The top four has always been there or thereabouts in recent years, with the only anomaly 2012, when Spurs came 4th and Chelsea 6th, but pipped Spurs from their Champions League spot by the winning the competition and earning automatic qualification.
It’s fluctuated between Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, United, and City over the last 5 or so years and I can’t see it changing in the next 5 either.
Now, Arsenal have controversially been criticised for celebrating the position of fourth in an ‘over-the-top’ manner. However, why shouldn’t the players be allowed to celebrate another year of Champions League football, and being the 4th best team in England?
After just a point needed to secure the elusive Champions League spot for the 18th year in a row, Arsenal surely need to be doing more than qualifying 3rd or 4th again and again. But how are they going to do it?
Looking at Chelsea, they have ‘world-class’ performers in each position. Each of their starting players feature internationally for their respective countries and perform regularly at an extremely high level, which is part of the reason why they have won the league so convincingly this year.
Arsenal have that but on a smaller scale. The majority of our players in the XI represent their countries but don’t start as first choice. For instance, Olivier Giroud. He plays frequently, but there are better, like Karim Benzema, and equally like Nacho Monreal or Kieran Gibbs, there are better.
Now where do we go from here?
Let’s start with signings-
GK- Cech would be a world class signing and should be the first player on the list this summer.
LB- Although I have said there are better, I don’t think a left-back is crucial.
CB- Laurent Koscielny is one of the League’s best. Gabriel is looking strong. Per Mertesacker is captain and has had a crucial role this season. Backup needed for solidarity, Gastan? Leonardo Bonucci?
RB- With Jenko coming back, Mathieu Debuchy strong, Calum Chambers and Hector Bellerin breaking through, our RB department is arguably one of our strongest.
CDM- Morgan Schneiderlin would be perfect, Premier League adapted, French, he has Arsenal all about him. Sami Khedira, Geoffrey Kondogbia and William Carvalho aren’t bad shouts either. Although Francis Coquelin is getting to a point where we don’t actually need a replacement.
CAM- Isco would be world-class, potentially a replacement for Santi Cazorla. Again, one of our strongest departments. Would love Nabil Fekir.
LW/RW- Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck, Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez. Strength in depth.
ST- Giroud simply needs a supporting striker. Not to replace him, but to help and so we can adapt to games more freely. In a game where you need an extra outlet, Alexandre Lacazette would be ideal. Welbeck and Walcott need to be trained into strikers.
Structure/formation- midfield
I am a huge fan of the 4-1-4-1, which is what we played in the infamous 2-0 win away at City. However, it means that either Mesut Özil or Aaron Ramsey will have to draw wide, which is where they’re weakest. It seems like we haven’t quite found a happy medium where we are strongest and it’s something crucial which needs altering immediately.
I think Coquelin is perfect for us as he is strong, physical and knows the game, so having him in between midfield and defence has really helped us out. Cazorla is playing the best football of his career at the moment and is one of the first on the team-sheet in my eyes.
This leaves the dilemma of that final midfield three spot, Ramsey reaching his peak, Jack Wilshere brings something extra, Chamberlain wanting to fulfill his dream of playing in centre-midfield, not even to mention Mikel Arteta, Abou Diaby, Mathieu Flamini, giving Arsene Wenger no less than a headache but at the same time a flurry of first-team options.
As proven in successful sides of recent times, a solid midfield is vital.
Along with key signings and a structure in our midfield formation, I feel a better adaption to games is equally as important.
Adaption
Jose Mourinho openly came out and said that he focuses on his opposition’s weak spot before he thinks about how they’ll affect them with his strong spot. Although it is something which every manager does, I feel that Wenger needs to trump the team we are against before they are able to trump us.
City away is a perfect example, we stopped David Silva before they prevented our high pressing game and speed on the counter. However, against Chelsea at home, we diverted from flooding their defence therefore they managed to stop us from attacking. Perhaps we were too cautious because of the importance of the game, but there was no harm in trying them right from the word go. Chelsea were defensively sound and managed to stop us from scoring, a Mourinho masterclass.
I feel this is the approach we should use every game. It will help us to pick up important results in big games and away, meaning we can move further up the table and manage to compete and perform at higher levels in the Champions League.
