Misplaced confidence at Arsenal?

Much has been said about Arsenal's lack of confidence and I can tell you now I'm lacking it just as much as the players. If Arsene Wenger continues to insist on playing square pegs in round holes and with four attacking midfielders with non-specific roles I cannot see much chance of improvement.

Even against Sunderland! Especially against Sunderland, who be keen to shut up shop after their 8-0 mauling at the hands of Southampton.

Here I go again, warning you of a possible catastrophe! Woe is me, you might say. But also, woeful is the team that turned out but didn't turn up against Anderlecht until the last few minutes.

How Arsenal carved out a win in Brussels is hard to say. A Beckhamesque cross from Chambers and a sublime volleyed finish from Gibbs got Arsenal an undeserved equaliser late on.

Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal's only shining light on the night, wouldn't settle for a point. His efforts led to a chance of a goal that the out-of-favour Podolski dutifully despatched.

Before that clichés like 'knife through butter' came to mind, as Anderlecht broke time and time again through the middle of Arsenal's midfield. It made realise again the importance of a holding midfielder, with Flamini off the pitch and subbed. No wonder former Arsenal midfielder Frimpong took to Twitter to sound off!

I felt like doing more than tweeting, but what can we do as fans? All we can do, is watch on frustrated as our team implodes in front of us. As so many observers have pointed out, it's the lack of a balanced squad that's letting us down.

Fabregas's form at Chelsea is a constant reminder about how ridiculous Arsenal's transfer policy is. It's true, the Gunners have a lot to choose from in the midfield department generally, but I don't see Cesc as similar to the others at the club.

The reason usually cited for not bringing Cesc back is Ozil. I really think the two could have played in the same team. Had Cesc returned, I'd have played him deep alongside Flamini. Then we could have had the so-called wide midfielders, who rarely hug the touch line, and Ozil playing in his number 10 position. Sounds like a good line-up to me.

Instead, we have Ozil crocked, after mostly playing as an out-of-sorts and out-of-position winger, and hotch-potch of creative midfielders with one defensive midfielder. No wonder we've not been in form! The system is all too haphazard for my liking. Yes, it's difficult for the opposition to track our runners, but as we rarely crowd the box it's neither here nor there!

I really believe creativity works best when it's structured. At Arsenal, it seems to be one up front and a free-for-all in the attacking midfield slots. When you've got Joel Campbell having to play on the right wing, as happened when he came on against Anderlecht, it really smacks of square pegs in round holes. To give Campbell his due, he did okay there. However, it's not really fair to play someone making his way in the game out of position and expect him to make it his own. Luckily for him, he's looked more lively than a lot of his team-mates, so the fans seem happy with the glimpses they've seen.

Talking of glimpses, that's all you get of the younger players, like Hector Bellerin. I'm not sure why he didn't play against Anderlecht, when nearly everyone expected him to. Instead, Wenger opted to play Monreal at centre back, a position he mostly struggles in. This meant playing Chambers at right back against an extremely quick left-sided opponent. Surely that was a game designed for the lightning-fast Bellerin, who would have found it easier to nullify the threat than Chambers, whose comparative lack of pace exposed him at times.

Personally, I think Chambers is more suited to the centre back position. I can only guess that Wenger played Monreal instead of Bellerin because of seniority. That's not a valid reason, in my book.

If we want the team to grow in confidence then we should adopt a system where everyone knows their responsibilities. How many of Arsenal's attacking midfielders track back? Do they know who they're supposed to track? That's why we look so open to the counter-attack, in my opinion.

Another thing that would help Arsenal's confidence would be playing people in their best positions. Additionally, it wouldn't do any harm to consider the opposition when we set our team up. That's not the Wenger philosophy apparently, so I don't see that happening any time soon.

Hopefully, we will still have enough to breeze past the lesser lights of the Premier League but, the way we huffed and puffed to beat Anderlecht, I very much doubt. I had to laugh with Gibbs said it's a 'difficult place to go'. Has he seen Anderlecht's results in the Champions League?

Still, no game is easy, as we're about to find out at Sunderland. Wenger will make every match doubly difficult if they don't take into consideration the opposition when selecting the team.

Hopefully, lessons have been learned at Anderlecht. If Monreal starts again at centre back though, we'll know that Wenger is going to continue to select senior players over younger ones. It's a reckless policy that he may one day regret.

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Mats and Mata for Arsenal?

We're are so far away from the transfer window, but Arsenal are as far from the top of the table, after the latest hiccough against Hull.

More than half the Arsenal fans polled on the official website were predicting 12 points from the next 4 league games, prior to the draw clawed away from the Tigers; unfortunately, it was a case of misplaced optimism.

Now it's knee-jerk reaction time, which is equally misplaced. 'Drop Per Mertesacker' some say. What? Is this the same defender most fans wanted as the new Arsenal captain this summer?

'Act in haste but repent at leisure' is a phrase that comes to mind. The Germany international has not become a bad player overnight. However, he was partnered with a makeshift central defensive partner in Nacho Monreal, and clearly that has negatively impacted on his game.

