Arsenal: Two distinct squads and one distinct strength

Arsenal have a clear trend of rotating squads between Premier League and Europa League and, somewhat surprisingly, there are some clear consistencies.

Arsenal essentially have two teams right now. On one side, have their Europa League squad, anchored by the likes of Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Laurent Koscielny. This is their “A” team, for lack of a better word, as it’s being tasked with confronting the only competition that matters.

On the other side, you have the Premier League squad, anchored by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mohamed Elneny and Calum Chambers. While this is technically the “B” team, the fact that they have Aubameyang due to his cup-tied status, and a bunch of young players trying to convince the world that they are for real, adds some ‘umph’ to it, despite the worthlessness of the Premier League as it stands.

Yet, ever since this rotation really started taking shape, mainly with the return of Alexandre Lacazette, we have seen some pretty clear similarities between the two sides.

Which is obviously a good thing when it comes to depth and reproducing the same results with a different cast.

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The Gunners have scored 18 goals in their last six matches, and those last six have entailed the new rotation that always to have either exactly the same starting XI’s, or with minor differences, like Reiss Nelson getting a debut.

There is some overlap as well, like Granit Xhaka, for instance, but again, the differences are that make this special, because it is still producing the same sort of attack. I was pleasantly surprised that an Arsenal attack without all of their primary weapons could still function competently.

And yes, I know it was only Southampton, and that we’ve looked shaky in others. But the end result doesn’t lie. It’s a team that knows how to get the job done across both sides. One more convincingly than the other, but it’s not like the “B” team is tanking, nor will they.

Of course, the other similarity is that the defense is still having it’s troubles, particularly with stupid individual mistakes. It’s something that really needs to be addressed, not even the personnel, just the complete lack of communication at times.

Next: Arsenal vs Southampton Player Ratings

Defense aside, the main takeaway from this developing consistency is that there is a lot of depth on this club across multiple positions. That is something we aren’t exactly used to having. A few key acquisitions to add to that depth and this may be “different” than every other time we’ve had hope after all.

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