THE LOWDOWN | Arsenal Q & A

A team in transition after the departure of Arsene Wenger at the end of the 2017/18 season, Arsenal have yet to resolve their contradictions. We fired six questions at Louis, who writes for fansite @Gunnersc0m, to gain an insight into how the Gunners are shaping up this season...

1. The Gunners are well into their second season under Unai Emery, who accepted the unenviable challenge of replacing club legend Arsene Wenger. How has the football been under Emery and how much progress has he made?

The football under Emery has been very pragmatic, Emery’s main focus in the majority of games is the opposition. Wenger used to focus on our players and style too much (particularly naively in the big games) whereas Emery often sets us up to stop opponents rather than impose our own style on them.

As a result, Arsenal have actually made a bit more progress in the big games as we’ve adapted fairly well to the opponents weaknesses. For example, when we beat Chelsea at the Emirates in January of this year, Aaron Ramsey was tasked with harassing and pressing Jorginho which helped us win the game. Wenger would never have set up to stop an opponent like this.

Having said that, Emery’s pragmatism has hurt the team, these days our record against the lower teams seems to be worse. Emery often sets up so defensively that we just end up inviting unnecessary pressure on ourselves, yet despite this defensive approach we concede more goals under the Spaniard than we did under Arsene.

A recent example of this is the fact that we conceded 31 shots to Watford at Vicarage road. Astonishingly Man City had 28 shots against Watford six days later despite beating the Hornets 8-0! So overall there has been a bit of progress in the big games, but not that much progress all in all as our defensive frailties have got worse.

2. Much has been made about Arsenal's attacking gifts and defensive frailties...is it too simple to say that 2/3 top defenders would transform the Gunners into title contenders?

I wouldn’t say that’s too simple a statement, Liverpool went from a top 6 team to Champions League finalists within 6 months due to Virgil Van Dijk’s influence. It should never be underestimated how much one player can improve a team, the issue is finding a defender of that magnitude.

Arsenal currently look pretty strong in the full back areas with Bellerin and Tierney now back fit, we also have the highly-rated William Saliba next season once he finishes his loan at St. Etienne. I think if Arsenal signed a world class centre back to slot in alongside those three, we’d be stronger defensively.

In the big games our defensive issues are often in midfield, when we lose the ball we’re just not compact enough which leaves holes all over the pitch to exploit. We also have the likes of Granit Xhaka, who is so poor at tracking runs off the ball and just does not sense danger.

As good as our front three of Aubameyang, Lacazette and Pepe is, it does lack balance. Auba is a lethal goalscorer and by Lacazette starting, the Gabonese is out on the left flank and further away from goal. Interestingly, Arsenal had 5 Premier League matches in September, 4 of which Lacazette missed due to injury, meaning that Auba was played centrally in the attack. The Gabonese won the Premier league player of the month, which wasn’t a coincidence in my opinion. He simply scores more goals the more central and closer to the goal he is.

So a centre back, another defensive midfielder and potentially a left winger would transform Arsenal as title challengers in my opinion.

5⃣0⃣ Prior to the international break, @Aubameyang7
reached a half-century of Premier League starts for Arsenal.

In total, he's played 57 top flight games for the Gunners: scoring 39 goals and laying on 9 assists.💥#Arsenal #AFC pic.twitter.com/UhFUWKptbi

— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) October 18, 2019

3. Give us the lowdown on new boys Nicolas Pepe and Dani Ceballos - are they living up to the hype?

So far they haven’t fully lived up to the hype. Pepe has looked really sharp at times, but has also put in some very poor performances such as at Old Trafford. I personally believe Pepe is a wide forward who needs space to run into off the ball, and when dribbling he needs a striker that can combine with one twos.

Aubameyang isn’t that striker unfortunately, he’s an amazing goal scorer but he doesn’t really bring others into play too much. What’s more Auba makes the same type of runs into the same areas as Pepe which is making the Ivorian’s job a little more difficult. I think Pepe will link up better with Lacazette, who likes to drop into the hole, leaving space in which Aubameyang and Pepe can run into. It’s still kind of early days for Pepe but I’ve seen enough to think he will come good.

