Arsenal: Unbeaten but unbelievably awful…

Arsenal: Unbeaten but unbelievably awful…

You know what to do – mail us at theeditor@football365.com

How can we save the Champions League?
Growing up as a young boy in the early noughties, my love for club football started with the Champions League. I enjoyed watching the games as they were very competitive. But these days we only look forward to the competition from the quarterfinals. After five games last night, 12 out of 16 slots are already secured with virtually nothing left to play for on day six. The group stage is so predictable and depressingly boring (admittedly it does throw up some exciting games like the Dortmund-Legia).

That has got me thinking – what is the problem with the Champions League group stage?

Is the decline of heavyweights like Milan, Inter, Ajax and Liverpool (18 titles between them) a major factor in this drop in competition?

I will throw it to the mailbox to offer suggestions for revamping the Champions League group stage.
Drakoy (I noticed the parenthesis is tradition), Warri

Results are papering over Arsenal’s awfulness
So Arsenal have played three big games in a row and we’ve seen everything that’s wrong with Arsenal come to the fore.

The fact we have remained unbeaten shouldn’t take away from how poor we have been at times this season, most recently the last few games. The players need to take a share of the blame but Wenger has made the same mistakes he usually makes.

Despite a disappointing result and performance, Granit Xhaka was our stand-out player in the derby. He was aggressive and controlled in possession. What does Wenger do? Benches him against both United and PSG.

We arrive at United to play a struggling United team. City and Chelsea showed us the way to play United is to play on the front foot and attack them. So what does Wenger do? Plays Coquelin and Elneny in midfield and Ramsey on the wing. So conservative which gave United the impetus to attack us and grow into the game. Extremely lucky to get a draw with one shot on target and one shot of any kind in the second half.

So onto Wednesday night’s game. Despite an awful first half, one bit of quality from Ozil helps to win us a penalty, and we go in level at the break. A good start to the second half in terms of pressure leads to us going in front. PSG start to come into the game more and we struggle to retain possession. Surely we’ll make a change and seize initiative, helping us to see out the game. Obviously not. We leave Xhaka on the bench as Coquelin pulls out of every tackle with the fear of a second yellow. We eventually buckle under pressure and concede an extremely soft corner goal. We then make changes after we concede. Once again Wenger is reactive as opposed to proactive.

People may say that we haven’t lost since the opening weekend so there’s nothing to complain about. But results have papered over some awful performances. We’ve only played really well in a handful of games despite our unbeaten run. We have now all but surely bottled a great chance of finishing first in our group and make it difficult for ourselves. Different season, same mistakes.
Alex AFC (We’ve had two shots on target in our last 180 minutes….)

…My father always used to remind me that Arsenal were known as ‘lucky Arsenal’ with him being a West Ham fan (but, in truth, more into rugger).

However, I could never understand that (until I delved into the archives of our election to the top flight).

There’s something that’s fascinating me about this Arsenal squad at the moment and that is we have played so poorly for the majority of the season but nobody, since the opening day of the season, can beat us. Is there a positive in there?

Please tell me there is!
Chris, Croydon

No crisis for Arsenal
Newsflash: Arsenal are in the last 16. They didn’t lose a group game and drew twice with one of Europe’s top sides. Sure they finished second in a group, but that’s by no means the disaster that it has been in previous years. Bayern and Real for instance will lost likely also be second.

Given this, I’m very surprised to read of the negativity around Arsenal again. More negativity aimed at Arsenal finishing second than there was on Spurs failing to qualify. Bizarre.

(Erm, you didn’t read this then? – Ed)

Though I suppose as someone once said (probably Churchill or Wilde): “There’s only one thing worse than being talked about, and that’s NOT being talked about.”
Brad Smith

…Is Matt Stead possibly throwing the baby out with the bath water? Not a vintage performance by any means, but there are certainly reasons to be optimistic

Although we’d probably have lost if Cavani could finish against us (doesn’t seem to have a problem against anyone else), Its always good to see the team turn the game around from a losing position. The defensive errors for both goals last night and against Man Utd are concerning, but if November truly is a difficult month for us, at least we’ve almost come through it unbeaten (not taking Bournemouth lightly though). Good to see Giroud continue to add to his tally. Only a penalty, but it’ll still help to maintain his confidence.

If anything, I think this recent run of draws has shown again just how vital Cazorla is to our fortunes and the quality of our play. We dropped off when he was injured last year and have done so again this year. Hopefully he’ll be back in time for the tricky pre Christmas run of Everton and Man City. That said, we’ve still not lost since the opening day, are three points of the top of the league and are out of the CL group. Things can only get better?

