Arsenal FC: 10 Things the Gunners Must Do to Finish in the EPL Top 4

The five-point gap currently standing between Arsenal and a top-four finish in the Premier League is by no means insurmountable.

The teams ahead of the Gunners at this moment in time—Chelsea (fourth), Tottenham, Manchester United and leaders Manchester City—have each dropped games this season (including last weekend).

If past precedent is any indication, there will be more opportunities for Arsenal to make up ground in the months before the end of season in May.

But if Champions League football is to be obtained, Arsenal must turn around their recent form, which has seen them lose their last three Premier League games—away to Fulham and Swansea City and at home to Manchester United.

Hope, as always, remains. Whether in the guise of teenage whiz kid Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's terrific performance Sunday against Manchester United in his full Premier League debut or the promise of first-team stalwarts Bacary Sagna and Jack Wilshere's returning to the first team in the coming weeks, things are looking up, even amid the recent downpour of doom and gloom in the Arsenal camp.

Club chairman Peter Hill-Wood's recent declaration that a finish outside the top four would not be the end of the world was met with a firestorm of vitriol from supporters, but it should be taken with a grain of salt. Sure, PHW didn't put his thoughts in the best possible manner, but I believe he was merely trying to alleviate some of the tension surrounding the club.

Arsenal can still make the Champions League, and it was good to see Wenger immediately counter Hill-Wood's claim by saying that missing out on the competition would be a sort of disaster.

The Gunners should—and look likely to—make the CL a priority as this season winds down. After all, winning it may be their only guarantee for inclusion next season!

But I think they can still make the Premier League top four.

Here are 10 things they need to do to make that a reality.

Unleash the Ox

The kid is very, very good.

At just 18 years of age, what is perhaps most impressive about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain—and there's a lot to choose from—is his remarkable consistency through his nine appearances for Arsenal in 2011-12.

In three Carling Cup appearances, he has one goal. In two Champions League appearances (both against Olympiakos), he has one goal. And now, through four EPL appearances, he has one assist, which came in his full debut for the club.

Not too poor a return rate for a teenage winger in his first season of top-flight football.

Of course, there are still certain aspects of his game that need ironing out, but he is a transcendent talent, and one that should be unleashed as the season rolls onward if Arsenal are to improve upon their recent dip in form.

One feels that Wenger may just have been holding back on the reins through the first half of the season with the express intention of unleashing Oxlade-Chamberlain in the latter stages.

But at what position can he contribute the most?

Despite his often-indifferent form this season, Theo Walcott still provides important contributions at right wing, and it doesn't look like Wenger will dump a man who's been a first-choice right winger for nearly three seasons now unceremoniously to the bench.

On the left wing, Gervinho looks likely to re-assume his starting role once he returns from the African Cup of Nations, likely in February.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has certainly moved ahead of Andrei Arshavin in the pecking order at the wing position, and is jostling for a starting position—at either wing.

As he showed against United, when he and Walcott switched sides repeatedly, Oxlade-Chamberlain can put defenses under attack when attacking from the right or left.

He has superior pace to Arshavin and looks to be a better dribbler than Walcott, who it must be said, is not a true winger. The Ox also looks a more clinical finisher than Gervinho.

Intriguing attributes, and when they come together, they form a player whom I believe could hold the key to some important Arsenal results in the coming months.

Wenger has said that the former Southampton winger will get more time this spring. Just where, and how often, remains to be seen.

Get Positive Results Away from Home

It's one of the oldest adages for any successful footballing side.

Win at home, and get at least a point away.

Arsenal's losses in January to Fulham and Swansea City (3-2) weren't simply disappointing because of the manner in which they happened.

Those are the matches—when faced with middle-of-the-table sides (Fulham sit 12th, Swansea 13th in the latest EPL standings)—in which a result is of utmost importance.

Those games were there for the taking, but late goals by the hosts left the Gunners hung out to dry. That simply cannot happen if Arsenal are to make a serious push for a top-four finish.

Arsenal have shown resilience when away from the comfortable confines of the Emirates in recent seasons, this one included (wins away to Norwich City and Aston Villa stand out, and then of course there's the 5-3 thriller against Chelsea). But they need to do it on a far more consistent basis if they are to remain hopeful of unseating that same Chelsea side, who currently occupy fourth place.

