Arsenal: Amazingly, width still the problem

Last season, Arsenal had a width problem. But this year, after spending £100 million and welcoming crucial players back into the fold, it is yet to be solved.

There were plenty of issues with how Arsenal performed last season. Tactically, Unai Emery brought some interesting wrinkles to the team, but there were consistent issues that undermined his progress.

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The inability to play out from the back, the confused structure of the central midfield, the lack of identity when switching between different formations, seemingly every week. But perhaps chief among the tactical difficulties that the Gunners encountered as a lack of attacking width.

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Because of the brilliance of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as two centre-forwards, Emery could rarely implement a system with genuine wingers. His most-used system was a 3-5-2 with Mesut Ozil or Aaron Ramsey in behind the striking pair. He also used a 4-4-2 diamond, again without any natural wide players.

Emery relied on the full-backs to provide a semblance of threat in wide areas, but with left-back options underwhelming, to say the least, and Hector Bellerin absent for over half the season through injury, the players he used, primarily Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, could not consistently offer an offensive threat while not sacrificing defensive security.

In the summer, Arsenal’s recruitment made it quite clear that they recognised this wide problem. They spent the best part of £100 million on two players specifically designed to tackle this issue: £72 million on the club-record Nicolas Pepe and another £25 million on offensively minded left-back Kieran Tierney. They also shipped out Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the two primary wingers from last season, another sign that they were unhappy with their wide production. But despite this, as well as the return of Bellerin at right-back, the Gunners still have a width issue.

Even after Emery’s departure, interim head coach Freddie Ljungberg was hesitant to commit to an attacking gameplan that made the most of the wings. Pepe was nowhere to be seen, a centre-forward and a central attacking midfield played the wide roles, and the full-backs were manned by reserves, one of whom is a centre-half by trade.

Now, it would be wrong to assume that Ljungberg cannot fix that problem after one game with just one training session to prepare his team. But under Emery, Arsenal still lacked width, especially width with purpose. He did adapt his system, using a 4-3-3 with Aubameyang and Pepe in the wide areas, but it was not conducive to putting players into dangerous situations, Pepe especially often receiving the ball with two or three defenders immediately closing him down, unable to wriggle free and drive forwards.

Similarly, Tierney has not been unleashed at left-back. While his crossing qualities have been brilliantly demonstrated in his outings thus far, fitness concerns and natural caution has led to him being dropped from the team more frequently than is necessary. After struggling in wide areas last season, Arsenal made the necessary personnel moves to bolster the positions and now seem unwilling to make the most of them.

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If Ljungberg and whoever takes the head coaching job permanently is restore Arsenal to a top-four team and beyond, they must make the most of the wide areas. It is a major problem, one that the pieces are there to solve, but have not yet been put together in the right order.

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