Second in the group really isn’t all that bad this year either, is it? With Bayern, Real, Porto and possibly Juventus to finish second in their groups, you’re as likely to get a hard game (are there any easy games in the last 16?) if you win the group. That said, I’m fully aware we’ll now get Barcelona if we finish second, but I’d love a chance to visit the Vicente Calderon before Atleti move.

Looking ahead to the weekend’s fixtures, with Chelsea and Spurs playing each other, we have the opportunity to either close the gap to the leaders, or pull away from the chasers (assuming we do the business against Bournemouth). Similarly the result of the Man City – Chelsea game the following weekend should shake things up again.

There’s still a lot of football to be played this season, so I’d just ask fellow Gooners (or fans of any club to be fair), at the start of the season would you have taken qualification from a CL group and being three points of the top of the league at this stage?
David, Gooner

Well done Man City
Whoop Whoop! We have qualified.

Probably should have won last night, but we were never gonna win the group over Barcelona. So qualification will do nicely.

Hopefully we get an ‘easier’ draw in the next round, but I’ll take anyone in all honesty.

That is all. I’ll save the room for the inevitable Arsenal tear fest.
Danny B – MCFC – MCR

Leicester have done something amazing
Looking at how things stand after the penultimate round of group games, and with virtually all of the last 16 teams known (Beskitas looking to sneak in with positive results in the final round), I decided to put into perspective the enormity of Leicester’s achievement.

Of the last 16 teams, seven of them have won the Champions League (or European Cup) before. Of the remaining, Sevilla hold the record for most Europa League titles, Atletico have won that particular trophy twice (and have finished runners-up in the Champions League twice in the last two years), while Leverkusen and Napoli have won the UEFA Cup once. Furthermore, Arsenal, Manchester City* and PSG have one Cup Winners Cup each (*European heavyweight indeed)

Of the ‘rest’, while Monaco have never won a European trophy, they were runners-up in both the Cup Winners Cup and the 2004 Champions League final, and have seven domestic titles to their name. Should Besiktas’ fighting spirit be rewarded with a deserved last 16 berth, they have also never won a European trophy, but have never been relegated from the Turkish top flight, and have won fourteen league titles in all.

But not only is Leicester’s superb form in the Champions League this year a remarkable achievement in terms of their historic standing on the European stage, but they may well be a modern-day anomaly to the competition as a whole.

In fact, since the turn of the millennium, seven teams in the top five of the Roll of Honour have shared fourteen titles between them (15 if you include joint-sixth placed Porto). Barcelona have won 80% of their Champions League/European Cup titles in this time-frame, Bayern Munich 40%, Real Madrid 36%, Man United and Inter one-third of their tally, AC Milan 28% and Liverpool 20%.

So I suppose what I am trying to say is, that in terms of a historical context, and the recent domination of the heavyweights, Leicester’s spoiling of the apple-cart has been a breath of fresh air, and Roy of the Rovers stuff.

They couldn’t, could they?
Brian (loves my research I do), Wexford

Peter G’s pleasant surprises
To compensate for last night’s depressingly predictable showing by a depressingly predictable fourth-place Arsenal, here’s the exact opposite: some bottom-half-of-the-table pleasant surprises.

* Victor Anichebe. It’s not just the goals. His all-around game has been nothing sort of brilliant. He’s been winning aerial duels right and left: 59.2% success so far, almost the exact same percentage as Christian Benteke. He’s delivered some remarkable cross-field balls to set up attacks. He played 70 minutes of the game against Hull from the right of midfield, and managed both to dominate the wing and come inside to score twice. OK, it’s only two games, and against Bournemouth and Hull, but those are exactly the games Sunderland can win, and where his contribution will be most crucial. Is he really only 28?!

* Calum Chambers. Out of his depth at Arsenal, the on-loan Chambers has become a fixture at centre-half at Middlesbrough. It helps that Aitor Karanka’s safety-first system has the defenders sit deep, so he can’t get caught out as often as with the Gunners. After a slow start, he’s concentrating on the simple things and reading the game well. He seems to be forming a comfortable partnership with fellow England youth international Ben Gibson. I don’t think he’ll ever be good enough for Arsenal, but there are horses for courses, and in this kind of system he can be a success in the league.

* Lee Grant. A 33-year-old keeper with over 400 appearances at Championship and League One level, Grant had lost his starting spot at Derby County. Mark Hughes saw something and got him on a six-month loan after Jack Butland’s injury. You can talk all you want about Joe Allen, Marko Arnautovic, and Xherdan Shaqiri, but topping the list of reasons for any success Stoke have had is Grant. As a shot-stopper he’s been good, but more important is how he’s stabilized a back line that had fallen apart with Shay Given in goal. Butland will take over when fit, but if Stoke have any sense they’ll sign him long term.

