For all the times that Arsene Wenger has got it all horribly wrong, on Tuesday night against Bayern Munich in Champions League,
Wenger got everything right. He picked the right team to start with, he
played the right strategy and he brought on the correct substitutes.
Wenger left Mesut Ozil on, took Alexis Sanchez off and then enjoyed watching Ozil knock the ball over the line. Bravo, Mr. Wenger!
Fast forward 31 days, and Theo Walcott has truly assumed the role of elusive missing striker that can challenge Olivier Giroud, while Cech started and outplayed Manuel Neuer,
who is widely considered the best goal keeper on the planet. Against
Bayern, Cech started his first Champions League game of the season and
proved instrumental with six saves and a clean sheet. Neuer also had six
saves, but he made a glaring error that resulted in Arsenal’s opening
goal.
As a result of the past month of positive results, Arsene
Wenger looks like a genius again. Following the September struggles in
Europe, which included defeats to Dinamo Zagreb away and Olympiacos at
home, Arsenal completed the first three weeks of October with a perfect
record, outscoring opponents 8-0 in aggregate.
With six wins in nine Premier League matches overall, Arsenal is level with Manchester United
for second place in England. If Sunday’s Manchester derby ends in a
draw or a Red Devils’ victory, the Gunners can go top of the Premier
League table with a win over the Toffees on Saturday.
Wenger’s
decision to move Walcott off the wing has worked better than expected
partially because of the impact it has had on Giroud. The French striker
has scored three times in his past four substitute appearances, which
organically leads to the Catch-22 of whether to start an in-form player
or leave him on the substitutes’ bench where he continues to perform.
For now, Walcott has earned his starting spot.
Had
Walcott faced any other goalkeeper than Neuer, he would have surely
scored on Tuesday. The England international should keep the spot as
long as he continues to perform, as the 26-year-old has four goals in
his last eight starts for Arsenal, and that is after being denied by
Neuer.
At roughly the quarter
pole mark in the season, Arsenal has figured out its best XI, Cech
looks like the best shot stopper on the planet, Walcott looks like a
proper center forward, and Wenger looks like a genius – at least until
the Gunners’ next crisis.
No comments:
Post a Comment