As for Dani Ceballos he’s a neat, tidy and technically gifted player. The type of player that is appreciated by Arsenal fans. He’s good on the ball and switches play well, right now one of the issues for the Spaniard is that Emery has mainly used the 4231 formation this season, meaning that Ceballos has started as a number 10. So far it looks like he’s more of a number 8 suited to a 433, as he often starts in high positions off the ball but drops deeper to get on the ball.

One issue I’ve had with him so far is he takes too many touches of the ball, sometimes a simple two or three touches will suffice but he takes a few more than necessary. He also seems to struggle physically in terms of duels and endurance in games. At Anfield he got ran off the park, pressed and harried by Liverpool’s midfield, whereas Joe Willock who is less technically gifted looked a lot more assured and was able to match Henderson.

Ceballos is a good player to have and I’m glad we’ve got him, but he hasn’t overawed me yet and I don’t think he should be a 100% guaranteed started as of now.

4. Just how good is Gabriel Martinelli - have Arsenal fans taken to him? Do you see him challenging Aubameyang and Lacazette for a start this season?

Gabriel Martinelli looks like a special player, he’s not your typical Brazilian flair-ridden forward but what he does have is superb energy with and without the ball. He’s a menace off the ball and presses like a man possessed, he makes some really smart runs which is great to see.

What also really impresses me is his heading ability, he doesn’t leap amazingly to get to balls but his direction and accuracy of his headers is really special. He can play anywhere across the front three which makes him invaluable and it seems like he has a great attitude. I don’t see him challenging Aubameyang and Lacazette this season, but I expect him to start every Europa league and Carabao Cup game.

In fact he’s definitely one to watch when Arsenal travel to Anfield in the next round of the league cup. Long term I think Martinelli will be a great understudy to Aubameyang. Since we now have Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah returning from loan next season, the Arsenal board may be tempted to sell Lacazette IF they can use the money to strengthen other parts of the starting XI.

©Getty / Julian Finney

5. A controversial remnant of the Wenger era, Mesut Ozil certainly divides opinion. Do you agree with Emery's treatment of Ozil (just 71 Premier League minutes this season) - would you be sad to see him go if he leaves in the January transfer window?

I don’t agree with Mesut Ozil only getting 71 premier league minutes this season, in my opinion he’s definitely past his best technically and physically so he should no longer be a guaranteed starter.

However he’s definitely useful enough to be worthy of more minutes than he’s received. In the big games (particularly the away ones) I’d probably be against starting him as he just leaves us too open off the ball. But for matches at the Emirates where we’re trying to break down well-organised deep blocks I think I would start him.

I do also wonder whether Emery is being asked by the board not to include him in the squad at times. Ozil’s on £350k a week and if he decides to leave (looks extremely unlikely he’d want to go) that frees Arsenal’s hand massively in the transfer market. If he left in January I wouldn’t be gutted as that £350K a week could be reinvested in the summer to improve the squad.

Nonetheless, I’d be very disappointed in the way its ended for Mesut, he was one of my favourite Arsenal players for years, helped us end our 9 year trophy drought and undoubtedly one of the greatest players of the Emirates era.

6. In terms of a league finish this season: what are expectations?

At the start of the season I, like many Arsenal fans believed we absolutely had to get top 4 and that’s definitely still the case. Considering how poor United are and the fact that Chelsea are having a transition season (despite actually doing well under Lampard) we must get top 4.

Spurs have been surprisingly and hilariously poor which is even better for us, we don’t play another top 6 team until 14th December when we face City. So if we go on a good run of form we could actually finish in the top 3 which seemed pretty unlikely at the start of the season.

The board backed Emery with good signings in the summer so he absolutely has to finish in the top 4, anything less is an undoubted failure for the club. I do expect us to get a Champions League spot, mainly due to the flaws of Chelsea and United.

For more great content focusing on Arsenal, check out the Gunners.com website and give them a follow on Twitter. 

Arsenal's next 8 fixtures:

Sheffield A
Palace H
Wolves H
Leicester A
Saints H
Norwich A
Brighton H
West Ham A

Would like this XI to get a consistent run of games with Ceballos/Ozil & Willock/Torreira interchanging when need be. Assuming Laca won't be ready for Sheffield. #AFC pic.twitter.com/8tQimVKVs3

— Gunners.com (@Gunnersc0m) October 18, 2019