With six of their eight losses this season coming on the road, it's time to shape up.

Stay Healthy

What Gunners fan didn't feel a surge of confidence when they learned that Thomas Vermaelen would be starting on Sunday against Manchester United?

The next-in-line captain behind Robin van Persie—current holder of the skipper's armband for the club—immediately allayed worrisome trends at the back with his cool demeanor and timely tackling.

The Belgian international, so plagued by injuries in recent seasons, will be hoping to remain fit through the end of the season. Arsenal's fortunes may well depend upon it.

Once left-backs Kieran Gibbs and Andre Santos return from their own knocks, Vermaelen will be able to slide back into central defense—his best position—where he will partner alongside a rapidly blossoming Laurent Koscielny, who was excellent on Sunday against United.

One cannot discount the impact a healthy first-choice back four can have for Arsenal going forward—they haven't had it for nearly the entire season, as Vermaelen succumbed to injury before the Manchester United game back in August, and Bacary Sagna has been sidelined since the Tottenham match in October.

And that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Moving on from defense, Mikel Arteta's role for Arsenal was only made more evident in the recent Swansea and Manchester United matches, where he was sorely missed in central midfield.

Tomas Rosicky was very good operating in Arteta's central holding role on Sunday, but the Czech's first inclinations will always be toward attack.

Hopefully, once Arteta is fit again, Rosicky can slide into Aaron Ramsey's attacking midfield role and give the Welshman a break from action. Ramsey looked gassed for most of the second half on Sunday and has played in 20 of Arsenal's 22 league games this season—a high volume for a player who was still fighting to return from that nasty leg-break just one year ago.

In attack, Robin van Persie's fitness is the No. 1 priority. Against the Red Devils, the Dutchman showed once more that outside his astounding nose for goal, the Gunners have next to nothing in the way of consistent attack.

Case in point: Van Persie has scored 19 league goals this season and has managed to find the net in 10 of Arsenal's 11 league victories this season. Gervinho is next on the list, with four EPL goals.

That simply has to get better if the Gunners are going to make any headway into this current gap between themselves and Chelsea.

Bring Jack Wilshere Back into the Fold

The impish Wilshere, who along with Andrei Arshavin takes the award for most interesting facial expressions after being whistled for foul, remains one of the brightest young talents not just in England, but the world.

His considerable quality has been sorely missed this season for Arsenal.

Wilshere has yet to feature in the side since succumbing to a preseason ankle injury that has since proven to be a particularly nasty one.

When fit, Wilshere vexes opposing players with his style and a dogged determination that belies his years. There are very few players similar to him in world football.

So where will he play once he returns? His position of holding central midfielder, which he occupied so brilliantly last season alongside Alex Song, has since been taken by Mikel Arteta, who has been in fine form this season and doesn't deserve a bench role.

I feel Wilshere's best role, particularly in regard to his future development, is in the attacking midfield position, where his quality and ability to link up play would be welcomed by Robin van Persie, who finds himself starved of service far too often.

There, Wilshere could prove the link in attack that Arsenal have often found themselves missing this term.

Find a Consistent Second Scorer to Complement Van Persie

Of the 39 goals Arsenal have scored in league play this season, Robin van Persie has 19.

His closest rival for club top scorer is the aforementioned Gervinho, with four, followed by Mikel Arteta, Thomas Vermaelen and Theo Walcott, each of whom has three.

To have one player account for 49 percent of your scoring is never a healthy option, particularly when said option has the lengthy injury history of Van Persie, who sent millions of Arsenal fans' hearts into mouths when he looked for a moment to have picked up an injury against Manchester United.

Arsenal's closest rivals to the top of the EPL table (Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea) have the following scoring breakdowns:

• Manchester City top scorer: Sergio Aguero (14 goals, accounts for 23 percent of team's scoring)
• Manchester United top scorer: Wayne Rooney (13 goals, accounts for 24 percent of team's scoring)
• Tottenham top scorer: Emmanuel Adebayor (nine goals, accounts for 22 percent of team's scoring)
• Chelsea top scorer: Frank Lampard, Daniel Sturridge (nine goals each, each accounts for 23 percent of team's scoring)

There is always the worry that Van Persie's latest match could end in injury: his career simply has far too many instances of his frailty to make this past year or so of injury-free play seem anything more than an aberration in a long-standing trend that says otherwise.

