Arsenal Vs Cardiff City: If there’s a game to play fab four…

Arsenal travel to Cardiff City on Sunday afternoon. It is a game that they will expect to dominate possession and control throughout. So, if there is a game in which Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil can play together in, it’s this one.

When Arsenal signed both Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the January transfer window, with Alexis Sanchez leaving in the process, there was an immediate question posed by many fans and analysts: How do they all fit in the team?

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Just six months prior, Alexandre Lacazette had arrived as Olivier Giroud’s improvement in a club-record £47 million deal, while Mesut Ozil was in the process of signing a new deal. Those two, it seemed, would not easily be dropped. The question, therefore, was obvious: Could all four play in the same XI?

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During that half-season with Arsene Wenger in charge, not one minute of play featured all four players. The first time that we got to see them all play with one another as a four was in the preseason. It had middling success. The attack, predictably, looked excellent, with quick, incisive passing and fluid, pacy movement off the ball, but there was a clear lack of balance in deeper areas of the pitch.

And since the start of the season, we have only seen all four play in the same team on one occasion, the final 36 minutes against Manchester City on the opening weekend with Arsenal chasing the game. It did actually have some success, with the attack, again, looking far more potent with the introduction of Lacazette to lead the line.

I don’t think it’s fair to say whether playing all four together would actually work or not. There simply hasn’t been a large enough sample size to evaluate properly and conclude either way. But if there is a game in which all four should be able to successfully play together, it is this Sunday’s trip to Cardiff, for which Ozil should be available after returning to training from his illness this week.

Arsenal will dominate possession in this match. Even with Cardiff at home, Neil Warnock will play extremely defensively, implementing an incredibly deep defensive line, utilising the greater security and protection that a low block provides. It would not surprise me if the Gunners were given up to 80% possession.

Yes, there will be a threat on the counter-attack, as displayed by West Ham United on Saturday, but this is a game that Unai Emery’s side can completely control in the midfield and attack. There is a huge difference between playing these four against Manchester City and against Cardiff. The same risk does not deter such offensive bravery.

Whether Emery will actually take that viewpoint or not, remains to be seen. I would be hesitant to think that he will. But if there is a game in which the fab four should excel without upsetting the balance of the team too much, it’s this one.