Arsenal’s Midfield Against Sunderland: by SV
With the Cazorla deal edging agonizingly closer, and the Sahin move gathering pace,it seems that Arsenal will have an embarassment of talent in midfield. But,unfortunately, we can’t play them all at once – though they will all play a part as injuries come in; so we must select a starting three. Today’s article will focus on who I think will start on August 18th. Please note that this article is made with a couple of assumptions in terms of transfers; that Song will stay and Sahin will sign.
Well, I am sure that we can all agree that Song is a must start if he is still here. He is our only proper defensive midfielder with EPL experience so there are no real questions about him. I also suspect that the player who will play alongside Song will be chosen partly to allow the Cameroonian to express his creative side and venture forward.
There are, in my opinion, two players vying for this aforementioned position: Diaby and Arteta. Arteta has become a fans’ favourite since his transfer, and his professional performances have certainly deserved the praise. He brings calm, composition and experience to our midfield and we suffered when he was injured at the end of last season.
But the ability and class of Diaby cannot be underestimated. Before his injury problems, he was being toted as the next Vieira and I honestly think that, with time and commitment, he could become our answer to Yaya Toure. I rate his defensive abilities higher than Arteta’s and, on his day, his attacking influence can be greater too. However, he doesn’t bring that consistency and unfailing reliablility that you get with the Spaniard so, overall, I would still start Mikel. Another positive from this pairing (Song – Arteta) is that they already have a strong understanding from all those games last season. Besides, Diaby will need to be eased back into Premier League action.
The final position to be filled is the attacking role. With the injuries to Wilshere and Rosicky, we have lost our two preferred players in that position. However, we still have Ramsey and (hopefully) Sahin and Cazorla available. Sahin is a classy player with a good passing range but, from watching him at Dortmund, I would say that he might be more suited to the slightly deeper ‘Arteta’ role. I think that both Ramsey (yes, Ramsey) and Cazorla both have more creativity than him.
Ramsey has had an excellent Olympics so far and has looked truly top class. He has looked confident and his passes have been very accurate in the most part. If you were to look at his highlights, you would see a range of exquisite passes, from dinks to arrowed through balls. All in all, I really wouldn’t mind at all if he were to start.
However, we must consider the abilities of our new signing Santi Cazorla (touchwood, touchwood, touchwood). He really is a top class player and could turn out like the player that Arshavin intially promised to be. Cazorla’s a tidy passer, got a great shot and (like seemingly all Spanish players) is a decent dribbler. I said before that he can provide that explosive burst in the final third which is extremely useful; he can commit a man or two and lay the ball on a plate for a striker. So he would be my first choice, if he does eventually sign.
I realise that there are some options that I didn’t consider, such as Diaby in the attacking role, or perhaps even AOC there – after all, Wenger did say that he would play there eventually. But I don’t think that either of these options are as good as the ones I’ve detailed above, which is why I didn’t into detail.
But I’m rambling a bit. Overall, my starting midfield would be Song – Arteta – Cazorla as it would provide a pretty good balance between attack and defence, experience and youth, composure and explosiveness. I would also have Ramsey and Diaby on the bench, in case we need a bit of impetus and solidity respectively.
And that’s all folks.
Till tomorrow.
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