Arsenal: The key team balance is the detrimental contract imbalance

The dual-axis of Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere provides crucial balance to this Arsenal team. The issue is that they come with contract imbalance. Their futures must be solved before the midfield can progress.

It should come as no surprise that Granit Xhaka’s best two performances this season have come in a slightly reformed Arsenal midfield in the two legs against AC Milan in their last-16 Europa League tie. While he, on an individual level, has improved, the balance of the team has helped secure him in the deep-lying role in front of the defence.

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The heart of Arsene Wenger’s apparent best starting XI — I believe that the team we saw in the second leg, other than the cup-tied Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, is Wenger’s preferred line-up — is the dual midfield axis of Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere.

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Officially, the shape is a 4-2-3-1 with Wilshere shifted into an attacking midfield role. In actuality, as portrayed on a number of occasions during the 3-1 second-leg win on Thursday, such is the fluidity of the midfield positions, from Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan not confined to the wide channels to the positional rotation of Wilshere and Ramsey, it is perhaps more like a 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1.

In honesty, the terminology doesn’t matter. What matters is the balance of the team, and with Wilshere and Ramsey as the central axis of the midfield, Arsenal enjoy a far greater balance between stability and creativity. While both players are renowned for their attacking contributions, their piercing distribution, and intentional, direct dribbling, it is their collective energy, stamina, ground-gobbling movement, and improved discipline that really helps this team.

Ramsey is still afforded the freedom to maraud forward as he so loves to do, but instead of having a defensive-reluctant Ozil in front of him, he has Wilshere, a player who is a far more natural central midfielder and is more than happy to sit a little deeper if he recognizes that that is where he is best-suited for that particular passage of play. Xhaka, as a result, is rarely left stranded.

But this improved team balance on the pitch is not reciprocated by certainty, structure and assurance off it. Wilshere’s contract expires at the end of this season and Wenger has stated that an offer has been made and it will not be improved upon. An impasse, then, that could lead to an exit. Similarly, Ramsey’s contract expires just a year after, with a growing number reports suggesting that he fancies a move away from North London.

As proven with the Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil scenarios last summer, Arsenal will be wanting to secure certainty regarding Ramsey as soon as possible. The longer the unknown lingers, the more likely his performance level, and subsequently that of the team, deteriorates.

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And so we come to the crux of the issue. Wenger has finally found his balance. Wilshere and Ramsey are finally fit, healthy, and firing. And it could all fall to pieces before it ever begins. Detrimental imbalance reigns once more.