Arsenal: A different puzzle with every third of the pitch

Arsenal are still in the developmental stages of the next era, and in each third of the pitch, they have a different puzzle to unravel.

Last year was entirely experimental from Unai Emery in his first year at Arsenal. Every match was a different attempt to solve short-term and long-term questions. This year, there looks to be more steadiness, and the personnel is filling in nicely, but there is still one question to solve at each of third of the pitch.

Up front is the easiest, but still by no means easy. How do you get the most out of two elite strikers, and elite winger, and a bunch of youth options? The front three has been the answer thus far, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only option, and it falls on Emery to uncover what the best way to deploy is.

If utilizing the front three, the creative midfield options are severely limited, leaving Mesut Ozil stranded, yet again, with nowhere to turn.

And speaking of midfield, that might be the biggest knot to untangle because of a wealth of options. So while this is a “problem,” it isn’t necessarily a bad problem. Not at all, in fact.

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Against Tottenham, Emery went with his trio from last year, Granit Xhaka, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira. And it really didn’t work. Not like it did last year anyway. Not until the second half, and that was largely influenced by Dani Ceballos coming on for Torreira and giving a new edge to that midfield.

So maybe the best way forward is Xhaka, Guendouzi and Ceballos. The dynamism there is insane, but it does count out Torreira, who needs to develop more with time on the pitch. And it leaves out Joe Willock, who is in a similar boat.

And a lot of this also comes down to protecting that defense, or helping to protect them, anyway. Because right now, despite Emery opting for experience, he isn’t getting a lot of reliability. Sokratis and David Luiz have been mostly misses in the hit and miss categorization and while the fullback situation is going to solve itself, the centerbacks aren’t.

Rob Holding is due back and Calum Chambers should rightfully be frothing to get back into the starting XI that he was so unfairly dropped from. So the question that must be asked, again, is how long you trust experience to be reliable when your future options may be even more reliable.

It’s a lot to untangle, but there’s time. And in the meantime, the club is doing quite well in site of the uncertainty.