Arsenal Is In A Defensive Crisis

Arsenal has been battling injuries all season long, but the Gunners having been doing well without one of their top two central defenders. But now they’ve lost their rock at the back for the rest of the season, and that could signal Arsenal’s downfall if you’re gambling online.

Thomas Vermaelen has been out since August because of an ailing Achilles, and the Belgian defender says he has no idea when he’ll be able to play again. That left Johan Djourou as Arsenal’s best central defender, and the Swiss has been brilliant this season under tough circumstances. But Djourou suffered a dislocated shoulder and will be out for the season, and the numbers show that Arsenal struggles at the back without him. To compound that, the Gunners have had to bring goalkeeper Jens Lehmann out of retirement in light of injuries to Wojciech Szczesny, Vito Mannone and Lukasz Fabianski, leaving Arsenal with only Manuel Almunia between the sticks. Much has been made about the time prior to Lehmann’s retirement, when he thought he was still capable of being the No.1 guy, but the Gunners were trying to bring along Almunia. Lehmann says that he doesn’t want to go through that again, and he and Almunia will have to come to some sort of agreement to make this work.

As we said, the Gunners are no strangers to injury, but to have these problems at the back at this time of year is potentially crippling. One positive way to spin it is that the Gunners only have to worry about the league title now as they’re out of the Champions League, FA Cup and Carling Cup, but they’re still chasing Manchester United in the Premier League, while trying to hold off Manchester City and Chelsea for second place. It’s going to be very interesting to see how manager Arsene Wenger handles this. Bacary Sagna will likely have to move into the middle, and there may be more time for Sebastian Squillaci, who has been less than impressive since moving to the Emirates. Finally, Laurent Koscielny has to put his disappointing play of the last couple of weeks behind him to give Arsenal a chance.

Why I think Arsenal will win the league!

In Gooner terms, to describe the last month as very very bad, would be a desperate understatement. Defeat to Birmingham, Barca and United saw us crash out of three major trophies, not to mention a disappointing draw at home to Sunderland in the league. On top of all this we have taken injury blows to Djourou, Szezny, Walcott, Song and of course our captain, Cesc. Calls in to 5 live have been requesting Arsene to leave as if we have finished in the bottom half of the table, from the outset it seems that the Gooner’s season has been turned upside down. And I think it’s fair to say we’ve hit what one would call ‘a mid-season crisis.’ But in this article I would like to explain why this little crisis shouldn’t, actually, can’t continue to overshadow our season.

Right where to start, ah yes I almost forgot. 15 years ago, Arsenal were the Aston Villa of the Premier league, in ’94 we finished 12th, in ’95 we finished 5th, as Alan Hansen would say ‘It was a mixed bag.’ Our stadium was a 40,000 seater and our fan base barely stretched over the English border. 15 years later, Arsenal are in a very very different place. We finish in the top 4 every year, our stadium capacity has increased by 20,000 and we are the most popular European club in Africa. In finances, Our yearly turnover is near that of Real Madrid and we are emerging from a huge shadow of debt faster than anyone predicted. Now I don’t think there is one person who can tell me that the grass is much greener than it was 15 years ago. To me, this has all been implemented by the success of one man, Arsene Wenger. It was he who came to us in ’96 and picked up our unsettled team from the despotic hands of Bruce Rioche. It was he who brought us the Premier league 3 times and FA Cup 4 times. Mr Wenger transformed Arsenal from top to bottom, inside out, he is behind the youth system, the team philosophy and of course the success. Arsenal is his project, creation almost, and it would be entirely foolish to sweep it out of his control.

The main subject of our criticism over the last month has been our centre midfield, or lack of. Abou Diaby and Denilson have had a fair crack of the whip, but neither of them have made any effect in games against Barca and United. With injuries to Song and Fabregas, we supposedly have a problem in the area. The answer lies with one man/boy: Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey showed us what he’s got in the latter end of last season and after recovering from injury is the perfect man for the job. Ramsey posses strength, pace, vision and determination, by the time he was savagely put out of action by Stoke last season, he was already a well established team member. If that isn’t enough to suggest that he is the obvious alternative to Diaby, Ramsey is known to improve when partnered up with Jack Wilshere who will be starting as many games as possible from now until May. In fact, the pair have already been hailed as the Gooner’s midfield future. Wilshere’s ability to retain possession and use the width of the pitch, mixed with Ramsey’s magic first touch and ability to create something out of nothing make them an irresistible duo. However, while Wilshere shows sure signs of becoming one of the best in the world, there is a small chance that Ramsey will pick up ‘Eduardo Syndrome’ and fail to return to the form which he was on before his terrible injury. This is unlikely as Ramsey has had two loan spells at Cardiff and Nottingham Forest where he has shown the same ability as previously. Ramsey and Wilshere seem like the perfect duo to rush to aid our endangered season, and if deployed, I believe they could be pivotal in the conclusion of our season

Now in terms of tactics, If we are to prevail over every opponent from now until the end of the season I believe Arsene should enforce a strict set of rules regarding selection. One starting XI should be set in concrete, by Saturday Arsene should have found the midfield combination which he wants to stick with until the return of Song and Fabregas. As fixture congestion will not be an issue there will be no need to rest anyone and the team should remain fairly similar from now until May. The team should be heavily disciplined, the victory is not stable until a 4 goal margin. Away games will be key, this weekend we play West Brom in an enormous fixture, I believe we should play away games with a far more defensive and conservative mentality than in the past, score line is utterly irrelevant, what matters is if we concede. Conceding will drain our moral and we must do everything we can to prevent it.

In terms of depth and selection we have only a slight problem, at least two players contest each outfield position, every player in our squad is top quality. I believe we can beat United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Aston Villa with the players available to us, as far off as that may seem in the current moment. Aside from tactics, I believe our main barrier is Mentality. Mentally we have cracked over the past month, the fixture congestion and pressure of big matches became too great a burden causing us to give below par performances. The rest given from only being in one competition should do us a world of good. Not only can the boss revise his strategies for upcoming matches, but the players can have time realise the clear and vital mission which they must complete to define the season. The most important thing is that our players are in positive mindset, from there, given the ability of our players, and without sounding too corny, anything is possible.

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