Arsene Wenger Credited With Assist As Arsenal Tie Tottenham

It is not very often that Arsene Wenger makes a good substitution for Arsenal. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Usually Wenger uses his subs in the same manner every single game. And given how few options he actually has, it would take a Herculean effort to make a game-changing substitution.

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Against Tottenham, Arsene Wenger made arguably two game-changing substitutions. The first was subbing Mathieu Flamini on for Santi Cazorla. This one is tough to merit to Arsene Wenger because Le Prof indicated that Santi Cazorla was dizzy and not himself. But it was nothing serious, Cazorla is not sick, and in the end, my skepticism senses are tingling. It may just be a blame-free way of justifying the sub.

But it worked. While Santi Cazorla is a quiet player, Mathieu Flamini is not. Arsenal needed a rambunctious, rootin-tootin ragamuffin to shake things up and Flamini provided that. He actually looked pretty impressive defensively. He made three times the tackles that Cazorla did in the same amount of time.

This substitution, if fully down to a decision by Arsene Wenger, is borderline historical. It is nothing like Wenger has ever done in the past and it shows that Le Prof may still be learning.

Unless Cazorla really was that bad.

The second substitution, taking off the sparkplug Joel Campbell for the second-choice left back Kieran Gibbs, was a bit confusing. Campbell was having a pretty solid match and bringing on another defender did not seem to be the answer to Arsenal’s problems.

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Yet just three minutes after being introduced, the left back, playing left wing, received a perfect Ozil ball on his shin and placed it quite literally through Hugo Lloris. Arsenal were level. There was nothing the keeper could do to stop it. To make matters even more interesting, Gibbs nearly added another not long after. It was truly an Arsenal substitution to be remembered.

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The fact that options are so limited steals a little credit away from Arsene Wenger, but just because he is forced to get creative does not mean that he should lose all credit for that creativity. He still has to make due with what he has. Putting a left back in at left wing when you need a goal is not something that is easy to pull the trigger on. But he did and Arsenal are allowed to reap the rewards.

Hopefully Wenger will continue to learn that subs can be used as more than just five minute cameos. That would be nice.