Arsenal: Jonjo Shelvey embodied another key, overlooked problem

Arsenal’s problems are numerous, but it’s always nice to see those problems take on physical form, and they did with Jonjo Shelvey as that form.

Arsenal’s defense was shredded far too often against Newcastle United, but as we’ve been talking about here at Pain in the Arsenal, pinning that downfall on one guy is giving too much credit to everyone else that isn’t shouldering the blame.

At St. James, for instance, both goals were complete team failings. And most of the nervy moments, in general started with one key mistake that seems to spur a chain reaction of failures and disappointments.

Jonjo Shelvey came to embody this problem, which we are seeing more and more lately, and which we saw against CSKA Moscow in the second leg as well.

That problem being that the Gunners midfield is not very good at closing down and staying tight on the ball. It’s a tactical befuddlement, because sometimes you see guys like Mohamed Elneny sprinting up the pitch to pressure the keeper on the ball, but then you see the same midfielders incapable of sticking pressure on their opposing midfielders when they’re standing much closer.

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Back to Shelvey. He didn’t do anything extraordinary on the day. At least not statistically. But what he did do is play the type of game that can pick apart the Gunners’ defense like soft bread.

The bald Englishman attempted 16 longballs, more than any other outfield player by a long shot. And he completed seven of them, which was also more than any other outfield player by a long shot. He stretched the defense and he did it quite capably because there was rarely anyone in his face, challenging the passes he was hoping to make.

We saw the same thing with Golovin in the second leg in Moscow. Jack Wilshere gave him something like ten yards of space to pick out whatever he wanted, and Wilshere didn’t look the slightest bit troubled by it.

It’s like this midfield has been told “if they’re going to beat you from that far, they deserve it, let them have it.” Either that or they are scared to get into the opponents face because they don’t want to be exposed for their own defensive shortcomings. In return, they pass the problem off to an inadequate defense, who is less than capable of mopping up the spill.

Next: 3 Players To Help Defensive Disaster

It is a complete systematic failing, and it needs to be addressed because I’m really quite tired of seeing the same thing beat us over and over.

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