Arsenal Do Not Have To Stop Leicester City To Beat Them

Arsenal have a bit of a big match coming up on Valentine’s Day against Leicester City, who seem impossible to stop. But is that where everyone is getting it wrong?

Valentine’s Day has some rather large implications in the Premier League race. League leaders Leicester City will travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal and second place Tottenham will travel to the Etihad to face a very ticked off Manchester City. City is obviously fresh off a loss to the Foxes and have managed to fall rather far into fourth place.

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So there we have it, the stakes are large. Everyone is pondering who is the favorite in the Arsenal vs Leicester showdown because everyone on each end is claiming that they are the favorites. Marc Albrighton claims that his Foxes are not afraid of Arsenal, but given the previous result, isn’t it a bit foolish not to be?

Arsenal came into the King Power Stadium early on in the season and handily put away the Foxes 5-2, a match that still accounts for one of Leicester’s two losses on the year. It was such a commanding win. After going blow for blow with the Foxes through the first four shared goals, Arsenal peeled away and handed Leicester one of the only setbacks they have had this year.

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With that in mind, Mesut Ozil has come out and offered his take on the impending match, stating that “It will be incredibly difficult to stop them” (via the Evening Standard).

That is a perfectly reasonable assessment given the power that Leicester’s offense has between Vardy, Mahrez, Albrighton, Kante and more. But Ozil is focusing on the wrong thing. Why waste effort trying to stop Leicester when you can just outgun them? After all, that is what Arsenal accomplished last time out.

At King Power Stadium, Arsenal had a ‘defensive’ midfield duo of Santi Cazorla and Mathieu Flamini. I don’t think I need to state how much defensive quality is in that pairing. Not to mention the fact that Flamini went down with an injury in the 20th minute and was replaced by Mikel Arteta. Defense gained: Zero.

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Arsenal did not beat Leicester by stopping them. They beat Leicester through a sprint fest with Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla firing on all cylinders.

Another key thing to keep in mind is that Ramsey was wide right. In all likelihood, Arsenal will have the Ox or possibly Joel Campbell wide right. That added width will work wonders to stretch this Leicester defense out even more than last time, with Giroud occupying Huth and Morgan. Then, out wide, Alexis and whoever suits up on the right will have enough space to interchange with Ozil and create space.

That is the idea at least. The fact that Coquelin should be starting in the middle will give Arsenal even more hope that he can make himself like a speed bump in that opposing attack.

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This Leicester team may be rolling, but Arsenal cracked the code once, and away from home no less. There is no reason not to feel confident that they can do it again.