Arsenal Vs Manchester City: This is why you need wingers

Arsenal were dismantled by Manchester City on Sunday afternoon. Their problems stemmed from City’s width. It is why they must invest in at least one wide player this summer.

It was inevitable. Manchester City are the best team that I have ever seen play in the Premier League. Arsenal are in somewhat of a state, at the very start of a long and winding process. This game should never have been close. And, predictably, it wasn’t.

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City were not quite at their best, but there were moments of brilliance peeking through the exerted and extended control of a masterful midfield. When their play did click, as for the second goal, it was breathtaking. And the Gunners had no answer whatsoever.

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Arsenal’s problems largely stemmed from the half-spaces on the right and left flank that City exploited with great effect. Kevin de Bruyne, primarily on the right, and David Silva, primarily on the left, were fabulous, picking up very difficult pockets of space to track. The full-backs could not move inside, the wingers were held by the City full-backs, and the central midfielders wanted to compact the central spaces. That left no one to keep tabs on both de Bruyne and Silva. The impact was disastrous.

The reason why de Bruyne and Silva were so devastating in this match is because of the width of the City attack, produced by the positions of Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva. Arsenal wanted to play with a narrow and deep 4-4-2 defensive shape, but the full-backs were forced out wide due to Bernardo and Sterling’s positions. That created space centrally that Silva and de Bruyne revelled in.

Much is made of the brilliance of the midfield play of City, the intricacies of their possessional play, the angles and passing lanes that Pep Guardiola’s system engineers. But at the heart of the City excellence is a very simple concept: width. Usually supplied by Leroy Sane and Sterling, Guardiola demands that his team spreads the pitch as wide as possible. That creates the space for Silva and de Bruyne to craft their artistic wonder.

Contrast that to the narrowness of the Arsenal attack. On this occasion, it was Sead Kolasinac, a left-back, and Alex Iwobi, a central attacking midfielder who merely has the speed and dribbling ability to cope with the responsibilities of playing out wide, who were asked to play on either flank. Later on, it was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, a centre-forward, and Denis Suarez, a new signing who is also more comfortable in central positions. It is hardly the stable of wingers that Guardiola can call on.

City’s excellence stems from their wingers, not only the individual talent of the players that Guardiola can call upon, but also because of the impact that they have on the rest of the pitch. Throughout the history of the sport, the best teams have always had brilliant wingers. Barcelona and Lionel Messi. Manchester United and Ryan Giggs. Real Madrid and Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Arsenal need wingers. City proved it here. It is time to invest.