Arsenal: As simple as Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Alexandre Lacazette?

As Unai Emery formulates his plans for next season, his biggest decision will be how to structure his attacking weapons. Is it as simple as Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Alexandre Lacazette?

The Arsenal squad poses Unai Emery many selection questions ahead of next season. Does he play a three-at-the-back-based system or the more accustomed 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 variation? How high does he press up the pitch, if at all? What balance in the midfield will he go for? Will he utilise more traditional wingers or allow them the freedom to drift into central areas?

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No one really knows the answers to these questions. At this point in the summer, I am not sure that Emery knows the answers to these questions. Not for certain, anyway. There is still a whole preseason for him to formulate his plans.

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But in being obsessive about football, tactics and Arsenal, it is the kind of thing that I think about all the time, even when the season isn’t on and no domestic games have been played since May. And in thinking about it how Emery may choose to set his team up, I repeatedly return to the same problem: the formulation of the front four.

Let me set the scene. In January, only one of the front three were secure for the future, that being new club-record signing Alexandre Lacazette. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil both had only six months remaining on their contracts and the former was inching closer to a northern exit. So Arsenal made their move. They swapped Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, providing another accomplished attacking weapon opposite of Ozil, and then partnered the trio with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund, a £56 million addition, breaking Lacazette’s transfer record from the summer, that completed the fearsome front four after agreeing to a new three-and-a-half year contract with Ozil.

The problem for Emery is whether he can fit them all into the same team. Arsene Wenger couldn’t last season, and the only way that I see Emery being able to do so next season is if he chooses to play Ozil as a deeper, central midfielder in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang either side of Lacazette.

But given Emery’s history, I am not sure that he will want to do that. Traditionally, he has played a sturdier 4-3-3 with two speedy wingers and two, double-pivot midfielders with an anchor sitting behind them. If he chooses that system again, it would likely be the case that Ozil starts out wide, not in a central position.

Then the question becomes Mkhitaryan or Lacazette. If Mkhitaryan, then Aubameyang plays through the middle, with Lacazette on the bench; if Lacazette, then Aubameyang plays on the winger, with Mkhitaryan on the bench. That seems like an oversimplification of the problem, and I am sure, to an extent, it is. Emery will have more complex tactics than that, I am confident of it.

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But it does represent the issue quite nicely, I believe. Is it possible to squeeze all four of these into the same team? If it isn’t, it, seemingly, quickly becomes an either-or between Lacazette and Mkhitaryan.