Obviously, knocks on wood where the club captain is concerned, but a good club is one with options in attack, and to be honest, Park Chu-Young has nowhere near the number of games necessary to step in and make a consistent contribution, and Marouane Chamakh's confidence left him last November.

Not November, 2011. November, 2010.

Would Arsenal be able to weather a Van Persie injury? We'd have to see, but I think it would be nothing short of a disaster.

I only hope that attrition in the striking department wouldn't lead to another Wenger experiment with Andrei Arshavin at central forward like we saw back in 2009-10. That was, after all, a reason Wenger brought Chamakh to the club in the first place: Arsenal didn't have enough top-notch, proven strikers.

Two years later, it seems much the same.

Can the wingers step up their goal production? Walcott and Gervinho have seven between them, and Oxlade-Chamberlain has yet to score in league play—although one feels it is only a matter of time before the former Southampton man breaks his duck, given how dangerous he's looked in front of goal.

The contribution from Arsenal's wing players is about on par with some of the aforementioned rivals: at Tottenham, Gareth Bale has seven goals this season, but the young Welshman is in a class all to his own at the moment. Aaron Lennon, a more reasonable comparison, has three.

At Manchester United, Nani has six goals this term, and at City, Adam Johnson has five and James Milner three.

Wing play is a vital component to the 4-3-3 system employed by Wenger. Can it improve in regard to production? Or can the goals come from midfield?

Either way, something must be done to cut into the disparity currently seen between Van Persie and his teammates.

Win Against Tottenham on Feb. 26

Arsenal have shown a remarkable ability to beat the best of the world's bunch in recent seasons: in 2011, they took down Barcelona (2-1), Manchester United (1-0) and Chelsea (5-3).

Should they win against Tottenham, who make the short trip across north London on the 26th of February, they could have a significant and (given recent results) much-needed confidence boost going forward.

On the other hand, that historic win against Barcelona at the Emirates last February set off a chain of horrid results up until the end to the 2010-11 season, when the Gunners eventually dropped to an inglorious fourth-place league.

Given where they'd been at one point that season—gunning for four trophies—it was quite the letdown.

Time to change that. Defeating hated rivals Tottenham, who took the Gunners down 2-1 at White Hart Lane in October, would inject confidence into a side that is looking shorn of it at present.

The trick after that is building upon the victory.

Get Aaron Ramsey Playing More Consistently

The young Welshman has had his moments this season (key goal against Tottenham, then the winner away to Marseille in Champions League), but most Gunners fans would agree that he's been far from reassuring in central midfield most times.

His fitness has also raised questions—Ramsey has played in nearly each of Arsenal's games in 2011-12, and his legs are beginning to show it.

Against Manchester United last Sunday, Ramsey looked completely gassed by the end of the game.

One goal and four assists in 20 league matches is merely average in terms of return rate for a player of Ramsey's uncommon skill and talent.

If Arsenal are to be more successful this season, Ramsey simply must be more productive in central midfield.

We've seen glimpses of what the youngster can offer: truly sublime bits of vision that many midfielders couldn't hope to reproduce and a knack for finishing in the penalty area.

But these traits become lost amid the maddening bits of individual trickery that are not needed and often don't come off well. Ramsey would do well to take a lesson from Steven Gerrard in that department—sometimes, simplicity can be a far more effective option.

If not, Jack Wilshere is waiting in the wings upon return from that ankle injury to take his place.

Figure out What to Do with Andrei Arshavin

Say what you will about Andrei Arshavin, the man knows how to strike a funny pose (above picture included).

By all accounts, he appears to be a genuinely likable dude.

I remember back in early 2010, the popular Arseblog would pull some of the choicest bits from a Q-and-A segment Arshavin was running on his personal site. He is a really funny guy.

It seems that all season—as well as the one before—I've tried to defend him from what has become deafening criticism.

I honestly want to see him succeed for Arsenal, if only to verify that the whirling dervish we saw from winter '09 to the ensuing fall (pre-World Cup 2010 qualifying heartache) wasn't merely an aberration.

But Sunday crushed whatever remaining confidence I'd had in the little midfielder.

The laziness and refusal to track back, seen for so long now, came back to bite Arsenal. Arshavin's inability to play adequate defense led to United's second goal.

