Arsenal: Wenger Gets His Tactics Wrong vs West Ham Again

Slaven Bilic brought Andy Carroll in to exploit Arsenal’s defensive weaknesses, and it worked to perfection. Arsene Wenger got his tactics all wrong.

Arsenal’s brilliant start to their recent London derby with West Ham ended up being for nothing, as they conceded three goals and only saved themselves a point when captain Laurent Koscielny scored a close range finish to make the game 3-3.

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West Ham’s forward Andy Carroll scored a hat trick of one-touch goals, two of them coming off of his forehead and the third an overhead kick from a set piece.

Carroll had not started a match for West Ham in nearly a month, but he was brought into the team by West Ham manager Slaven Bilic so that he could attack the Arsenal back line.

Arsenal’s two starting center backs were Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny. Wenger opted to not start Per Mertesacker in favor of some quicker center backs. The decision proved a poor one, though. The Hammers’ full backs were frequently crossing the ball in and the Arsenal back line was unable to deal with it.

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After being 2-0 up towards the end of the first half, Arsenal’s players took their foot off the gas pedal and allowed West Ham to bring it back to 2-2 before half-time. In the second half, bringing Mertesacker on for Gabriel might have been the right choice as far as tactical decisions go.

However, even if it would have been smart to sub on the slower, yet more aerially powerful Mertesacker, there’s no reason to think that Slaven Bilic wouldn’t have brought on a quicker player like Enner Valencia or Victor Moses to exploit that weakness.

Perhaps this is less of a tactical error in one game, and more of a refusal to address the errors within one’s team. In the Premier League, the most basic duty as a central defender is to head away balls that are whipped into the box.

The majority of Premier League full backs are great crossers of the ball. Some of them are frequently overlapping in an effort to score goals themselves. So, if Arsenal’s two full backs are going to get forward and leave spaces for opposing players to put in crosses, then the center backs have to be able to head away those balls.

In years past, Arsenal would have brought on a big, powerful center back like Steve Bould who would be no-nonsense about dealing with a player like Andy Carroll. In the 2015/16 edition of Arsenal, they have no players who seem capable of doing such a thing. The fact that Arsene Wenger doesn’t address that weakness is not to be taken lightly.

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This is not to depreciate West Ham’s quality – they are not a bad team by any means, and haven’t lost at the Boleyn Ground since early August. Even still, Arsenal shouldn’t be rolling over and conceding three goals to one player in the course of nine minutes. Teams that try to win titles not only have attacking quality that can overpower an opposition, but they have defenders who are able to shut players down. At the moment, Arsenal lack such players in defense.