Mesut Ozil produced an impressive performance which suggested he can fill the gap left by Sanchez

4-3-3 brings out best in Wilshere and Xhaka

One of the curiosities of Arsenal’s season has been Arsène Wenger’s strange, fluctuating fascination with a back three, despite having barely ever utilised the system before the end of last season and having a dearth of quality centre-backs.

The primary consequence of this has been muddled defending but we saw here that a back four is not only Arsenal’s best defensive system, it also unlocks their attack. A back three requires a two-man central midfield, which in the modern game doesn’t really work without a ubiquitous defensive midfielder like N’golo Kanté. But Arsenal don’t really have that type of player.

The upshot of this has been an uneasy yoking between Jack Wilshere and Granit Xhaka, where both