Arsenal: Purposeless possession not surprising given absences

Arsenal missed Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla against West Bromwich Albion. It’s no surprise that their possession lacked any purpose or incision.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion was not a pretty affair. A clear and painful lack of quality on behalf of both teams, slow, lethargic, and downright boring possession, and a mire of mistakes and errors when on the ball, the game was dragged into the depths of a rather dark and dull footballing ether.

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What was especially clear, from an Arsenal perspective, was their inability to engineer openings when in possession. West Brom were disciplined and regimented. They stayed true to their structure; they did not allow themselves to be pulled out of their positions. The onus was on the Gunners to create.

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But they couldn’t. In fact, other than a few snapshots from Alexandre Lacazette and Alex Iwobi, there were very few chances generated altogether. In total, Arsenal had just 14 shots. Only four of them were on target. Additionally, they made, as a team, just 10 key passes in the 90 minutes. A key pass is defined as a pass that leads to either a goal or shot. To put that number in context, Mesut Ozil has had games of eight key passes this season on his own.

And that brings me to the key point in all this mess: the absences that Arsenal were having to overcome were simply too detrimental, too significant, to not have a major impact on the quality of their play. Specifically, it is the similarities of style and role of the players that are absent that are causing such trouble.

Not only was Ozil a surprise omission on Sunday, with Arsene Wenger citing a knee issue that now threatens to keep him out of Wednesday’s match against Chelsea, but both Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla have continued their extended absences.

Those three players might be the best three players in possession in all of the squad. To have none available is clearly going to restrict the team’s collective ability to create. Now, that is no excuse for their level of performance. It was extremely poor. But players like Alex Iwobi, for example, do not have the same blend of control and creativity in their distribution, especially in regards to consistent distribution.

That was where Arsenal’s problems lay. They had no midfielder or striker with a pass accuracy of more than 90%. Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey often top that. In fact, that is where they excel, Cazorla especially. Their influence is being sorely missed.

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This piece is not to excuse the purposeless play in possession on Sunday. Rather, it is to show that there is a clear reason why they lacked creativity. It is not even surprising when such absences are factored into the equation.