* Jake Livermore. The year’s top shapeshifter. He did a decent Michael Dawson impression when forced to play centre-half early in the season. Now he’s back in midfield, and has morphed into Tom Huddlestone. He’s been remarkably good as a deep-lying playmaker, passing short and long intelligently and effectively. His overall pass completion percentage is the highest it’s been since he was at Spurs, even allowing for the significant increase in long passes from deep. He even gets into the box on occasion. Hull are hardly tearing up the league, but Livermore has been a steady strong performer.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA

Conte’s formation is perfect for Chelsea
The beautiful thing about Conte’s 3-433 is that it essentially the classic 4-2-3-1 that Chelsea have been using for the past few years but with better specialisation. It allows all the players to be used at once.

Chelsea still play with two (natural) centre-backs and full-backs, two centre mids, three attackers and one nominal striker, just like they did last season, but now their highly specialised roles are getting the better from the team.

In a 4-2-3-1, it’s rare to see both full-backs push on at once, due to the risk of being exposed, so Chelsea took them and designated Dave as the defending half and Alonso as the attacking half. This means the individuals and the team are less likely to get caught out of position. It also gives Cahill the security of a faster centre-back next I him, along with Luiz who fits the system perfectly, with his speed and passing range. Moving up, Matic acts almost as a centre-back playing in midfield, in the highly specialised water carrier role. Between him and Luiz, passing out of the back is sorted. Kante carries the ball (alongside his defensive work), and is the lynchpin and possibly most important part of the team, the most balanced and all round of the three.

Up front Pedro and Hazard both play as inside forwards due to the high wing-backs, who can both press up at once due to relief of nominal defensive responsibility.
Costa is Costa and the teams plays both off of and into him really well.

It might seem like ‘Conte’s 3-4-3′, but it also happens to be the formation that fits every single players’ skills perfectly.

It definitely could spread though, and I could see it working at United (and getting the best from Pogba).
KC (it’d even get Moreno into the Liverpool team)

More on Conte, Chelsea and the tactical revolution
Thanks to Naz, Gooner for that wonderful mail last evening. In fact I was just contemplating writing about Conte’s Chelsea and the tactical evolution in English football and was happy to see someone having similar opinions!

I’m going to write three tactical systems that have defined English football over the past 12 years..

The 4-3-3
In the late fall of 2004, scrapping 1-0 wins as bread and butter, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea were still learning how to be champions. As much as the football purists criticized boring boring Chelsea, there was something deep at play. Jose did not play the traditional 4-4-2 omni-present in English football. SAF won the league playing that formation because (a) inevitably he had better players in all positions and (b) he won United 10 points on his own each season. Jose, who came from shores beyond, had won the CL (enough of history) playing a system where the defensive structure demanded midfield control not through possession, but also territory in a 4-diamond-2 system. After starting the opening few games with same formation, amidst criticisms, Jose figured he had potential to do more. With the return of Robben from injury and availability of Duff and Mateja Kezman, the shift to 4-3-3 perhaps marked a seismic shift in English football. It helped having Claude Makelele and the distinct addition of an extra body in midfield! A new blueprint was born that defined Chelsea’s and Jose’s legacy.

The 4-2-3-1
I find it hard to digest when many journalists (most of them English, so it isn’t a surprise really) write Chelsea always played the 4-2-3-1. No sirs, Chelsea adopted the 4-2-3-1 in a night in Naples, when AVB first used Mata as a no 10, lost the only game he played that formation and got sacked anyway! But the history goes a little before AVB and Chelsea. It was the genius in Rafa Benitez (yes, I am a rare Chelsea fan who has an affection for Benitez) who started to use that approach at Liverpool, when he identified that Gerrard cannot be trusted to do a tactical job in central midfield. His shift to Gerrard as a second striker/no 10 was the change that led to their notable title challenge. Also, in a previous season, Rafa used a variant of the formation to win at Camp Nou! I wont say he pioneered the formation, but he was one of the early adopters of the system and challenged Jose and Fergie domestically. Later on, Mancini was the next manager who adopted it full time at City given the talents of Silva et al. On a side note, I’ve also witnessed Fergie use the 4-5-1, or sacrificing one striker for an additional midfielder in big away games in the league/Europe after United were comprehensively beaten in some games (the thrashing at San Siro comes to mind).

