It may be a new Premier League season but some things never change; Sunday’s predominant instalment of déjà vu being yet another false dawn from ever-also-rans Arsenal.
Of course, how you finish the season is far more important than how you start and the 2-0 defeat to West Ham was just the first of 38 games in Arsenal’s pursuit of the English title. If there’s a silver lining to be taken from the Gunners’ tepid opening day display, rendering them rock bottom of the Premier League table, it’s that reigning champions Chelsea didn’t fare much better – drawing 2-2 with Swansea City at Stamford Bridge after going down to ten men.
Yet, following a pre-season in which the Gunners beat all of their opponents to produce an aggregate score line of 15-1 – seeing them claim such vastly coveted accolades as the Asia Trophy, the Community Shield and their self-invented Emirates Cup – amid a transfer window in which they’ve spent a paltry £10million on just one player, you can’t help but think Arsenal have entered the 2015/16 campaign naively; expecting the Premier League’s rank and file to simply bow down to the might of their midfield and the gap between themselves the other title contenders to be closed by the sheer presence of Petr Cech.
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If Arsene Wenger needed any proof, the Hammers provided it in abundance on Sunday. Petr Cech isn’t the answer to all of the north London’s problems – in fact, he created some of his own with the ill-fated decision to try and collect the looping Dimitri Payet free-kick that resulted in West Ham’s first goal. Clearly, Arsenal’s flaws stem a little deeper than simply the level of quality between their sticks.
He may not have committed an individual error like Arsenal’s debuted No.1 or a financially unjustifiable display like £42.2million signing Mesut Ozil, who is still trying to claw his way out of Reece Oxford’s pocket, but Francis Coquelin’s performance against the Irons really disappointed me – and created further doubts over whether he’s a realistic long-term option for Arsenal or was simply caught in a zeitgeist last season.
West Ham’s game plan wasn’t a particularly complicated one; three holding players to bog down the midfield with £12million signing Dimitri Payet playing just ahead and chipping into the defensive side of things whenever possible. The former Marseille man should have spent the afternoon struggling for room to breathe, yet he outmuscled, outpaced and outthought his countryman to run riot at the Emirates, completing 56 touches, 42 passes, four successful dribbles and two created chances.
Indeed, when Arsenal are pinning opponents back, Coquelin sweeps up loose balls with ease. Likewise, when the Gunners are compact in midfield – their 2-0 win over Manchester City last season being the predominant example – the ‘detective’ marshals his zone simply yet effectively. But against the Hammers, the north London outfit needed authoritative physicality to snub out counter-attacks before they encroached the halfway line, and in that regard the 24-year-old abundantly failed to deliver.
He actually finished the match, albeit substituted before the hour mark, without making a single tackle; the antithesis of the aggression required not just in the Premier League, but particularly against a West Ham outfit boasting brute force in every department. I don’t hold this against Coquelin – I certainly don’t think he’s a bad footballer or even a bad defensive midfielder. The fact is, in terms of midfield muscle, he’s currently the best Arsenal have.
Likewise, the Gunners lacked real venom in the final third. Much of the post-match analysis was devoted to how West Ham’s midfield funnel had forced the Gunners into attacking from less habitual wide positions. But even when the ball did find its way into good areas (as you can see from the heat map below, they spent a fair amount of time in the visitor’s penalty box) that cutting edge, that clinical streak you’d quickly associate with Chelsea’s Diego Costa or Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, was lacking.
There’s been a big debate about whether Olivier Giroud or Theo Walcott should be Arsene Wenger’s first choice of centre-forward this season. Well, both featured against West Ham and managed just two shots on target between them. Neither have ever truly reached the realms of prolific throughout their careers and that really showed on Sunday; although both are relatively dependable when converting chances, they don’t possess the skill or ingenuity to create their own in the manner Chelsea, City or Man United’s striking options can.
In my opinion, the underwhelming displays from Coquelin, Giroud and Walcott represent the problem areas requiring Wenger’s attention before September 1st. No doubt, the Gunners are stronger, in healthier shape and more competitive than last year, even if they didn’t show it against West Ham, but they’re still a few vital ingredients short of a title-winning side.
Signing Petr Cech, regardless of his world-class ability, simply doesn’t pave over all the cracks. If Arsenal are to avoid another also-ran campaign, Wenger needs to pull off some late masterstrokes in the transfer market.
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