Arsenal: Just rip it up and start again

Arsenal were again let down by their inability to defend in Thursday night’s 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid. As a new manager prepares to come to north London, fixing the defence must be his priority. Well, it might be better to just rip it up and start again.

We’ve been here before, haven’t we? An excellent Arsenal performance littered with a myriad of wasted chances, only for their hopes to be squandered thanks to the ineptitude of their defence and game management. Yes, that is exactly the story from the 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid on Thursday night, and I am tired of it. Very tired.

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On this occasion, it was three of the most experienced and accomplished players in the squad: Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny, who was most noticeably to blame, and Shkodran Mustafi, who was perhaps unfortunate but certainly added to the calamitous look.

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It all stemmed from a foolish high line, a line that was lapse thanks to the deeper positioning of Monreal, someone who should know to take his position off the shoulder of the centre-half. That allowed Antoine Griezmann, the goalscorer, the bend his run in behind Koscielny. Koscielny recovered his position, reaching the lofted pass over the top first, but proceeded to only kick the ball into his own body, dropping to the feet of Griezmann with no defender near him.

As the rebounded effort again fell to Griezmann, Mustafi, trying to scamper across the goal and make a miraculous block, slipped, dropping to the ground, allowing the Atletico attacker to simply slot the ball into the roof of the net and reward a team that offered almost nothing with the most precious of away goals.

And this is just the latest in a series of individual defensive mistakes that have utterly undermined the progress that Arsenal have made, or at least attempted to make. It is the repetition and the consistency of these errors that played a large part in seeing Arsene Wenger depart at the end of the season. It is also one of the most pressing issues for the new manager, whoever that may be, to fix.

In fixing it, I actually think that it might just be better to rip it all up and start all over again. Monreal and Koscielny are the wrong side of 30. Mustafi’s relentless errors have proven himself lacking as the anchor of the defence. Granit Xhaka is not a holding midfielder without the right protection in front of him. Petr Cech’s quality has deteriorated. David Ospina is simply not good enough. Arsenal could sign three excellent defensive-minded players and still not fix their defence.

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And so, ripping it up and starting all over again might not be the most stupid thing to do. The defence is the most pertinent problem that the new manager must solve, and he may be best served in not solving it at all, and just starting again.