While Arshavin wasn't the only one responsible for that miscue, he was a major reason it happened.

On offense, he wasn't much better. You'd hope that for 15 minutes, he could bust a gut for the club. But no. It's obvious that while class is permanent, Arshavin seems dead-set on making himself the exception to that rule.

Despite Wenger's steadfast defense of his decision to substitute Arshavin for the excellent Oxlade-Chamberlain against United, you feel that the manager must have been none too pleased by what he saw from the Russian to whose side he's rushed repeatedly in recent seasons when confronted by querulous journalists wondering why Arshavin continues to see playing time for the club despite his indifferent form.

Who knows if Sunday's the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of Arshavin's future with the club?

All I know is that it broke my patience with him once and for all.

Whether or not he's sold in this transfer window, I sincerely hope his days with the club are numbered unless something serious in terms of a reclamation project is in the cards.

Otherwise, he simply serves no purpose for a club with lofty aspirations.

Give Theo Walcott Freedom to Roam

He's never been known for his consistency, but then, when you can embark upon 80-yard runs with road-runner like pace (like we saw against Liverpool in 2008), people forgive you for your lapses in concentration.

That patience, however, wears thin as you near your mid-20s.

Walcott's true contribution comes in mind-numbing surges of attacking intent. Whether it's a 50-yard run around and in behind the opposing defense, ended with a cool finish for a goal, or simply the stick-to-it-iveness that saw him score that firecracker against Chelsea back in late October, Theo's got a nose for goal, no matter what many critics say.

Can he find it more often? That could prove a determining factor for Arsenal's season.

I think of that chance against United on Sunday when Oxlade-Chamberlain set up his fellow former Southampton man with a gilt-edged opportunity just to the right of goal from about 10 yards out, only for Walcott to fire his shot miles over the bar.

Would he be more effective in a striker's role than on the wing?

He certainly seems to think so, and I don't see why Wenger couldn't at least try him in that role this weekend in the FA Cup tie against Aston Villa.

At the very worst, it doesn't come off, and Walcott goes back to his now-customary position on the wing.

But maybe Walcott shows a predatory instinct we've yet to see from him. Maybe he shows he can ply his trade as a striker, even at the highest level in England.

If that incredible opening to the 2010-11 season is any indication (Walcott had four goals and an assist—including a first-half hat trick against Blackpool at the Emirates—through the first three games of that season before succumbing to an ankle injury while on Euro Cup qualifying duty with England in Sept. '10).

I still feel a hint of regret that we didn't get to see him ride out that wave of form. He was absolutely brilliant in that Blackpool match.

He has the talent, and he has shown the requisite eye for goal. Maybe it could be unleashed, and subsequently, maybe he could enter an entirely new dimension as a player if he plays as a striker.

After all, that line of thinking once made an underwhelming young winger fresh off the train from Turin into a forward who'd go on to become the greatest-ever scorer in Arsenal history.

Above All, Avoid Another 2010-11 Season-Ending Meltdown

Arsenal played a total of 12 Premier League matches after that unforgettable victory against Barcelona in the Champions League Round of 16.

Now, there's obviously no way to know how slumps begin. Injuries, loss of form, cohesion and intent all play a role.

All that's known is that from Feb. 16, 2010, when Arsenal defeated the Blaugrana, to the end of the season in May, the team won three, drew six and lost three, sending what had once been such a promising season crashing to the ground.

Arsenal would finish trophy-less and slump to a fourth-place league finish.

That kind of meltdown is simply unacceptable from a club of Arsenal's standing and cannot be allowed to happen again. So what can they do to prevent a similar slump from occurring?

Getting healthy is a must. You cannot discount the impact Jack Wilshere makes within the side, and having two true full-backs (Sagna at right-back, Gibbs or Santos at the left) makes a huge difference going forward.

The full-backs provide an outlet for Arsenal's midfielders, wingers and strikers, who often play neat one-twos with them before embarking upon runs or heading for the end-line.

We haven't seen that dimension from Arsenal of late, simply because centre-backs have been forced into the role of side-back. Johan Djourou is never going to fool anyone as a wing-back, after all.

So, will Arsenal respond better than they did a season ago?

Time will tell, but if some of the things mentioned on the previous slides do take place, I see no reason why they can't end 2011-12 in fourth.