Arsenal

Major Honours: 13 League Titles, 11 FA Cups, 2 League Cups

Big season for: Jack Wilshere. With the Arsenal midfield becoming more and more crowded with each passing transfer window, Wilshere needs to assert his place on the squad with a strong performance this year.

Player to Watch: Mesut Özil. With Alexis Sánchez joining from Barcelona and Theo Walcott returning from an injury, Özil will have even more space to work in – and, more importantly, even quicker and more athletic outlets for his creative ability.

Generation Next: Gedion Zelelam. While the German-Ethiopian (and, possibly, soon to be American) national has yet to log regular minutes for Wenger’s first team, his limited performances in pre-season have earned heaps of praise – even drawing comparisons to former Arsenal man, Cesc Fabregas.

2014-2015 Season Preview

I t feels wrong to say this about the club that brought us Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry – but there has been something vaguely masochistic about supporting Arsenal over the past few years.

Sure, there was last years’ FA Cup victory. But it’s hardly the accomplishment it once was – its importance derived more from collective nostalgia than anything else. Then again, Arsenal fans likely would have accepted anything shiny, metallic and in the general shape of a trophy if it meant the end of every article on the North London club beginning with the words “seeking to end a decade-long trophy drought.”

As much as there has been talk throughout the summer about how Arsenal’s comeback victory over Hull City in the FA Cup Final has “brought confidence back to the squad” and “taught them to believe” (and all the other canned sports clichés we use to describe such accomplishments), Wenger cannot avoid the fact that his club have struggled to mirror the tremendous accomplishments of the early portion of his career.

And it’s not just about a lack of serious contention in the competitions that matter the most – namely, the Premier League and the Champions League – over the past five years, but more about the space in which the club seemingly has come to occupy in the sports’ global landscape. For a club with as much history and resources as Arsenal, the club has tended to become a stopping point on the way to bigger things (usually Manchester or Barcelona) rather than a destination – largely for reasons out of its own control.

Being an Arsenal fan over the past five years has felt a bit like the plot of Inception. Just instead dreams within dreams, it’s been transfer nightmares within transfer nightmares. “You’re waiting for a train,” Arsene tells his replacement for the star player he just sold for well-below value, “A train that’ll take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you. But you can’t know for sure. Yet it doesn’t matter. Now, tell me why?” The replacement stares back blankly, “Because I’ll end up at Barcelona or Man City anyway?”

Optimism

And yet, this season feels different. The German core is riding high off its World Cup success. Aaron Ramsey – following up on a breakout season – is poised to make Wenger look like the love-child of Pythia and Nostradamus. For the first time in years, Arsenal have the requisite depth to survive the annual “Half Our Squad is on the Injury List And Our Recent Loanee Just Pulled His Hamstring on the Way to the Airport ” traditional late winter freak out.

And with the Emirates Stadium debt close to being paid off, the oft-mentioned yet ever-elusive “transfer war chest” has been pried open to sign Alexis Sánchez from, of all places, Barcelona.

But none of this quite matters if Arsene’s squad fail to make serious runs in the major competitions that have eluded them the past decade. With that said, let’s take a closer look at the squad the Frenchman will be relying upon.

The Defensive Midfield Conundrum

Tactically, much – but not all – remains the same from their fourth-place finish last season. Defensively, they will still lean heavily on the standout performances of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscienly. Creatively, it will be Mesut Özil, somehow still one of the most criminally underrated players in the world, and Aaron Ramsey that will be relied upon in midfield.

Things become a bit trickier elsewhere. The first major question mark lies in who will take on the defensive responsibilities of the midfield – a question that has dogged Wenger since the departure of Patrick Vieira.

For much of the transfer window, the North London club has been linked with an array of quality defensive-minded midfielders – such as Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho and Real Madrid’s Sami Khedira. But with both targets possessing their shortcomings (inexperience for the former, lack of suitability for the position for the latter) and little progress apparently being made in their respective transfers, Wenger seems content to fill the role from within.

Both Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini rotated in the role last season with the former being named team captain ahead of Arsenal’s 3-0 Community Shield victory over Manchester City – perhaps a signal of intent from Wenger. While the Spaniard drew considerable criticism past season, he is often underrated.

Arteta, with his simple passing style and solid positioning, is very much the type of player that you don’t notice when the Gunners are playing well. In fact, statistically-speaking, he’s been one of the most efficient deep-lying midfielders in the league the past two seasons. Take a look at the table below.

