The Arsenal Weekend Wrapup: Top of the table once again

Oh what a wonderful weekend!

Arsenal and their supporters found this to be a weekend of delight as Arsenal travelled to the Liberty stadium to take on Michael Laudrup’s men in their bid to continue a fine form away from home. The 2-1 win combined with all of Arsenal’s main rivals dropping points, meant that Arsenal actually returned to the Premier League summit, with a two point gap over the next team.

Congested Width

At the Liberty Stadium, Arsenal were slow off the blocks with Swansea lining up to effectively attack our flanks. Arsenal once again deploying natural midfielders out wide (Özil/Wilshere & Gnabry), Laudrup used Dyer and Routledge to push our fullbacks back and prevent Arsenal from having any attacking flow out wide. As a result, Arsenal’s passing in the first half constantly broke down as our forward players had no outlet options.

Davies and Tiendalli also joined Swansea wide players in providing overlap options with Shelvey acting as the midfield pivot directing play. Laudrup had put together a smart plan to take advantage of Arsenal’s limitations out wide however, it wasn’t entirely successful as Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny (Kos) were both having a terrific first half and Swansea did not have a true striker on the field to take advantage of the questions being asked of the Arsenal defense by Swansea’s wingers.

Michu was acting in the role as Swansea’s lone man up top but often times found himself isolated. Michu generally plays well in a system that operates almost entirely down the middle and on many occasions during the first half seemed off from the rest of the team. He constantly got displaced and turned the ball over a game high four times. It was for this reason that Bony was introduced in the second half to give Michu more support in the middle and bring the wide players closer to middle (where Michu prefers).

Average Position of Swansea vs Arsenal (Courtesy of WhoScored)

The Per-Kos Special

Per and Kos have developed a very successful center-back partnership for Arsenal and that was once again in full display in the first half. While the rest of the team were playing at a much slower pace with not much success going forward, both defenders were resolute and were not giving Swansea (and particularly Michu) an inch of space to take advantage of in the final third. While Swansea enjoyed close to 60% of possession in the first half, it was primarily the defending by those two players that prevented Swansea from registering a single shot on goal going into the break.

Although Swansea were well on top, their attacks never threatened or had any real bite as both center-backs made key interceptions and generally broke down anything that came into their general viscinity. By the end of the game, both players had three interceptions a piece while making a total of eight successful clearances with Kos also blocking two goal bound shots. While Swansea had the right game plan, they were foiled by an impressive center-back pairing who are turning into one the premier league’s best partnerships.

The Dynamic Duo

At the start of the season, most were expecting Arteta and Wilshere to assert themselves in midfield along with Cazorla (and later on Özil) with Flamini and Ramsey providing depth in central midfield. However, in the course of this early season, Flamini and Ramsey have developed a phenomenal partnership in central midfield that has been key to our success so far. Flamini had another spectacular game for Arsenal against Swansea making key interceptions (finishing the game with two) while throwing himself (most times with both feet) into every single tackle disrupting play as much as possible.

During his previous stint at #Arsenal, Flamini was best known as a ‘Mad Dog’ for his passion and enforcer-type approach to the game and thankfully he hasn’t last any of that veracity or tenaciousness. His play has perfectly complimented that of Aaron Ramsey who has been able to play almost an unorthodox box-to-box role to perfection (unbalanced CM that plays through the final channels regularly). Both players constantly looked to break down play in midfield with Ramsey acting primarily as the first line of defence (Ramsey again finished with a game high seven tackles) with Flamini doing a majority of the sweeping. Ramsey and Flamini have developed a key partnership in midfield that was once again influential in Arsenal’s win.

The ‘German Miracle’ steals the show

That was the headline from Bild (popular German news outlet) this morning as Gnabry had a splendid performance for Arsenal. Last week I mentioned how Gnabry’s insistence on cutting in from the right was detrimental to our play as; a.) it made our midfield even more congested and b.) Gnabry’s inability to take players on ensured he acted almost as bystander for most of the game.

You probably could blame the latter on nerves as Gnabry put all doubts over his ability to rest by opening the scoring for Arsenal. His first goal in an Arsenal kit was a cool as ice finish and by the time the full time whistle had blown he clearly was one of Arsenal’s best performers. Gnabry was constantly taking players on and while he still cut in more often than not, he now provided real flair in midfield.

It was shocking to think that this was a player who had just played over 120 minutes midweek in the Carling Cup as he did not look out of depth at all. Furthermore Gnabry provided Sagna with a lot of defensive support giving both Davies and Routledge a handful (another reason for the substitution). While Gnabry’s goal was the highlight of his performance I was most impressed by his fantastic run towards the end of the first half that culminated in a Giroud miss. It will be exciting to see more of Gnabry over the course of the season as he has real potential to stamp his place in this Arsenal squad for years to come.

Other Musings

Jack seems to be getting a lot of grief from Arsenal fans after another solid if unspectacular outing. I’d highly advise against the notion that Jack may not be as good people expected as he is still coming back from a long-term injury and is still finding his way in the team. He is still one of our best dribblers and it will only be a matter of time before he is at his best.

MATCH FACTS INFOGRAPHIC