To put thing right at the back, Arsenal do need an addition to the squad as Arsene Wenger has acknowledged. For me, that addition would Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels. The only problem is a £32million price tag. Arsenal's transfer kitty is reportedly £12million short of that sum.

Therefore, some sources maintain Arsenal will make moves for Atletico Madrid midfielder Mario Suarez Mata. He's not getting an awful lot of game time and will be a lot cheaper. Suddenly, it sounds more like a potential Arsenal purchase: off the radar and cheap as Chips (Keswick?).

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Khedira won't be a new Vieira at Arsenal, sorry!

Arsenal's current crop keep getting 'Strictly Crocked Passing', so it's time to invite new recruits onto Shad Forsythe's stage. Some more are likely to waltz around before hobbling off to Forsythe's sickbay, like Mesut Ozil, unfortunately. But can we blame the Germany international for his waltzing skills when he's a foxtrot specialist?

So who's to say we won't try to convert Edinson Cavani into a goalkeeper? That's what Arsenal seem to specialise in: taking a specialist, who's worth a lot and turning him into a more generic player, who's nothing more than an 'also ran'. Except by the time they've lost their confidence, they're too demoralised to run, so they're just an 'also', if that. Ask Andrey Arshavin, if you don't believe me.

However, while I'm talking about impossible transfers like Cavani, I might as well talk about one that might happen: the arrival of Sami Khedira. Arsenal Robert legend, Robert Pires, is waxing lyrical about the prospect of the Germany international becoming the new Patrick Vieira, according to the Daily Star.

While, I would agree, it would be good to have somebody else other than Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini who is able to play as a defensive midfielder, I'm not sure Khedira is the answer. I question his work rate. Nevertheless, his skill is undoubted.

Then again, I do question Pires when he claims Arsenal's midfield is 'young'. Excuse me, since when did 32 (Arteta), 30 (Flamini), and 34 (Tomas Rosicky) count as 'young' in football?

If Pires can sell Khedira that well, then perhaps a career as football agent beckons for him...once he's finished tearing up the inaugural Indian Premier League.

Arsenal still stocked with crocks

So Ozil's out, is he? For 10-12 weeks with a partially ruptured collateral left-knee ligament. Wow! Here we go again.

Newly recruited fitness and recovery coach Shad Forsythe was supposed to put a stop to all this injury nonsense. Instead, we're still stocked with crocks and unable to fire our one smoking barrel on that famous cannon.

Look how many games we've had players out injured for (according to The Sun) in 2014.
Theo (knee) 37 and counting (until the end of October)
Diaby (knee, hip) 35
Rambo (thigh, hamstring) 21
Bendtner (ankle) 19
Sanogo (hamstring, thigh) 15
Wilshere (foot, ankle) 13
Monreal (ankle, back) 12
Gibbs (ankle, hamstring) 12
Gnabry (knee) 12
Giroud (ankle, shin) 11
Vermaelen (knee, hamstring) 11
Kallstrom (back) 10
Arteta (calf, ankle) 8
Ozil (thigh, hamstring) 8
Ox (groin) 6
Debuchy (ankle) 5
Koscielny (hamstring) 4
Flames (thigh) 3
Rosicky (nose, thigh) 3
Ospina (hip) 3

Interestingly, Ryo Miyaichi's missed games don't make the list; while not a shoo-in for Premier League games, he could have been on the bench occasionally, if fit.

Also, I'd dispute that Rosicky has only missed 3 games this year through injury. That can't be right. Okay, maybe he's not as seemingly in love with the sickbay as he once was, but it's hard to believe he's had such a clean bill of health.

Meanwhile, I can't believe some fans are saying we're better off without Ozil. If that's true, it's only because Wenger persists in playing him on the wing. Perhaps other players are more able to play there and contribute both defensively and in an attacking sense than Ozil is.

So perhaps it will seem we're better off, when the fixture list is kinder and our out-of-position star is out of action. As long as Ozil's replacement isn't Rosicky or Diaby, I really can imagine results improving.

The one thing I'm not sure about is Ozil's comeback. Sometimes injuries last as long as club's want them to. If you have a captain who's not your first-choice, why not say he's injured rather than dropped. Will something similar happen with Ozil? Mmm, well, nothing surprises me in the cloak or should it be 'crock' and dagger game of football.

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Arsenal's blancmange must harden

Arsenal's need of a new Patrick Vieira was brought on home to me all the more today, upon reading extracts of Roy Keane's new book.

It's riveting stuff and interesting that he referred to Arsenal as 'a big team'. Obviously, that's not the case now, apart from Mertesacker (who's a gentle giant anyway), we haven't got anyone who seems physically imposing.

Even my favourite midfielder at the time, Manu Petit, was no a player to be trifled with. Now we're more like blancmange in the middle: easy to slice through and prone to wobbling.

It pains me to say it, but I'm starting to think Flamini is not quite good enough in the holding role. At least, if he's by himself. Had Wenger 're-paired' him with Cesc (a partnership that took us to the top of the league), it could have been 'oh so different'.

Instead, we sit languishing in the middle of the table, looking upwards at certain teams we'd normally look down upon.

Anyway, we've had some tough fixtures, so we just have to be stoic and wait for the blancmange to harden. Or wait for reinforcements in January!

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