Arsenal: Deciphering the likely midfield trio

Unai Emery is the new Arsenal head coach. He tends to play with a 4-3-3 with three central midfielders. So, who could they be as the new season looms?

The new season is near. In a little over three weeks, Arsenal will open the campaign by welcoming the Premier League champions, Manchester City, to the Emirates. It is not the easiest start to Unai Emery’s tenure in north London. I am sure he would have been hoping for a more gentle opener.

Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast right here

Nevertheless, as the season looms, the layers of Emery’s plans, strategies and systems are slowly peeled away. Based on his history, it was possible to formulate a rough idea of what he might try to implement. But as the preseason continues, the transfer business plays out, and as more developments are made in regards to personnel decisions and public comments, those ideas become increasingly structured.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

And it seems clear to me that Emery will employ the 4-3-3 shape that he has used throughout his career. As his record dictates, it is his most-favoured formation and it is the one that he played in the 8-0 win over Boreham Wood at the weekend, suggesting that he and his players have been working on it in preseason training so far. For me, the most interesting selection dilemma with that system comes in the central midfield trio and, specifically, the balance that he will plump for in that trio.

Typically, Emery has used three more natural central midfielders, one of which would anchor the base of the midfield, screening the back-four, with two, flanking, box-to-box players afforded the freedom to push into more advanced areas from deep. But as Pep Guardiola has proven at Manchester City, it is possible to adapt more natural attacking midfielders to play those roles with Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva.

In Mesut Ozil, Arsenal have one of the best attacking midfielders in the world — by creative statistics alone, they have the best attacking midfielder in the world, and by some distance. Perhaps Emery may adopt his structure of more traditional central midfielders to field Ozil in a central position, rather than shifting him out wide, even if he is afforded the freedom to roam into other areas.

The dilemma, for me, comes down to two players. It’s fairly clear that the £26 million Lucas Torreira will play at the base of the midfield. He’s not been signed to sit on the bench. Additionally, assuming that he stays with a new contract, Aaron Ramsey will also play in one of the slightly more advanced midfield positions, half-eights, as Guardiola calls them. That leaves a straight shoot-out for the final midfield position between Ozil, an attacking midfielder, and Granit Xhaka, a more natural, almost defensive midfielder.

It is probably too early to stake a claim as to which he will choose. In terms of pure, individual quality, it is not close. Ozil is much the better player. But it is not inconceivable that, like Arsene  Wenger in the latter months of last season, Emery is perturbed by the unbalancing of the midfield that Ozil’s presence can cause and chooses a more structured and stable set-up, which Xhaka would provide.

Next: Arsenal: 3 most likely sale candidates this summer

We will get a greater look at Emery’s thinking when Arsenal play further preseason friendlies in Singapore against Atletico Madrid and Pairs Saint-Germain. This is one of the biggest tactical dilemmas that I will be watching out for because, at this point, I’m not quite sure which way Emery will swing. In fact, I’m not even sure that he himself knows.