But when things fall apart – as we saw with disasters against Liverpool and Chelsea – suddenly his lack of athleticism and pace become painfully obvious.

With Arsenal usually employing a high line, it was often Arteta’s responsibility to rotate back and provide cover for his back line against the quick counter attacks that Everton, Chelsea, and Liverpool all exploited in the latter half of the year. As the Spaniard lacks the pace to get in those positions, the result was lopsided scorelines that saw the Gunners drop out of the title race.

Pressing, High Lines, and Defensive Performances

So, the problem lies with Arteta? Not necessarily. One of the major issues underlining Arsenal’s defensive woes last season was how it might go about operating as a cohesive, defensive unit.

Traditionally, when a team makes use of a high line, it is complemented by a high degree of defensive pressure. Because you’re leaving large tracts of space behind your defensive line, you compensate by pressuring the opposition to ensure they don’t have the time to send their attacking players through with a well-timed pass.

It’s a strategy that is both successful and widely-used across Europe – especially in previous Arsenal squads under Wenger. However, this was not the case last season. Take a look at the table below – courtesy of statsbomb.com.

Here, Statsbomb’s Colin Trainor has measured how many passes on average a team allows in a certain zone of the pitch – quantifying the intensity of defensive pressure. The results are intriguing to say the least. Arsenal, for all its claims of attractive, attacking football, ranked ninth – dead last among the “Big Seven” and behind even Stoke City.

When we consider these statistics in the context of last season, it sheds a bit more light on where the season may have gone wrong. Against teams in the lower half of the table, the unconventional combination of a high defensive line with below average defensive pressure failed to hurt them – as many such teams lacked the technical quality to exploit the Gunners.

But against the fellow title contenders, Arsenal were exposed – and in embarrassing fashion. Chelsea, Everton, and Liverpool all took advantage of these large gaps behind the defence. It cost Arsenal their place in the title race – and perhaps made Arteta look worse defensively than he actually is.

However, if their performances this preseason are to be trusted, it appears that Wenger has prioritised applying defensive pressure further up the pitch. In their Community Shield victory, Arsenal’s sustained pressure in City’s half eased the pressure off their own midfield and back line. And while, yes, it was just a glorified friendly, such an adjustment could very well make more of an impact than the replacement of Arteta.

Sánchez: Striker or Winger?

The other major question surrounding the start of Arsenal’s Premier League campaign is a much more welcomed one: where do you start Alexis Sánchez? For the first month of the season, with Theo Walcott still regaining his fitness from a torn ACL injury, Sánchez will likely start on the right wing. But when the talented Walcott returns, some have speculated that the Chilean could play through the middle as the primary striker – replacing the divisive Olivier Giroud.

Regardless of how Wenger arranges his attack, Sánchez’s versatility is a welcomed asset and allows the French manager to vary his tactics depending on how the opposition operates defensively.

Playing a club like Crystal Palace that likes to sit deep and pack the box? Play Giroud centrally and allow his excellent ability to hold up play and link with team-mates to create opportunities for the width of Walcott and Sánchez. Coming up against a Liverpool that plays aggressively and openly at the back? Play Sánchez centrally and allow him to use his pace to run onto Özil’s through-balls into the channels.

SEE ALSO: Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal and tactical cohesion – why Sanchez brings more than just goals

The Verdict

W ith renewed optimism around the Emirates, the words “title challenge” have begun to float around the Arsenal faithful. Following the breakthrough of Aaron Ramsey and the signings of Özil and Sánchez, Arsenal have restocked the cupboard with the world-class players necessary to compete for titles.

That being said, the club still seems just a bit short on talent when compared to their fellow title contenders – especially Chelsea. But at very least, Wenger’s squad will be more competitive than they have in years. And with an extremely deep and competitive title race this year there could be quite a few dropped points among those bossing the top of the table. At that point, anything could happen.

Prediction: Falling short to title rival Chelsea, Arsenal qualifies for the Champions League (again) – this time a bit more comfortably. Edging out the Manchester clubs, the Gunners take 2nd.

Follow the link here for all our 2014/15 Premier League season previews including best signings (featuring a certain Chilean!), best players and players with a point to prove.

(Photo courtesy of Lloyd Morgan via Flickr)