early autumn with victories over Manchester United,
Everton and Bayern Munich as well as 3-0 away victories at Swansea City and Watford. Their form from New Year onwards has been extensively documented.

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Those early losses adumbrated a problem that would dog Arsenal throughout their campaign; their inability to break down deep-lying defences. Newcastle United have scored more goals at home in the Premier League than Arsenal, which is an astonishing state of affairs. Recent dropped points at home to Crystal Palace, Swansea City and Southampton were examples of this problem.

During the early ‘Emirates years’, Arsenal were a fabulously creative team with a style of play that marked them apart from any other Premier League side. Cesc Fabregas, Alex Hleb, Tomas Rosicky and later Samir Nasri, Andrey Arshavin and Jack Wilshere were the essential cogs in this system. Robin Van Persie, though a striker, was a very technical forward who contributed to this refined aesthetic.

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Arsenal had a style of play that focused heavily on monopolising possession, probing patiently in front of defences before finding gaps with quick combination play around the box. They lacked ruthlessness in front of goal at times and possessed a glass chin, but there was an obvious plan towards which Arsene Wenger was aiming.

Those who do not watch Arsenal that regularly (and I include TV pundits on this charge sheet) often express the mistaken view that Arsenal still play like this. Put simply, they do not. With the exception of Mesut Özil, this Arsenal team is bereft of creativity especially with Wilshere and Santi Cazorla long-term absentees through injury. Arsenal’s ‘front six’ is now typically filled with dynamic, mobile ‘impact’ players; capable of providing incision in the final third but without much in the way of guile. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez fall into this category.  Francis Coquelin, though operating in a more defensive zone, echoes this ‘bull in a china shop’ style.

Those aforementioned players offer some of the athleticism and directness which the ‘Fabregas era’ Arsenal lacked, but the balance has shifted too far in this direction. That is if Arsene Wenger’s actually wants to keep playing a possession based game.

When Arsene Wenger has adjusted this outlook in favour of a strategy that incorporates counter-attacking and focuses on ‘transitions’, Arsenal have looked a coherent side. Think back to their two league wins over Manchester City in 2015, the 3-0 win over Manchester United in October, their decent displays against Barcelona this season or their performance at White Hart Lane in March. In all of those games, Arsenal appeared to approach the game with a clear game plan which involved a nod of respect to the opposition and an acknowledgement that a lot of their own play would have to be on the counter.

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In other games, usually against the ‘lesser’ likes, Arsene Wenger seems to return to default; a tactic somewhere along the lines of ‘keep the ball as much as you can and eventually we’ll score.’ Unfortunately, that philosophy just does not cut the mustard anymore. An article about Everton two weeks ago on this site discussed how dominating possession does not win you as many games as it used to. Sunday’s game against Crystal Palace was a perfect example.

Had that game been played in 2010, Arsenal would have played in a similar fashion; controlling possession without creating a great deal before Palace wilted late on resulting in a 1 or 2-0 home win. Arsenal won countless games like this in the dying embers, slowly grinding opponents down. In fact, they have scored the more stoppage time goals than any team in Premier League history. Late winners and equalisers at the Emirates have been a far rarer occurrence in the last few seasons, a testament to the improved organisation and fitness levels of teams across the division.

Arsene Wenger, should he stay on, must make a decision as to whether to use the tactics he has adopted against the ‘bigger’ sides gainst every opposition. He appears willing to do this over short periods of time but then reverts back to type. The alternative, playing a possession-based game with patient build up in front of opposition defences, requires investment into the market because at present he does not have the players to sing to that tune.

In summary, Arsenal have a squad filled with players who suit playing on the counter-attack but are coached by a manager who will only play in such a fashion on certain occasions. The result is a messy synthesis of two styles. Arsene Wenger has added more variety and pace to his attack in recent years at the expense of technical security and creativity. Arsenal have since had some better results against the ‘better’ teams when there is both motive and opportunity to play on the counter, but now seem to struggle against more modest teams when they have a lot of possession. For all the talk of ‘Groundhog Day’, it is remarkable how Arsenal keep finding new ways to fall short. Their stylistic conundrum this season is just the latest.

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