Why Can't Arsenal (and the Zillage) Play Like this ALL THE TIME?

I did NOT see that coming. Suppose that is just the way of football to always come with the unexpected. Out of nowhere, Arsenal stood up and played like they were the best team in the league, with an attacking display that tore the backsides out of United.







The match was over in twenty minutes....pretty shocking for these kinds of matches. This wasn't the case back in the day when Ferguson and Wenger used to go at it, those were great matches that were very close. Well, apart from the 8-2 lubrication.

When Arsenal play in such a free flowing attacking manner, you just think to yourself, if only they could play like this for a whole season, then there is a good chance that they would be champions or at the very least, still be within four or five points in April. But we all know that in the previous years, we've seen both the good and very very bad side of Arsenal.


To be fair, Arsenal were given space to really execute their gameplan, and United should have perhaps tightened up, especially when they went a goal down. But you cannot take away how well Arsenal played. There are teams that are given space, but don't know how to execute. Arsenal do not always pass the ball as well as they did yesterday and even if they were given space, the could have made bad passes and dribbled when they ought not to. There was just a stronger drive that Arsenal had, and much greater desire and impetus they had when they attacked with right decisions being made during twenty crazy minutes. It was like they wanted to win the game from the start and take out their Champions League frustration on United.

And it worked.







Sanchez is the man of the moment and is one of the most lethal goalscorers in the league now with Aguero, but the key player that was really the conduit to Arsenal's attacks was the Zillage. Mesut is a player who I still can't figure out. There are times where I wonder just exactly what he's doing (not to the same degree as the utterly useless Rooney) and then, when he puts forth a display like the one he did yesterday, he can be that player that Sneijder was for Inter under Mourinho and Iniesta for Spain and Barcelona. Pretty much the creator for the finisher(s).

The issue though is, can Ozil still be as influential if he is man-marked and a team is physical with the intent on roughing him up. History has proven that he can't but if Wenger and the German can toughen him up and make adjustments to his game in order to make him assist Arsenal when the game is tight with very little space, Arsenal can start picking up those extra points that they keep on losing out on, which would allow them put up a realistic title push.




This has been a very strange Premier League season with Chelsea perhaps already forfeiting and City already showing their frailty so early in the season. The league is there is to be won if Arsenal are hungry enough to want it and the desire is there. For the first time, in a long time perhaps, I saw Wenger actually make adjustments during a match when he gave instructions to Ramsey. Hopefully, this may be a new Arsene who sees the potential to get the Premier League crown and can bring in some wider array of tactical strategies to help them maybe finally emulate the Henry and Vieira era.



HH