A year in the life of Arsenal

Arsène Wenger might just be wondering where things
keep going wrong. Photo credit: theguardian.com

Anyone who follows football up close - be it supporters, journalists or pundits - experiences a feeling of déjà vu every once while throughout a season: The feeling of almost being able to guess a final scoreline, the unshakable feeling that that passage of play, that goal, that dummy was already witnessed the year before. Whether it's the top clubs finally gelling and trouncing opponents in cold week nights or a weekend of flooded pitches, there is sometimes the impression that everything has indeed already been invented when it comes to football.

But perhaps nothing leaves us with the feeling of being smack in the middle of "Groundhog Day" like good old Arsenal. Following the Gunners' fortunes is nothing short of watching sequels of bad franchises, where despite the odd change of personnel here and there, we all seem to have a very well informed guess about how things will turn out eventually.

• Summer

The previous season has just ended. After a tottery mid-season, Arsenal managed to finish in the ever precious fourth spot and clinch their place in the crucial Champions League. Wenger, true to form, assures supporters and journos alike that lessons have been learned and that the off-season will be spent plugging the glaring holes in his squad - namely virtually any position from central midfield backward.

However, by August there have usually been few pieces of business apart from the already traditional signings of potential game-changing youths that will be supposed to evolve into powerhouses within a few years under Wenger's tutelage. By then supporters start to get restless and Wenger duly abides; over the past few years he has ended up splashing some cash on an attacking player (in previous years not even that) promising to revolutionise the team's game. Any of the previous season's troubling positions end up being ignored.

• Autumn 

By September and early October, Arsenal seem to get firing on all cylinders. The latest acquisition - Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski, Mezut Özil, Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sánchez, what have you - seems to be keeping the manager's promise and rumours start flying about the possibility of this being Arsenal's year at long last, the time where all the planning from previous seasons come to fruition. This is the time when Arsenal top the league (or hover nearby) and where changes in backroom personnel are put under the microscope to explain the latest change in the team's fortunes.

By late October, early November, some worrying signs start to surface. An important player gets injured, then another, then another. Late September's initial drubbings in the Champions League gradually give way to pale performances that usually end up costing the Gunners the group's top spot in the end. The inevitable elimination from one of the cups tends to follow, as well as the first points dropped in places where title candidates cannot afford.

• Winter

With the Premier League's busy schedule over Christmas and New Year, this tends to be the moment where Arsenal wave a definite goodbye at any illusion they may have harboured of fighting for the contest. The home draw against a midtable team, the barely comprehensible defeat away to bottom-dwellers - all of it paints the picture of a distraught team with holes throughout that are too big to ignore.

By late February, Wenger sings the tune of being involved in several fronts, only to see the league's big dogs get farther and farther away. In the Champions League, the "bad luck" draws one of Europe's powerhouses and Arsenal crash out of the competition either in the last sixteen or in the quarter-finals at the very latest. The conclusion is always identical: positive brand of football but ultimately an approach that is absolutely unsuitable to Europe's top echelon.

• Spring

The quicker players slowly start coming back from injury. With a less congested schedule, the team seem to get back to its best. A spirited comeback is needed to ensure the crucial fourth spot, even though it seems too far off this time around.

By March and April, some are left wondering where this Arsenal were all this time - the courage, the resilience, the excellent football, the joint effort of all the artists and hard workers on the same page. What once looked like a mirage - qualifying for the Champions League - now seems possible. Just.

By May, the Gunners end up achieving their (what one can only assume should be a) secondary goal. Whatever chances of putting their hands around some silverware dissipated in some unlucky clash with a Championship team or a side that ended up being relegated from the Premier League.

Wenger, true to form, assures supporters and journos alike that lessons have been learned and that the off-season will be spent plugging the glaring holes in his squad.

Manchester United x Arsenal - Tactical notes

In a match that could have offered the visitors a very comfortable lead, Manchester United and Arsenal met at Old Trafford and offered a quite interesting display - for loads of reasons. Below we'll be looking into some specific issues.

• Arsenal struggle against a more physical United

Tomas Rosicky was bang on the money when he offered "resiliency" as one of the key factors for Arsenal's win at Dortmund last week, something that according to the Czech might have been missing over the past few seasons. In fact, while the tactical improvements in Wenger's side cannot be overestated (namely the failure to unbalance the whole team while attacking), the steelier heart of the team has to be taken into consideration - something that an older, more experienced eleven might help explain.

However, while United's physical approach lasted, Arsenal found it quite hard to get into their passing rhythm, a flaw that has been found many times over the past seasons, particularly against stronger sides. The two teams' different approaches was evident, with the physical, defensively disciplined Jones, Valencia and Jones all getting the nod from David Moyes, while Arsène Wenger kept his trust in the soft-shoed Arteta, Ramsey, Cazorla and Özil.

Arsenal struggled to progress to more advanced areas while United were able (and interested) to keep their pressure up.

 

During the first half, the attacking threat offered by Wenger's charges was restricted.

• Özil goes missing in action

As so often has been the case, the German wizard was anonymous for most of the match at Old Trafford. Even though no player has accrued more assists than Özil during the past five seasons, his contribution is frequently small when he's faced with opponents that insist on being physically aggressive and that leave little space to exploit. Arsenal's no. 11, so important to the team's displays thus far, was a shadow of himself and failed to give the team the world-class boost he so often brings in most matches.

