To celebrate his 20th year at the club, Arsene faces the Italian tactician that is Antonio Conte. So how can he outwit the Chelsea boss?
Arsenal’s system has looked very fluid in the past two games, with a nice right sided overload coming into play – Walcott has performed well as a natural winger, Bellerin overlaps keenly, and Iwobi tends to cut in from the left side. This shifts the defence to one side and opens up space to drift into for Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. Many have also called for Kieran Gibbs to be brought in, and with a fairly average player (in terms of one on one play) in Willian, he shouldn’t be pinned back all too much, This should continue at the weekend, as the Alexis experiment begins to bear fruit.
We should also look at the best central duo combination – and we can’t just base it on ability, we must look at partnerships. Against a player like Ngolo Kante, do we want the limited mobility of Cazorla and Coquelin, or the power of Xhaka and Elneny, who took Forest apart in midweek? Arsenal always tend to get bullied by Chelsea, and so we should see Xhaka at least come in.
Focusing on the opposition, we have seen a patchy 4-1-4-1 with Kante performing wonders in the holding role, but a strange combination of Matic and Oscar behind Costa. The attacking player that really needs to be picked up is, of course, Eden Hazard, but Chelsea’s attacking midfielders don’t look all too threatening at the minute, strengthening the case for a Xhaka Elneny partnership.
As said before, I would be looking to take advantage of Chelsea’s erratic defence by playing wide – Walcott may be crucial in this game.
This match may be all about tactics, but be settled by temperament. Mustafi and Koscielny are collected players, but you do fear a red for a player such as Xhaka – keep the heads, and at least some points should come Arsenal’s way.
