After Unai Emery’s trial by fire in the Premier League with two tough fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal have turned things around with back-to-back wins against West Ham and Cardiff City.
As things stand going into the international break, the Gunners sit in ninth place with six points. It’s not the ideal start under a new regime but fans are happy to see some sort of progress with respect to the team’s tactics and organisation on the pitch.
Arsenal are far from being the finished product, especially in defence. Criticism has been directed at the coach for asking a 36-year-old Petr Cech to learn new tricks and pass out from the back while the back-line has already leaked 8 goals and is yet to keep a clean sheet.
But at the other end, the attacking players are slowly finding the right wavelength to make things work and it’s only a matter of time before the fluid attacking moves become a constant rather than mere flashes in the pan.
However, the one headache Emery has to resolve is his choice for the no.10 role. For a coach who prefers a 4-2-3-1 formation, he has alternated between Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil in that position and the team has achieved mixed results.
The first thing Emery wants his no.10 to do is to initiate the press. While the centre-forward is the first line of defence, he cannot do it on his own – although Alexandre Lacazette impressed with his work rate and harrying defenders in his first start of the season.
But it is the central attacking midfielder’s press that causes problems to the opponents. Centre-forwards can easily be bypassed and it is the no.10’s role to reduce passing options to increase their chances of winning the ball back.
That is one of the reasons why Ozil has been deployed on the right rather than in the centre. Ramsey is a far better option because he has the lungs to press for the entire game and is suited to Emery’s style of putting pressure to win the ball back in the opponent’s half.
Ozil is not a workhorse and cannot compete physically with his opponents to win the ball back as well as his Welsh teammate. His skills are far more useful on the ball. And that brings us to Emery’s other concern.