• United prove faithful to Moyes

For all that has been said and written about David Moyes' time at the helm of United, the players' dedication and commitment seem not to have wavered. The Scottish manager finally got a win against top-calibre opposition by reverting to several of his methods while at Everton. The intense physical pressure in order to stifle Arsenal's midfield gave way to his preferred expectant two banks of four, with Rooney and Van Persie (particularly the former) putting in impressively hard-working displays as far as defending was concerned.

On the other hand, the resort to long balls (more frequent than usual under Sir Alex Ferguson) also seemed to show that United will be looking increasingly like a gritty, result-oriented team, rather than the side that so often threw caution to the wind and attacked in successive waves.

It is hard not to detect some patterns as far as United's building-up stage is concerned.

There is a stark contrast between United's approach before and after Van Persie's goal.
Even though Arsenal surely improved as the match wore on, it was clear that United were will to soak up pressure.

• Centre-back vs midfielder: Who's more effective in the middle of the pitch

Phil Jones' deployment alongside Michael Carrick was surely meant as a strategy to keep Cazorla and Özil from dominating the centre, by making sure the centre-back got stuck to the skilled midfielders and stopped them from facing United's goal. Moyes' strategy effectively worked for the better part of the first half, but things changed when Jones had to replace the injured Vidic in defence, with Tom Cleverley taking his place in midfield.

While Jones' defensive contribution might have looked far more intense to the naked eye, a quick look at Cleverley's dashboard shows how important the English midfielder was in such a crucial position.

• The Rooney conundrum

One of the hardest things of being your nation's most promising footballer for ages is that his every move, shot, word and mood swing are analysed under a magnifying lens. Wayne Rooney is no exception and he alone has put food on the table of many a reporter. 

In spite of all of that, he managed to put in a monster of a display, working tirelessly and selflessly, effectively resembling the version of Rooney that every football fan seems to remember. He pressed, he defended, he kept his passing crisp and simple, he vacated the space for his team-mates to exploit - in short, he was United's spirit personified, leading the team from the front. After all the reports of his less than warm relationship with Moyes, it is encouraging to see him give so much of himself to the cause.  

Play's anatomy: 2) Arsenal vs Manchester United

Robin van Persie's return to the Emirates hogged most of the headlines of last April's meeting between Arsenal and Manchester United, where Arsène Wenger's men offered a guard of honor to the new champions.

Even though Manchester United's newfound linchpin ended up scoring a goal, it was Arsenal's goal that showed some of the frailties in Sir Alex Ferguson's team - which leads up to a sub-question: is the midfield pairing of Michael Carrick/Phil Jones enough to bring United the victories they crave, especially in the European stage? Let us then break Arsenal's goal down and see what Manchester United did and didn't do.

• 1. Van Persie misplaces the pass

In this picture, the ball gets to Van Persie after Manchester United had just won it back. Van Persie almost immediately tries to get the ball to the other side, but the pass goes astray (kids everywhere, this is why your coach is always insisting that you do not try this sort of pass) and eventually arrives at the feet of Arsenal left-back Kieran Gibbs.

• 2. Gibbs quickly passes the ball to Cazorla

Gibbs delivers the ball to his team's chief orchestrator, Santi Cazorla, so that the Spaniard can initiate the attack. While Van Persie picks himself up, there is no one around Cazorla, Arteta or Ramsay.

• 3. Poor positioning from Manchester United midfield

Cazorla has all the time in the world to pick his pass. Both Phil Jones (red) and Michael Carrick (orange) have their eyes on the ball - Carrick having Ramsay on his radar -, apparently oblivious to Rosicky. 

• 4. Poor positioning from Manchester United midfield

Cazorla's simple vertical pass immediately bypasses Manchester United shield comprised of Carrick and Jones. Podolski, somewhat similarly to Higuaín, drifts away from his markers unchecked to get the ball, which means that, in Rosicky and Podolski, Arsenal now have two unmarked players in between the lines.

• 5. Where's Evra?

Patrice Evra was for the better part of the last decade one of the finest left-backs in the world, if not the best. However, he is no longer able to command the touch line as he once did and - to add insult to injury - his defensive abilities seem to be deserting him as well. In this particular case, notice on one hand how Evra is far away from the action. On the other, notice how Podolski and Rosicky are allowed to wander between Manchester United lines. Not surprisingly, that's the space from where Rosicky will provide his assistance.

• 6. Evra's man-marking does not work

Assuming Evra was on a man-marking job (hard to envision), he still did a shoddy job of it. He looks distracted by what is happening in the centre of the pitch and not paying enough attention to Walcott. As your abilities start declining with age, game-reading skills become ever more important - one of the reasons why Giggs, Beckham or Zanetti are still able to play the game. In his case, Evra seems to rely excessively on his speed and recovering ability, which has left him wanting in numerous occasions before. Here, he neither closes the space between him and Evans nor does he mark Walcott convincingly.

• 7. Walcott too quick to catch

With that much space in the centre and facing forward, Rosicky only had to wait for Evans to commit to him and spray the through ball for Walcott to run on to. As stated earlier, Evra is poorly positioned and his stance does not help either, which means Walcott's speed will only be harder to stop.

• 8. Arsenal score

Afforded acres of space, Walcott capitalised on his speed and managed to beat David de Gea with a well-placed low shot. Despite being the man marking him directly, alienated from the game, Evra is not even the first one to arrive at the "scene."

In case the breakdown was too confusing, take a look at the play and see for yourself.

One question, if I may:

How can a throw-in in your favour end up as a goal in your own net?