Saturday, September 24, 2011

What We Learn from Arsenal vs Bolton

Arsenal smashed Bolton 3-0 in the Emirates Stadium, with Robin van Persie's two goals made him reach his 100th Arsenal goal, and Alex Song's cool finishing nearing the end of the match. Arsenal was decent on the first half, unable to control the match completely, but the second half was Arsenal's full domination, and they were able to score three goals.

Arsenal players celebrated the goal scored by the Captain (credit to ID-ARSENAL)

1. Arsenal slowly regains their confidence
On the first half Arsenal players seems a little bit lacking of confidence. However, after Arsenal scored a goal, the players looks had more self belief than in the first half. Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta became double playmaker on the Gunners' midfield, while RvP, Gervinho, and Walcott dynamical off the ball movement tears Bolton's defence. Alex Song looks very comfortable helping the offense; Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker weren't shy to move forward. It's the Arsenal we expected to see.

It might be the second match Arsenal won this season on the Premier League, but this is the first time Arsenal really dominated the game. The win against Swansea was very unconvincing, and Arsenal could've easily dropped two points, but on this match, the passing game Arsenal has been famous for was shown again in this game. It was a very entertaining passing-game.

However, Arsenal should also be able to play like this against 11-man stronger opponent.

2. Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey are good playmakers, and they could replace Cesc-Nasri
Both of them actually had shown a great performance last week against Blackburn. However, their brilliance overshadowed by the poor defending by Arsenal. Both Ramsey and Arteta has shown a great understanding. Ramsey and Arteta dictated the play, and Arsenal got plenty of chances to score a goal. If it hadn't been Jaaskelainen who was in the goal, Arsenal would've scored five or six goals. If they continued playing like this, injured Jack Wilshere could find it hard to find himself in the line up, when he come back, and he will need to prove himself before he could back to the Starting Eleven.

3. Alex Song is offensively getting better and better.
Alex Song was a flop last week but this time he was one of the tops of the match, alongside Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott. While defensively he is untested, he played very well in his team's offense. His passing was great. He was unlucky not to name himself on the assist list. Two times he made a brilliant passes to Theo Walcott. One was disrupted by David Wheater, who recieved a marching order, fault on Walcott, and the other one, Walcott just couldn't beat Jaaskelainen 1-on-1. Alex Song finally named himself on the scoresheet, with a very good finish, fainting Bolton defender, and smashed the ball to the right to beat Jaaskelainen

Saturday, September 17, 2011

It's not the matter of players, it is the matter of defensive system

Arsenal gave away 2-1 lead to a 3-4 defeat against Blackburn on Edwood Park. It is good to score 3 goals in away games, but the defensive errors makes the goals scored not worth any points. Generally, Arsenal was dominating the game, and having many chances, while Blackburn mainly attacks from quick counter attack. Blackburn only have 4 shots on goal, and they still able to score four.

On the last 3 games, Arsenal has been conceded 12 goals, an average of 4 goals per match. On the match against Manchester United, they conceded 8, and on this match Szczesny's goal was teared four times.

It is not the matter that Arsenal don't have a quality defender or what. Koscielny, Djourou, and Song had a horrible game. Koscielny and Song both scored an own goal, and Johan Djourou was the weak link of last night game. Arsenal was using very high defensive line, and it costly punished Arsenal, as Blackburn has a quicker players.
Andre Santos twice cancelled Arsenal's offside trap, and Johan Djourou's fault was the beginning of the third goal. Arsenal's full backs was constantly under threat, and the winger didn't even try to cover the flank

It's probably a time for Wenger to change the system of play. 4-2-3-1 is a good formation if both of the 2 defensive midfielder has a high mobility, and willing to cover both flanks. As both of the full backs like to attack, the flank is very vulnerable. The wingers are just too forward to cover the backline. 4-4-2 would be a much more balanced strategy. With two wide midfielder has to be able to cover the full-back. Even with this stragegy, Arsenal would have more option on the frontline. Walcott is clearly a striker, not a winger, thus he would be more effective playing alongside Robin van Persie, instead of a right winger. Marouane Chamakh also would have more playing time, as he would be the secret weapon of Arsene Wenger, and provided more aerial ability. While Arsenal had Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, who play in a very advanced position, 4-2-3-1 was a very good strategy who could accomodate them playing at their best. However, as this two players leave, Arsenal has playmakers in Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, and Aaron Ramsey. And all of them play deeper than Nasri and Fabregas, and they would be more suitable playing on the central midfielder or wider midfielder instead of attacking midfielder

Another things matters is the high defense line. It is actually a good system, pressing the opposition players into their own area, not allowing them to improve their game. With this strategy, Arsenal plays many offside traps. However, it's common to see one of the players stay deeper, and it cancels the offside trap. One more things, explosive players are needed to implement this strategy. Per Mertesacker is not a fast defender, and he would be beaten in sprint. He surely would be enjoy more playing in a deeper defensive line. A deeper defense line would be a more solid defensively than Arsenal showed last night.