Arsenal vs Everton: It’s really all about that midfield

Unai Emery may be forced into making some changes as Arsenal travel to Everton, but what this all comes down to is the battle in the midfield.

There have been times this season where it felt like Unai Emery was flying by the seat of his pants, and he has that right. He’s new to Arsenal, he wants to figure out what feels right for him and the players that he has at the club.

But recently, trends have started developing – clear trends. When playing at home, Emery prefers the three-back set to allow for attacking width and dominance across the board, but hasn’t been able to replicate the same results in away matches, so he has kept to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation in those matches, occasionally a 4-4-2.

Any way to get more midfielders into the match with the objective being to shut out the opposing attack in the midfield, where it all begins.

That’s the big question going into this Everton match. Does Unai Emery want to let the three-back set continue, since it’s been working so well at home, or does he prefer to stick to what he’s been doing and go back to a four-back with more midfielders?

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He may actually not be in control of answering that question, depending on the health of his midfield.

With Lucas Torreira serving the last match of his suspension and Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey both recovering from minor injuries, the mantle falls to Matteo Guendouzi – the only man that we know is fit for the match.

Either Ramsey or Xhaka will have to go, but even still, that allows for two midfielders, which might allow for a 4-2-3-1, but is that really the best recourse when you can’t outfit for midfield domination or the usual three-back set? It’s not an easy solution.

Ht should be a matter of either having the midfield personnel to overload a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 diamond, or reverting to what has been working with the three-back sets. I don’t see any middle ground. We can’t mess around with new sets here, seeing as how we’re in third place and can’t afford to drop points. Otherwise we’d be no better than United or Spurs (ha).

Ideally, if Ramsey and Xhaka re both fit, then this midfield becomes an engine room of creativity and dominance, the likes of which not even Gueye will be able to mess with. We’ve dominated far better midfielders.