Like the universal truism, which I’ve mentioned here severally, you learn more about a team in defeat. Monday night’s reverse at Old Trafford was our seventh of a season that hasn’t yet reached halfway mark. Five of those coming in the league, while the two others came in the Champions League.
In all those defeats, the underlying common thread has been our inability to win, or find our way back into games whenever we concede first. Only at Anfield on the first Sunday of the league season, did we manage to save something from a game after conceding first.
We saw it in evidence again Monday night at Old Trafford.
Another thing to emerge from all those defeats has been an inability to use a weapon that served us well last season. That weapon has been, wearing down teams and grabbing late goals when the opposition becomes ragged and fatigued.
We scored a whopping 55% of our goals in all 53 games played last season in the last 15 minutes of matches. Due to our superior passing skills and ability to hold onto the ball for long stretches during matches, we were quite able to make opponents chase the ball for long periods in games and eventually tire them out. Wearied and out of breath, we then upped the tempo and pounced in the last few minutes to nick goals that often proved crucial and game-defining.
This tactic was personified by none other than Theo Walcott, who was always kept on the bench to be introduced in latter stages, when he then used his speed to further stretch teams and create openings for us.
It is a tactic that Wenger has stubbornly stuck to once more this season. But not one that has worked wonders so far. The percentage of late goals has become a trickle and infact almost dried up as we have been found out and opponents have allowed us to do what we know best – keeping the ball and passing it around. If they couldn’t get it off us, they at least sat back and conserved their energy for the last-minute onslaught they know will always follow from our end.
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| Chamakh and Nasri...our two most consistent goleadors |
With all respect to Wenger, he hasn’t displayed good enough judgement in repeatedly sticking to this tactic. A good coach he is and in many respects, a great one actually.
But unlike his peers such as Sir Alex and the pompous Jose Mourinho, he often displays an inability to adjust his tactics and deploy men and mental material as games unfold. People like Mourinho and sometimes Rafael Benitez have been known to switch tactics and formations up to five times in 90 minutes. It all depends on what is happening on the pitch and which of the two teams is on top.
Wenger, instead, the stubborn and obdurate man that he is hardly ever reacts to games in such drastic manner. Anyone familiar with the way Arsenal plays knows that the man never starts substitutions before the 70th minute mark; players in form are never dropped regardless of who the opposition is; Andrei Arshavin will always be plonked on the left flank despite the fact that most of his good work for us has been through the middle. Yes, such a rigid policy ensures stability and continuity but in the big, key games like against Man Utd last Monday night, a bit of variety would always give us a surprise edge that could catch the opposing manager on a wrong foot for at least the first few minutes of the game.
What for God’s sake is wrong in starting Walcott and making full use of his speed and running abilities? There can’t be anything wrong at all with leaving Marouane Chamakh on the bench and deploying him later in the game to change things if needed.
Variety and change are potent weapons, if utilized sensibly.
In this case, such variety is needed if we are to get anything out of this season at a time when it is still within reach. I dread to mention the premier league title in reference to us now after watching the way and manner we have been expectedly turned over by the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd; and unexpectedly by the likes of West Brom, Braga and Newcastle!
So far, this team looks good enough for success only in the Carling Cup. The FA Cup would be a sweet, if somewhat surprise addition. But the league and the Champions League are different matters altogether.
So, to aim for that elusive silverware, which keeps looking more and more like the Carling version it is pertinent at this stage to rest Chamakh.
He has looked knackered in the last one month and if the truth be told, he ought to be. After starting the season and his Arsenal career like a runaway train, those early exertions look to have taken their toll. Since that double salvo against Wolves at Molineux on November 10, he has managed two goals in eight games, with those strikes coming against Tottenham and Aston Villa.
In that time thankfully, Samir Nasri has stepped up to the plate weighing in with crucial goals but we cannot seriously expect a midfielder to keep doing an attacker’s job if we hope to win anything at season’s end. Good and in-form as he is, Nasri is no Maradona and in a side packed with flair players like Arsenal, we need the strikers to be firing. Considering our kamikaze defending as well, we will have to rely on our attack to bail us out by scoring two, three goals per game.
To revive our attacking options and reduce Nasri’s workload, it is indeed time to give Chamakh a break and make full use of the bench. Three strikers in the persons of World Cup ‘stars’ Robin Van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela are all available and all warming the bench.
Chamakh’s early-season brilliance has not seen the need to press them all into action and coupled with injuries, they have been largely anonymous this season so far.
Of the trio though, it is Walcott that might actually get a nod to start games - and desperately too. If only Wenger would tweak his set-in-stone tactics for once and start him right down the middle.
With Chelsea floundering and super-rich Man City ridden with internal strife, we can still hold a candle to our title dreams and resurrect hope by reshuffling the pack.
A fresh, well-rested Chamakh will carry a much bigger threat in the New Year, when the business end of the season gets underway.
After Man Utd exposed the inherent weaknesses of Wenger’s stubborn methods last Monday, its time for a response that will re-ignite our campaign and keep the opposition wondering.
Resting Chamakh and making use of the bench will be one such crucial response.
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