Arsenal's sudden turnaround makes Wenger look like a genius again

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!

Only one month and one day earlier, Arsenal suffered a demoralizing 2-0 defeat to Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea after Dinamo Zagreb had beaten Arsenal 2-1 earlier in the week. The Gunners looked like goners and the Gooners predictably overreacted. As has occurred exactly 15.9 times per season, every season for the past half-decade, fans called for Wenger’s head in a short-term panic that put the club in crisis mode. On that go-around, the public questioned why the manager had not purchased a striker in the summer and also why he failed to play the only player that he actually did buy in the transfer window, Petr Cech.

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.