Solving Arsenal’s Problem in the Midfield

Arsenal might not have purchased an outfield player in the transfer window and only brought in Petr Cech but they have always had a pretty strong squad and all they needed to do was to ensure that their players stay fit for the majority of the season. If they can achieve that, they have a great chance of at least doing well in the league but with everyone staying fit, it does cause a problem or two for the Gunners.

An overload of talent for a few positions

Ozil, Wilshere, Ramsey, Arteta, Coquelin, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Flamini and Cazorla, that is nine midfielders who are fighting for a maximum of four positions in midfield. Arsene might have wanted cover for his midfielders and that would mean a requirement of six midfielders since Arsene players three attackers at the top with three midfielders helping them out.

The fact that the club have nine quality signings for the few midfield roles has seen Wenger try out some rather interesting tactics. One of those was to play Aaron Ramsey down the left of the attack, in an advanced position, that did not work out too well as the Welsh midfielder does a better job in the centre of midfield or as the attacker behind the striker.

Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky are ageing stars and probably will not be at the club long but they still would be knocking on the door for a few chances and Wenger has to deal with these experienced players as well. The fact that Coquelin is ahead of Flamini might have led the more experienced Frenchman out of the club but Wenger still decided to keep him at the club. The same can be said about Arteta and Rosicky, they might have the experience but it wasn’t a necessity to keep all of them.

The biggest question mark has been about Wilshere and his ability to stay fit, which has hampered his progress in the Arsenal team. Wilshere has the ability to play at a world-class level, if he plays regularly but that has not been possible over the years due to various injuries and that has seen Santi Cazorla take up the midfield role beside the defensive midfielder.

Arsenal has too many options and even have had to try out other players in different roles. Theo Walcott was used as the only striker in the narrow 1-0 win over Newcastle recently. Ozil has also been tried out in an advanced role and also in midfield but the German has been hot and cold for Arsenal, ever since he signed for them, well after a brilliant first half of his first season at least.

Arsene probably kept such a large midfield thinking that injuries and a dip in form of a few players might lead him to shake things up a bit. That might be an option for Wenger at the moment but keeping so many players at the club happy could be a tough task for him, especially with limited game time for most of them.