If only Arshavin played against Chelsea too. Go back to 4 4 2 Arsene

By 1970’s Gooner

First things first. The 4 3 3 formation does not suit Arsenal at the moment. The reason is that Fabregas, either under instructions or because he is more used to playing from deep, does not really play in the more attacking position in the hole thus leaving the front man isolated.

The 4 3 3 formation also means that another two defensive midfielders need to be deployed rather than one and at the moment Arsenal possess only one who can cut it (Song).

So when we play 4 3 3 it invariably turns into more of a defensive formation rather than an attacking one as in the Liverpool (Gerrard and Torres) mould say.

But there were two major differences tonight when compared to the 4 3 3 formation adopted against Chelsea.

The first one was Song who at least gave Arsenal some solidity in the middle of the park which however was not matched by Denilson (once again).

The second was the selection of Arshavin who was so inexplicably left out of the Chelsea game.

I and I am sure a lot of Gooners, would have preferred Arshavin to be scoring those goals against Chelsea and not against Liverpool in a League game that was far less important than us actually winning something this season.

Arsenal actually posed more of a real threat when with the entrance of Walcott and the exit of Denilson reverted to the familiar and far more productive 4 4 2.

Fabregas dropped back to his familiar position alongside the immense Song and Nasri played behind Bendtner with Arshavin on the left (and Walcott on the right).

Up to then Liverpool had been the better team, running the game, playing with a tempo that Arsenal’s midfield and especially the defence could not cope with. As a result the weaker parts of Arsenal were exposed.

None more so than Gibbs who had a hard time dealing with Benayoun and Kuyt when they switched.

Silvestre was also found wanting as Torres turned him with ease to score Liverpool’s third goal.

Fabiansky who did his best to keep Arsenal in the game with some fine saves was badly positioned (he was way behind the goal line) to stop their second goal.

And both Toure and Silvestre panicked in the last minute of injury time and did not clear the ball when it came in the area only for it come back for Benayoun to just stroke it into the net.

I hope, I sincerely hope, that Arsene goes back to the more brave and offensive 4 4 2for the games against Manchester United.

This is the system that suits the players Arsenal have at the moment and this is the system that will actually take the game to Manchester United.

This is far more preferable rather than play a more defensive formation (like Arsene adopted against Chelsea and Liverpool for most of the game) and hope that they make the mistakes that Liverpool made tonight by handing Arshavin three of his four goals (which of course he took very well indeed).