Why Arsenal Should Play 4-3-3 Next Season

Arsenal need to play a 4-3-3 and not a 4-1-4-1

Its a common misconception watching Arsenal last season, that we played a 4-3-3, but we didn't. In the 4-1-4-1, Song played the holding role, and the four (nasri, arshavin, fabregas and diaby) played in front of him.

At the beginning of the season, it was more of a 4-3-3, at everton, we played with Bendtner, Van Persie and Arshavin, three very forward thinking players, but as the season went on, and players like Van Persie, Arshavin, Bendtner and Eduardo were injured, we played with Nasri and Rosicky on the wings in some games, which meant instead of playing forwards, we played midfielders, and more importantly attacking midfielders as forwards supporting the striker, that meant 4-3-3 became more of a 4-1-4-1. And then to compensate for the loss of Van Persie, Wenger pushed Cesc Fabregas up the field, and then we played more of a 4-1-3-1-1, but that was only ever going to be a makeshift replacement.

In the holding role, Song needs to be alot more disciplined, he gets forward, far more often than he should, that also leaves our defense exposed, that is how Chelsea and Man Utd played against us on the break, at times we played 4-0-6, there was no protection from Song. Fabregas needs to play more deep and play more of a Lampard role, where he makes intelligent runs into the box. Chelsea look so much better defensively because they are more disciplined in the roles they play, man for man in defence, we are similarly as good players.

In my opinion in order for us to go back to the form we showed at the beginning of last season in attack, against the likes of Everton, Portsmouth and even Man Utd despite the defeat. We need to play a 4-3-3 similar to Barcelona, where 3 Forwards play high up the pitch, which could be Arshavin, Van Persie, Chamakh etc. In the 2008-9 Season, Barcelona forwards scored over 100 goals, because they played a 4-3-3 not a 4-1-4-1, we need 3 Forwards all looking to score rather than just support the striker or aim for crosses, in my opinion that would lead to greater success for Arsenal next season.