Typical Arsenal. Out of every competition, practically out of the title race and the team puts in arguably its best performance of the season against Watford. The team played with attacking fluidity and intent, stability defensively, and with freedom. The performance was indicative of a side playing without any pressure. With Leicester City’s win at the weekend over Southampton, it looks unlikely that Arsenal will put together a real title challenge late in the year, but the performance of the team is quite promising. It brings up the question of what can this squad do when healthy? This is not to say that Wenger should not bring in reinforcements in the summer, but to look at how the team could have done this year if injury free.
The squad on paper is very solid and has depth at every position. With Petr Cech in goal and David Ospina in his current form, either goalkeeper is a safe choice. The back four is stable with Per Mertesacker, Calum Chambers and Kieran Gibbs all capable replacements. Midfield is the key area of the team that one should look at, when discussing Arsenal’s mid-season drop. With major injuries to Santi Cazorla, Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere and even Aaron Ramsey selecting the midfield pairing was one of Wenger’s hardest decisions on match day.
Losing Cazorla saw the Frenchman lose his best performing central midfielder from last season. The Spaniard’s impact on the team is extremely underrating as he is key in recycling attacks, and keeping the passing tempo up. Losing Coquelin in the middle of the season saw the north London club lose its ball winner in midfield leaving it open to many counter-attacks. Wilshere would have provided a different type of midfielder, allowing Wenger to vary his tactics. It was quite obvious that the midfield pairing of Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini in the middle of the season exposed the team. Moving to the attacking four, Mesut Ozil is a key fixture. Fortunately for Arsene Wenger, the German has remained relatively fit all season and has performed at a very high level. Injuries to Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez left Wenger to rely on the ever unreliable and inconsistent Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott to provide goals. If Welbeck had been fully fit, based on his form this season, Arsenal could have made a real title push. Alexis’ injury not only hurt the team in his absence but it hurt the Chilean’s performances when he came back. He seems to be finding his form once again late in the season.
Yes, Arsenal need to strengthen the squad in the summer, yes Ozil was right and the team blew it against the smaller teams, and yes the north London side’s chances of winning the title are slim to none. Even despite this, the squad, when fully fit and healthy, is a force to be reckoned with, and things could have gone a bit differently had the team escaped from so many major injuries.
