Arsenal : Outlook on the new season

With a draw at anfield followed by two wins -one being a stern test at blackburn- its been a good start for gunners. But, before this was relished came the much dreaded injury scare. With RVP and Walcott out for few weeks, the arsenal attack looks grim.

So,on the backdrop of the start and the injuries, how are the prospects for the arsenal side in this new season?

The Squad

As expected, wenger was frugal during this transfer market too. Although, wenger did reinforce the squad with good signings, the failure in signing of a goalkeeper came as a disappointment. The lack of quality goalkeepers available and the stubborn fulham manager hughes might be the reasons for it. Anyways, with a good defensive cover before him this season almunia might not be that bad. As long as there are no season ending injuries like last season the squad has enough depth and it might put a credible challenge to the title.

Defence

Koscienly, another french signing from wenger, seems to be a good bargain, more so, when you consider him along with Vermaelen. Vermaelen is a quick attacker on the ball and he tries to recover the ball very quickly due to which he was caught out of position many times during last season. The particular example being the match against manchester united where he was seen following rooney to the centre of the pitch which led to the goal scored by park. Contrarily, Koscienly is a good reader of the game like gallas and he could fall back when vermaelen makes forward runs. S0, they would make a very good partnership together. Particularly because koscienly is very good with one-on-ones as we have seen in the liverpool game where he won one-on- ones over torres.

So, with vermalen good on tackles and Koscienly good on one -on-ones and both of them having good cover in the form of djourou and squillaci, the defense looks very good over that of the last season. But, what might go wrong?

The main problem could come when the other team plays longballs, which was seen in the balckburn game where they were totally trying to take advantage of this weakness. But, somehow arsenal managed to get out unscathed. But, with big four teams this could be a problem.

The High line of the arsenal defence is also a problem and this one led to the goal of Ngog in the liverpool match and the goals scored by ibrahmovich at arsenal in the last season. Vermaelen was at fault with the goal of ibrahimovic where he committed quite early and lost the tackle. S0, he would do well to avoid such mistakes this season.

Coming to the fullbacks, Clichy is not at his best . He is neither playing well in the attack nor in the defence. The goal given to blackburn being the particular example where he totally lost track of his man. In the attack he seems to always stay at the touchline whereas someone like ashley cole would cut in to cross. Gibbs looks good in this respect and it wouldn't be a surprise if he is preferred over clichy in the coming months. Elsewhere, sagna is having stellar performances. His crossing looks quiet improved over the last term and so he was involved in the goals this season.

S0, overall the defence looks improved and if they could put performances like the one at blackburn, they might concede very few goals than they have during the last season.

Midfield

With no new addition during the transfer market the midfield is same as last seasons but the players are more experienced and are expected to give much better performances. Song had an outstanding season last term and he is expected to be crucial for the side this term too. With Fabregas opting to be a gunner this season too and Rosicky back to form there seems to be many options for Arsene.

With arsenal likely to play 4-2-3-1 this season with two holding midfielders and one attacking midfielders, many combinations are possible.

Holding Midfielders

Song, as always, will start as one of them when he is fit. The other holding midfielder is the one to be chosen. The selection would vary from match to match depending on the opposition. If its a weak opposition then the arsenal might go with a more attack minded player and there would be a slight tilt in the formation where this player would be high up the field compared to song. And with big opposition and difficult games diaby is expected to start as we have seen in the blackburn match. Diaby would provide strength and tackling to the midfield but the problem with him is inconsistency.

Diaby: Mr.Inconsistent

To me most crucial to this season will be the consistent performances from diaby, with a 4-2-3-1 formation diaby's role would be crucial. The main prospect for him is to tackle the opponents as quickly as possible and distribute the ball to the attackers. But, as we have seen last season he lingers on the ball too much and provides time for the opponents to readjust rather than passing it quickly. The other problem being he distributes ball largely to the central players and thus reducing the width of play. If he overcomes this problem and if he plays more consistently this might be his season.

Out of the two holding midfielder song would play a role similar to that of sweeper while the other one would provide cover for song during defending and make forward runs like those of diaby. Diaby is expected to be staying back when song surges forward thus there is always atleast one holding player in front of defence. The other players for the position being denilson, frimpong, and ramsey when he returns.

The attacking midfield player will be one among fabregas, Nasri and rosicky. As always they would take the role of playmaker and will be the creative outlets of the squad.

Pressing

Pressing was the main feature of barcelona and spain and it proved sucessful. This was done during the start of the match against the barcelona at emirates in the last season but as the match progressed the players lost track. This part of the game would be crucial since arsenal play is dependent on possession and without pressing the opponents its difficult to gain possession. This season with chamakh playing , he would also be expected to drop deep and press for the ball as he has done in the last two matches. Arshavin lacks in this respect and he would do well to try to tackle rather than standing at the touchline.

Attack

Arsenal has one of the best attack in the premierleague and with addition of chamakh it has improved more.The main problem in the attack is the injury concern. With bendtner away till January and injury prone RVP. Its crucial that chamakh stays fit.

Arshavin and Midfield

There have been many accusations on arshavin about his involvement in the game. As I said earlier he has bad at defending and is quite lazy but in terms of attack the problem lies elsewhere. Arshavin's tally is good in terms of goals scored and assists and he has delivered when he's got the ball. The problem being, him not provided with the ball. Arsenal's midfield always seem to play narrow and provide ball to the central players . Particularly fabregas who always gives ball to RVP even when arshavin is free on the touchline and asking for the ball. This could change with the arrival of chamakh as he seems to swap positions with arshavin as he has done in the balckpool game which lead to the goal of walcott. Arshavin can do magic and can win games when provided with the ball. S0, midfield should consider distributing the ball wide when possible (particularly diaby and fabregas).

As told earlier the attack when not in position should press the opponents and recover the ball. This was the reason why eboue was played in the front three against manchester united who did well to stop runs from evra and nasri was played in the place of arshavin in barcelona match so that he would run and recover the ball when not in position.

Another important factor is run-ins from the wideplayers ( arshavin and walcott) like the one of walcott in the second goal at balckburn where he took the right back of balckburn along with him providing space and time for sagna to deliver the cross.

With chamakh dropping deep and arshavin and walcott running in we could expect more goals from arsenal than the last season.

Formation

Contrary to the last season, the arsenal started palying this season with 4-2-3-1 as their formation and it proved succesful till now. The main reason - as it seems- behind this shift in the formation is to provide cover for the frail defence.

4-2-3-1

As we saw, last season arsenal was attacking quiet wide and during the defence they were narrow. The side tried to recover the ball high up the field to decrease the pressure on the single holding player in the 4-1-2-3 wich was song. But, due to some lacklustre performances from diaby,denilson and co in the positions high up the pitch the ball wasn't recovered and the defence was exposed.

Wenger tried to provide cover during this season by playing diaby alongside song in the balckburn match. Along with this the defence line was also quite high up the pitch which was seen in the liverpool match when Ngog was caught offside manytimes. The particular advantage of the high line being very less space between the midfield and defence and thus resulting in quick recovery of the ball.

In the attack, with the same four attacking players the scenario isn't much different form the last season, expect for the fact that Chamakh would provide aerial threat which would act as plan B in difficult situations.

Conclusion

Overall, the prospects look good for the gunners. The crucial factors would be the form of almunia and the injuries. Without any longterm injuries and with slight luck, who knows, this might be the season.