Second Opinion by Joss Bennett

Arsenal named a more or less unchanged side from the dismal 4-4 draw at St. James’ park with the exception of Diaby, who was both injured and suspended being replaced by Alex Song who is first choice anyway. 20 year Wojciech Szczesny started in goal again, despite Almunia now being fit, and looks set to start the big game on Wednesday ahead of the more experienced goalkeeper who kept Arsenal in the game during the first half against Barcelona at the Emirates last season.

Wolves named the same side that ended Manchester United’s 29 game unbeaten run, with new signing Jamie O’Hara keeping his place in a narrow 3 man central midfield. The biggest question in Wolves’ line up for me, was who would play where in the middle. O’Hara has been used in several positions during his time at Tottenham and Portsmouth, while Karl Henry has often been the man instructed to deal with Fabregas in these fixtures.

Mick McCarthy decided to go for a 1-2 midfield, rather than the 2-1 he may have used; either Milijas would play a similar role to Fabregas behind the lone striker, or he would hold his place in the centre with one of O’Hara and Henry playing behind, man marking Fabregas.

Wolves’ Width

It was Karl Henry who started in the centre, in fact, alongside Nenad Milijas who is the most attack-minded of the Wolves midfield. I expected Jamie O’Hara to take the left central midfield slot (MCL) – having played in more advanced roles at times, he would naturally drift into the left-hand channel and help limit the space of Bacary Sagna, or provide through balls to Adam Hammill.

Wolves' full-backs pushed up but were dragged out of position by the clever movement from Walcott and Arshavin.

As it was, Wolves adopted a very narrow width across the field, and this hindered them both going forward and defensively. McCarthy set his team up in a somewhat unconventional 4-3-1-2 formation, similar to Arsenal’s in the sense that Kevin Doyle dropped very deep and two natural wingers pushed up into the space behind him. This was a mistake. The two wingers naturally played deeper than they were asked to, and if the idea was to press from the front, it failed – Arsenal simply played wider and got the ball out to Sagna and Clichy whenever they could.

The two wing-backs played on pretty much the same level throughout the game (usually Sagna has the more advanced role, before Clichy begins to push on and join attacks late on if the game is already pretty much won) and the freedom of the whole of their channels. The other reason the wing-backs were so useful was because of the movement from Theo Walcott and Andrey Arshavin. A 4-2-3-1 formation means there is one less person behind you than in a 4-3-3 and so the wide-forwards have to play deeper; in this case, Walcott and Arshavin used their pace to run off the shoulder of their markers or drag them inside, perhaps limiting the space of Cesc Fabregas, but likewise creating a huge gap for Sagna or Clichy to exploit.

The final reason Wolves were hindered by the width was their failure to utilise their creativity up front. Adam Hammill was one of the Championship’s best players, thriving as a creative winger just as Adel Taraabt is doing for QPR and Matt Jarvis has reportedly attracted interest from teams in the top-half and higher positions in the league such as Tottenham & Liverpool.

Arsenal have often struggled when defending crosses into the box – 51% of the goals we’ve conceded have come from set-pieces and Newcastle’s crossing and dominance in the air was a key factor in their comeback from four goals down last week and Wolves caused all sorts of problems in the air when the two sides met at Molineux. However, instead of having either two out and out wingers to push Sagna and Clichy back, or even two in-cutting wingers to trouble Koscielny and Djourou, they were deployed ahead of Doyle, who is good in the air, but by no means a target man meaning Song, Koscielny and Djourou were pretty comfortable at the worst of times.

Arsenal’s Midfield

Arsenal clearly learnt their lesson from Newcastle (and the various other similar games) and started as they did in Tyneside. Arshavin was deployed almost as another central-midfielder, or an attacking midfielder – certainly more narrow than he often is – and this was presumably an attempt to encourage him to work harder and be involved in the build-up, not just the end of a move.

Like Newcastle, Wolves held a very high defensive line, trying to limit the space in our creative midfield, but instead just decreasing the area Arsenal’s midfield had to press. The two wide men did an excellent job of leading the line in terms of pressing, and Fabregas was really up for this game – at one point he pressed the ball from his own half and forced it all the way back to Wayne Hennessey. Arsenal’s pressing was the perfect example of what we need to do against Barcelona in mid-week, closing down the space quickly, and more importantly, as a team rather than a couple of players closing down and others not looking interested. The pace with which the whole team closed down the space when Wolves had the ball, particularly in the first half (which wasn’t often) meant they were forced into playing rushed, inaccurate long balls which rarely found their target.

As mentioned, Fabregas’ creativity was limited by a packed midfield but Wilshere deputised brilliantly and played a more advanced role than he has done recently – more like he was doing at the start of the season – and was clearly brimming with confidence after his first start for the senior England side.

As Fabregas dropped back to find space, Wilshere moved forward and had two or three chances to shoot himself but chose, unselfishly to pass to Walcott (twice) and others. Wilshere’s creativity in this game was more like the sort of play we saw from Fabregas last season; looking for short passes and one-twos or dribbling with the ball himself and again, went on a couple of good runs into the box, drawing fouls or creating scoring opportunities. However, as the game progressed, he clearly tired and Fabregas was desperate for a goal and pushed up into his more familiar role once it was evident Wolves had pretty much given up. At this point, Wilshere dropped back to the holding role he was instructed to play for England and started playing a role that has become very popular for a lot of midfielders this season…

“The Quarterback”

This season, especially in recent weeks, Arsenal have been much more willing to get the ball into wide areas, and play a more direct style of football (without actually going route one!) Yesterday, Wilshere was key in encouraging this – taking the game by the scruff of the neck at times when Arsenal looked to be taking their foot off the gas and dropping back to control the game in a deeper role.

As the game went on, players tired and Wilshere dropped deep to play defence-splitting long balls exploiting the pace of the wide players.

Together with Alex Song, Wilshere has formed a useful double-pivot in midfield in the game against Wolves he displayed a wonderful array of passing ability.

Alex Song is the ball-winner, allowed some freedom to roam but largely used to break up attacks and play more simple passes often to Wilshere, who used the pace of Walcott and Arshavin in the wings to ping the ball forward and create chances from almost nothing – just as the quarterback does in the NFL.

This has become especially useful in a season when Fabregas, despite some magnificent performances, has not always looked motivated (much like the rest of the team in some games) and a season when Theo Walcott has vastly improved his off-the-ball movement, finishing and composure.

The more direct ball has also been used by Fabregas this season, though and was particularly evident against Leeds in the FA Cup when he came on changed a game with two superb passes to Walcott who used his pace to exploit a tired Leeds side and win a penalty.

Conclusion – Wolves “Spanked”

A very good performance from Arsenal and a thoroughly deserved three points that I will take every time. Taking chances is still an issue, but the players shouldn’t be too worried – Hennessey had an inspired game and several last ditch blocks kept the score respectable. Barcelona will provide a much tougher test, though and by all accounts, Wolves didn’t offer much attacking threat and made some key tactical errors which were only addressed when it was too late. A win and three points keeps the pressure on Man Utd, who only won their match because of a brilliant goal from Wayne Rooney.