The Dalton Files: Touch Of The Ferguson’s about Arsenal.

One of my major whinges towards Arsene Wenger in his tenure is his rigid tactical plan to invite the opposition to play Arsenal, he would send out the team to play Barcelona exactly the same way as he would to play Burnley, which is all well and good if you’re as capable as Barcelona.

Recently though, I’ve noticed a difference, whether it’s been down to the absences of Fabregas and Nasri or whether you can actually teach an old dog new tricks, Arsenal have set out in the last few weeks in mind of the opponents they’ve been facing instead of being so cocksure about the first XI abilities that it doesn’t matter. And I like it.

For years and years, Manchester United have travelled down to Highbury and The Emirates and done the same thing, normally switching from a 4-4-2 or similar diamond equivalent, they would set up 4-5-1 with one pacy winger to give them an “out” and a more combative, tricky player who would hold the other flank and shift over to make sure the middle was packed with as many bodies as possible. And it’d work. Park Ji-Sung was the nemesis of Arsenal many-a-time, his work rate untouchable, doing the simple things well and would often pop-up with a goal in the big games as well.

Arsenal lined up against City with the same team that beat Spurs and the team I’ve now dubbed “The Big-Game Team”, Sagna and Walcott are the attacking outs, Benayoun shuffles across to pack the midfield and give the team a tireless workrate and hold off Aguero and Nasri who ended up drifting to the right as the game wore on. It was a very Utd like performance from Arsenal, quietly driving on, gnawing away before getting the winner they so richly deserved.

Every team needs a squad member like Yossi Benayoun, someone who is unselfish, will do a job and won’t moan when he’s not selected in the next game, Liverpool have someone similar in Dirk Kuyt, he seems to be selected for the tight games with the top teams and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make the semi-final clash with Everton.

So there you have it, I would sign Benayoun permanently should the financial aspect not be too high. And as for Arsene Wenger, we asked for the manager to change and not to change the manager, I think he listened, well…..he’s starting to.