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Arsenal vs Swansea City: 3 Things to Watch For
By Brian Wong
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Date: Oct 31
I wish I there was a website out there that tracks the positive/negative reaction in Arsenal blogs around the web when Arsenal plays a game. I don’t think there is a fan base out there that loves to express their emotions all over the web quite like Arsenal’s does. After a string of impressive victories in the league, everyone started praising Arsenal’s ability to play beautifully but also adapt to a more physical brand of soccer.
Then Sheffield Wednesday happened and the whole web exploded. Walcott is out. Chamberlain is out again. Panic and mayhem descended upon my phone and all the end of the world updates were received.
So I’m here to give everyone some reasons to relax.
Prediction: Swansea 0-2 Arsenal
1) Much needed rest
The main thing that makes Arsenal a dangerous team going into this weekend’s game is that the star players finally got some rest. Sanchez, Cazorla and Ozil got some much needed rest and they will definitely be able to find that end-game other gear Arsenal seemed to lack last week.
I can’t stress how important it was for Arsenal to lose the League Cup game on Wednesday. We are fighting for the top spot in the Premier League with a team that isn’t too deep and a manager who won’t change a thing even if he had a deep team. It’s never fun to lose but I honestly thought that mid-week lost was better for Wenger and Arsenal’s three star players over the course of the season.
2) Chambers + Per = Recklessly Slow
Arsenal FC
Nothing was more evident than how slow and reckless the combination of Chambers and Per was on Wednesday. If you ever read any of my previous articles, you will know I start to panic when I even think Per has a chance of playing extended minutes for Arsenal. It’s not that I think he isn’t good enough, it’s just that he is really really slow.
Statistically speaking both Per and Chambers really aren’t that bad. Squawka.com shows that Per has won 74% of his duels and is responsible for zero defensive errors. But lets be honest here, the reason why he is responsible for 0 errors is because he is so slow by the time he gets back to defend/gets a chance to create a error, the ball is either in the back of the net or out of bounds.
As for Chambers, he has only won 52% of his duels but he hasn’t made a singe defensive error and is statistically not a bad player. However, the fear in watching him play on the pitch is that in the back of our heads we know that Arsenal can be playing with 10 players at any point.
3) Bellerin + Gibbs may be very interesting
I’m actually quite excited to see what will happen if this was to happen on Saturday. Both Bellerin and Gibbs have the speed to play any position along the wing. But more importantly is that they will both be able to provide defensive assistance and not let Arsenal look so exposed on one side of the pitch, whichever side Ramsey was on.
It isn’t fair to look at Gibbs’ statistics so far this year as he hasn’t played enough to give a full picture but if he doesn’t get hurt I can see him playing decently and at least fill in adequately until we get through our yearly injury stint.
Next: The Arsenal Youth Academy is Not Good Enough