Arsenal fans must still be wondering exactly what went wrong. They were in fantastic form in the weeks leading up to the North London derby, but when they showed up at White Hart Lane they looked completely uninterested.
The same cannot be said of Tottenham, who were motivated and fired up from the very first whistle. Their midfielders ran the game with their high-energy, dynamic performances leaving players like Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil chasing shadows.
Again and again, Spurs were able to expose Arsenal’s soft-centre. When you really go at Arsene Wenger’s team, it doesn’t seem to be all that difficult to break down. If you keep feeding crosses into the box, there’s a good chance that you’re going to find the back of the net eventually.
That proved to be the case last Saturday. Harry Kane was presented with two great opportunities and he didn’t disappoint on either count.
Arsenal fans, on the other hand, must feel a little let down. It’s yet another occasion when they’ve come undone thanks to their defensive short-comings. It’s difficult to take as it looked as though The Gunners had put these kinds of displays behind them.
Per Mertesacker echoed the fan’s frustrations with his recent comments. Speaking about the club’s pre-Tottenham form, he said: ‘We found a way recently to prepare ourselves on crosses better defensively (and also) on set-pieces.’
Unfortunately, he notes that Arsenal were not at the races against Spurs: ‘…We did not switch on quickly enough and were not up for proper defending, so that was worse than in recent weeks. We were not active enough and only started to play our game a bit towards the end, that took us too long.’
Ouch. The trouble is that he’s exactly right. Per Mertesacker has been forced to account for his club’s defensive ailments on too many occasions this season. Something has to give eventually.
In particular, Arsenal’s midfield needs to start producing the goods defensively. They’re all good going forward, but Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott and many others offer no protection in front of the back-four. If they’re unable to track back, maybe they shouldn’t be in the starting line-up?
One thing’s for sure: something has to give. Maybe Arsene Wenger should try to shake things up?
What’s your take? How would you seek to solve Arsenal’s defensive issues?
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