Forget Aston Villa – Let’s look at how far Arsenal have come as Arteta searches for the perfect tactic

Ah, what a disappointment against Aston Villa at the weekend. Understandably, everyone is borderline suicidal, as is the melodramatic way fans approach the game. But we do have a right to be a bit miffed. Having settled on a lineup that works at both ends our perma-stubbled manager just had to fiddle with it.

Not just with the personnel, which most fans would not only support, but avidly call for, but with the positions for those players. This has given Arteta a whack across the knuckles he will no doubt completely ignore, and will go on making such hare-brained decisions in the future, because if he hasn’t learned after 5 years, he probably isn’t going to.

But enough doom and gloom…

Let us instead look at what has gone well this season. We are still mathematically in the fight for the league title and have improved defensively from last season, which was already much improved from previous years. We aren’t, perhaps, as industrious and entertaining in attack, but we are effective, and when it clicks it is something to behold. There is much to like about this team, in all positions, right across the pitch.

We have the best central defensive partnership in the league in Saliba and Gabriel, and the latter only ever appears to display weakness when trying to cover the vastness of the pitch vacated by the intolerably ineffective Zinchenko. Indeed, William Saliba might very well be the best central defender in the Premier League right now. A brutal combination of size, strength, skill, tactical awareness, deftness of touch, he is a Rolls Royce of a defender and beautiful to watch.

Similarly, whilst perhaps lacking some of the finesse and joie de vivre of the Frenchman, Martin Odegaard’s mesmerizing mix of skill and effort, elevate him above more gifted players (Özil) to have graced the Emirates.

Ben White, our tattooed, football-hating right back, is an astonishing player. His ability to seamlessly inhabit a number of different roles ‘should’ make him a shoo-in for any national coach, but if there’s one thing more annoying than Arteta’s team selection, it’s Gareth Southgate’s.

It is this flexibility, and that of Jurien Timber, that, if we are truly fortunate, will see the inverted LB die out at the end of this season and we can revert to a more traditional approach, or just use White/Timber from RB as they are both perfectly capable of fulfilling the requirements to play there and much, much better than Zinchenko. It would allow Tierney to come back in as LB and give Martinelli the support he so desperately needs on the left wing, with Tomiyasu/Kiwior providing cover or alternatives for different opponents.

Of course, these views are entirely my own and unlikely to even be shared by most Arsenal fans, let alone our illustrious coach, but I believe that a back 4 combination of White, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior, Tierney & Tomiyasu is perfectly sufficient to mount a title challenge if fit and, used correctly. Zinchenko could maybe then be used in a midfield role, and with some of those defensive requirements removed, actually shine for us. He is a talented player but lacks the positional awareness to play at LB. It is a specialist role best left to those with the tactical and physical attributes suited to the role, of which we have options.

Havertz has demonstrated enough this season that a new striker isn’t quite the urgent need everyone thought it was. He may not be playing in the position originally intended, but has shone as a false 9, something I called for right at the start of the season.

Unlike at Chelsea, he isn’t just put up front to die alone, he is supported and has become integral to this team. Sadly, or perhaps not, it has come at the expense of Gabriel Jesus. Of his many fine attributes as a player, being a striker isn’t one. Similarly to Zinchenko he lacks the awareness and instinct needed for such a specialist position. If he had Nketiah’s poacher mindset, what a player he would be then. Alas, he is just an industrious winger. If used in this manner he is an asset to the club. If used as a striker he is a liability.

If you have read this far, well done. I’m not sure it has come across as optimistic as I had intended but I think it is at least fair. I like this team. It doesn’t have the maverick brilliance that Man City and Liverpool have, but rather works as a functional group who play within the guidelines set out by the manager.

Last season the players appeared to have more freedom, so we saw more exciting football. This season, some of that has been replaced by a more pragmatic mindset, but the brilliance is still there to see when it clicks. I think Arteta probably should have learned from his mistakes by now, or at least stopped making the same ones, but at least we are competing year after year now and the change from last season demonstrates that he is trying to find that perfect tactic.

And if he does… oh, what a sight that will be!

Ben Dungate