van Persie to the replacement of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The substitution was made at a time when the team and Oxlade-Chamberlain in particular seemed to have a great deal of momentum. The reasons for the sub appeared unclear at the time and are still a mystery to those other than Arsène Wenger. The boss
Maintain control of the ball and you can also ‘pass teams to death’ - keep them chasing until they tire and be ready to capitalise later on in games. This is the attacking element of possession. We’ve seen this quite a lot in recent years with Wenger keen for his teams to be ultra-fit so as to take advantage in the dying moments. Something that often gets overlooked in teams who aim to monopolise possession is the amount of running they do off-the-ball simply to find pockets of space to give their teammates more passing options and thus create a higher chance of
The calls to change to 4-4-2 are definitely becoming more numerous but why is that? One reasons is that, in the Premier League at least, the 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 is in vogue. The Manchester clubs have raced out of the traps using this formation (albeit different variations of the same shape). The red half have done what Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams have so often done in the past and used their pacy wingers to
It is clear that over the last year or so Wenger has been looking to add more fleet-footed players to the squad in the hope of producing a team more proficient at the counter-attack. This can be seen in the signings of Ryo Miyaichi, Wellington Silva, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gervinho who are more suited to being played out wide on the flanks. It is commonly stated that there is no replacement for raw pace. Yes, defenders can compensate by anticipating play well or using expert positioning. Managers
Everyone knows why it’s beneficial to press. It gives a team a greater chance of winning the ball higher up the pitch and consequently produces a higher probability of an attempt at goal. Furthermore, it enables a team to have more possession and therefore dictate the game. Pressing is also beneficial from a defensive stand point. It puts pressure on the opposition resulting in their passing (including final balls) becoming more rushed and thus of a lesser quality for the defence to deal with. I’ll make no