Too Many Options a Blessing in Disguise for Arsenal and Arsene Wenger
Arsenal's 3-2 FA Cup win over Brighton & Hove Albion, per BBC Sport, was the first time this season having too many attacking midfielders and too many strikers wasn't a problem for manager Arsene Wenger.
The Frenchman has been trying to find the right balance from his front-loaded squad all season. It's a problem that's been most evident in midfield, where too many like-minded, stylistically similar playmakers created a team fluent going forward but defensively vulnerable.
The best combination from Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky and Jack Wilshere became the $64,000 question for Wenger to answer. Finding the right anchor man from Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini proved almost as tricky.
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Injuries actually served to make Wenger's job easier. They forced him into rediscovering Francis Coquelin's talent all over gain after recalling him from a loan spell at Charlton Athletic while Arteta and Flamini nursed ailments.
It was Ozil's long-term absence that meant putting Cazorla back into the middle, undoubtedly his best position for the Gunners. With better balance in the middle, Wenger's men have been on a terrific run.
The Gunners have won eight, drawn one and lost just once in their last 10 matches in all competitions. But it was at Brighton's Amex Stadium where it became clear that Wenger doesn't have too many options.
In fact, he has all the players he needs to field the one thing he's rarely had in recent seasons. Namely, a strong squad deep with numerous quality players at key positions.
Now Wenger can rotate without fear of significantly weakening his side's chances of winning. That's just what he did at Brighton.
The Arsenal chief made seven changes from the group that won 2-0 at Manchester City in its last Premier League outing. He was able to leave out Cazorla and Coquelin, the two players who dominated the current League champions, because Ozil and Flamini were back.
Tomas Rosicky's current fine run of form meant Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's injury wasn't a blow. Meanwhile, Theo Walcott's return to fitness let Wenger offer a brief rest to this season's free-scoring talisman, Alexis Sanchez.
That's four hugely significant players in midfield and attack left out. Yet Arsenal still scored three goals to win a tricky cup tie away from home.
The result was testament to strength in depth. That strength was most obvious by Cazorla taking a seat on the bench to watch Ozil and Rosicky fluidly interchange positions and thread passes between bewildered Albion defenders.
The former marked a quietly impressive return to action with a goal. Meanwhile, Rosicky was the star of the show as he bagged a goal following the assist he played to set up Ozil's strike.
Statistics from WhoScored.com broke down Rosicky's brilliant display:
As a player comfortable in the central No. 10 role, out wide or even in a more withdrawn position, Rosicky represents the quality of the options currently at Wenger's disposal. Slot Rosicky into any area of Arsenal's midfield, and Gunners fans won't worry.
The 34-year-old's form since the turn of the year also shows the value of limiting his games and taking a steady approach toward his deployment. That's something which often frustrates fans who believe the ageing schemer should get more games.
But having a player in this kind of form for the second half of a season shows Wenger knows what he's doing with Rosicky.
A look at the Arsenal bench against Brighton showed Wenger is also keenly aware just how deep his current squad is and the value of that depth. Cazorla was joined on the lumber by Coquelin and Sanchez. There was also room for defenders Hector Bellerin and veteran centre-back Per Mertesacker.
All five are players with legitimate first-team pedigree this season. After the match, Brighton gaffer Chris Hughton highlighted the strength in reserve as a key difference between this Arsenal team and those of previous seasons, per Paul Doyle of The Guardian:
"The difference between Arsenal now and a couple of years ago is that when they made changes then, it would probably have been to bring in young players – albeit quality ones – but now they have the depth of squad to bring on players of vast experience. They’ve certainly got a squad to cope with what they have to.
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Hughton pinpointed the heart of this argument. In previous seasons, Wenger may have, through choice or circumstance, used the cup as an opportunity to bring youth prospects into the fold.
But he no longer has to make that call. So there was no place for Gedion Zelalem and Dan Crowley, two gifted young playmakers, on the bench. Instead, Wenger kept big guns Cazorla, Sanchez and Coquelin in reserve.
Prolific youth team striker Chuba Akpom did make the bench, and even came off it at the Amex. But it's hard to believe the 19-year-old would have featured at all were it not for Danny Welbeck's current injury.
That's how strong the current squad is. In fact, if there's still a negative to having all these options, it's how difficult they make it for a youngster like Akpom to earn his chance.
That's likely why he's thinking about a move, even though the Gunners have offered him a new deal, per Jeremy Wilson of The Telegraph. But for a rare time in recent history, Arsenal could not only withstand losing a few players, the club can still thrive without them.
The Gunners can feel comfortable about sending strikers Yaya Sanogo and Lukas Podolski on loan, with Joel Campbell likely to follow, per Mail Online writer Ashley Clements. But Wenger needn't worry about his options up front with Olivier Giroud, Welbeck, Walcott and Sanchez around.
His defence can cope with summer signing Mathieu Debuchy undergoing two surgeries. Wenger can count on the rapid development of Calum Chambers and Bellerin to compensate for the loss.
The defensive options will be even stronger with the pending arrival of Villarreal centre-back Gabriel Paulista. The player is on the verge of completing a £13.5 million move after being granted a work permit, per London Evening Standard reporter Tom Farmery.
But it's in midfield where the strength of Arsenal's squad will remain most obvious. Coquelin's lightning-fast development has given the team the holding player it needs. It's also eased the burden on Arteta and made the Gunners less reliant on Flamini.
Speaking of reliance, Wenger has also found out he doesn't necessarily need club-record signing Mesut Ozil to live up his hefty price tag in every game. Not now Cazorla has turned on the old magic and Rosicky has shown he still has plenty left.
More important, the litany of options in the middle is affording Arsenal more tactical flexibility. That's the view of Michael Cox of The Guardian, who noted how Wenger changed Arsenal's shape against Brighton to give Ozil freedom in the middle:
Cox drew a sharp contrast between how the Gunners played at City and how they approached things in Brighton, a shift dictated by options:
"Now Wenger is more willing to chop and change between matches – from a defensive-minded, reactive 4-3-3 to an attack-minded 4-2-3-1, and with so many attacking options, Arsenal can no longer be characterised as too predictable.
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A season that was initially defined by a search for one set formula has evolved into something very different. In his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Brighton, Wenger was asked if he knows his best starting 11. He simply replied: "The best XI I have in my head can change every week," per Arsenal.com.
Earlier this season that answer would have simply described the problem: How can Wenger fit all of his best players into a formula that works?
Now though, Arsenal are becoming a Chameleon capable of changing appearance to meet different challenges and handle different priorities with equal success.
It's telling Arsenal is the only member of the Premier League's top five to guarantee a place in the FA Cup fifth round. League-leaders Chelsea made nine changes to their squad, according to BBC Sport. Meanwhile, reigning champions City made four, per the team's official website.
All they got was humbling home defeats to lower-league opposition. The drop in quality between the regulars and the squad players was too great to overcome.
The Gunners had no such problem thanks to the quality of Wenger's options. That bodes well not only for the club's chances of retaining the Cup, but also its prospects for the UEFA Champions League, as well as securing another top-four finish domestically.
What started out as a problem has become a blessing in disguise for Wenger and Arsenal.
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