The back 3:
The last half a decade has seen many teams use, over-use and in Chelsea’s case perhaps abuse the 4-2-3-1 system such that players either played out of positions/roles and lost their soul (Oscar and Willian notably), or it became too common to counteract! In my opinion, the biggest change in English football arrived with Mauricio Pochettino. Despite using the same 4-2-3-1, I think he brought the concept of pressing, physical fitness and pro-active football successfully (unlike AVB). And with the super managers arriving, it was time there was a tactical shift. It was early during pre-season that I read one of Michael Cox’s excellent article about the new Man City and Chelsea where, despite whatever systems was being played, there were always five defenders and five attackers that made a superb case of tactical awareness during games. While Pep starts his formation with a back four or three, the idea of extra men in defense and attack has been a common thread. Same case, despite Conte’s earlier experimentation with a 4-2-4 or a 4-1-4-1, the idea was always 5-5. The radical change came (and thanks Arsene for making our season) at Emirates, when Conte changed the personnel dramatically and the structure lightly. Instead of wasting Kante’s role deep in our half, his energetic running and excellent passing has been used higher up the field. And giving Luiz the responsibility to take care of the back line has been the masterstroke (like giving the thief a police’s job). Like Naz mentioned yesterday we’re going to see many teams in the next decade shift to a back three and rightly perhaps with the teams lower down the division. But the degree of success/failure will depend upon the personnel and ideology of the manager. The back three in 2016 is perhaps the equivalent of 4-3-3 in 2004. And just like how the 4-3-3 changed tactics in England and maybe was one of the factors why English teams dominated Europe, I expect the arrival of Conte, Klopp, Pep mixing with the existing rest help English teams back to challenging the likes of Barca, Madrid (both), Juventus and Bayern.

P.S: There’s a distinct possibility that other managers and clubs could’ve also used some of the said formations (notably Martinez’s Wigan), but my point is the adoption of a system full time that had a significant impact on the division as a whole.
Aravind, Chelsea fan

Let’s talk MLS
Wanted to write a mail about the MLS yesterday but Spurs got the best of me as usual. So let’s get to it.

Things are getting tight and interesting in the MLS Cup playoffs. For those who don’t know or care about the MLS, winning the play-offs is like winning World Series in baseball, the Stanley Cup in hockey or as far as prestige within the league goes, it’s like winning the title in your typical European nation’s domestic league. Regular season matters only to get places in the play-offs and it also influences draft picks and such.

First legs of the conference finals have been played Tuesday and Montreal and Seattle have both won their respective home games with a goal difference, heading into the second leg away. I didn’t watch the Western game, but I had to watch the 401 derby (Montreal, my local team, vs Toronto) and boy was it good.

Montreal dominated the first half, scoring twice with perfectly executed counter-attacking football. 2-0 at HT, it’s 3-0 after 63 minutes and the stadium is buzzing but things shift five minutes later. Toronto and its possession-oriented passing play start to finally getting sorted and figure out a way through Montreal’s thick defense and physical tackles and hit back with two goals to close the gap. With two away goals, Toronto only need a 1-0 victory at home to win on aggregate, and same goes for Colorado against Seattle. Who will go to the final?

Impact manager Mauro Biello is a club legend and Montreal native, ever since his playing days in the 90s and 00s when the club wasn’t even in the MLS or top-tier. Glad to see him bringing his club some great performances (also a CONCACAF Champions League final against Club América in 2015) and a better record in the MLS than any previous Impact manager. Oh I’d wish for Bernier (club legend and captain) to lift the cup before he retires (he’s 37). Allez Montréal!
John Blakeway (you don’t get a 61,000 crowd in the MLS often)

Football needs to act on the big issues
The recent sexual abuse case involving Crewe has made me realise that football really is a microcosm of society and this is a sad fact.

I feel for the courageous men who are having to dig up memories they would have carefully concealed for so many years. Getting it out in the open is probably offering them some sort of closure, but the trauma of having to live through that again must be horrifying. In my teenage years football was all that mattered to me. Gaining my coaches praise for a goal, tackle or training well was more important than anything my parents would say to me. My dream (like most readers of this fantastic site I would think) was to be a footballer, but clearly a lack of talent and hard work meant it remained a dream.

But I can envisage how a coach, offering me a path to achieve my dream could create the environment of dependency which was used to prey on these poor boys. It does have a striking resemblance the recent case in the US. Joe Paterno was an institution at Penn State coaching the football team for decades. One of his coaches did commit such horrific acts on young students and his reaction still causes controversy. It calls into question what people at Crewe knew about this case. I hope that the ghastly individual responsible acted alone, as the ramifications for the club and football in general will be catastrophic. It’s time for the whole footballing landscape to shift its focus and act on the instances of racism, homophobia and sexual abuse.

I’d like to hope these courageous men who have gone through hell, find some solace and justice for what has been done to them and that the wider football community can act, not in self-interest or in protecting legacies, but in the interest of the victims who have till now been bullied and silenced.
Samuel