Those of us who have been following the Gunners over the years know that the teams play is centred around their talismanic captain Cesc Fabregas. Almost all of the Gunners attacks pass through him. The Spaniard has been the fulcrum of the young Arsenal team producing stellar performances, most notably against Juventus, AC milan and Fenerbahce in the Champions League. Infact in the clash against the Turkish side, the Daily Mail started its report with an unequivocal declaration “Cesc Fabregas is the best playmaker in the world.”
The 24-year-old has shone both in the Gunners 4-4-2 formation in a deeper position and in an advanced role in the current 4-2-3-1 formation. Samir Nasri established himself as one of the best midfielders in the world whether while plying his trade on the wings or in the centre of the pack. The possibility of losing both players is a chilling one for the Gunners. But truth be said: Arsenal will miss Fabregas more than Nasri. But as his departure from Ashburton Grove becomes imminent, how would the Gunners line up without their talented skipper next season?
The first possibility will take into consideration the assumption that Nasri won’t leave. In this case, the Frenchman will be deployed in the position Cesc Fabregas holds currently. The only problem is that last season when Cesc was out and Wenger asked Nasri to fill in the void, the Gunners looked slow and lacked the killer passes hence couldn’t break down defences. This is because Nasri holds onto the ball more and wants to dribble in a situation where Cesc would have released a pass. This does not augur well for the Gunners as their game is technically pacy. That’s why on many occasions when Cesc was injured, Wenger employed either Czech captain Tomasz Rosicky or Welsh starlet Aaron Ramsey.
The other option will be to use either of the above two in that position. The only problem is that none of them is constitent enough. Rosicky rarely has 5 good games in a row although in my opinion, the little mozart is the best passer in the Premier League. Ramsey on the other hand produces his defence splitting passes once in a blue moon (you should note that am not talking of their injury records as Cesc too had a share of the nightmare).
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Wenger can also decide to play Andrei Arshavin in that position as this is the role that made the Russian assassin flourish when playing for Zenit St Petersburg and Russia. Another option for Wenger if wants to stick with the current formation is to deploy Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong as holding midfielders and move Jack Wilshere upfront. I believe with good grooming, Wilshere can be as good as Cesc or even better. The only problem is that, he showed when the Gunners played against Birmingham in the Carling Cup final, that he likes to control the game from deep. The plus with this is that it will ensure that the Gunners are more stable defensively as Song, Frimpong and Wilshere are all good defensively.
Should Wenger decide to switch formations and revert to the 4-4-2 style, then he can have a central midfield of Song and Wilshere and a strike partnership of Van Persie and Walcott or Van Persie and Gervinho. The former will give you glimpses of the unrivaled Henry / Bergkamp partnership. This will leave the Gunners with a plethora of players who can play on the wings: Ryo Miyaichi, Arshavin, Nasri, Rosicky, Walcott or Gervinho.
Alternatively, Le prof can decide to entirely change the formation. Yes, 4-1-2-3, a highly attacking system that was employed by AC Milan last season. Alex Song can play holding midfielder with Wilshere, Ramsey or Rosicky infront of him. And Van Persie, Nasri, Walcott / Gervinho / Arshavin can form the attack. This formation though very rewarding offensively, it leaves the team weak defensively and although Milan used it successfully last season, the Serie A’s attackers can’t compare to the EPL’s pacy forwards.
But trust Arsène to get it correct.
Keep the faith!
Arsenal
sell nasri now if he dont want to sign and live Cesc
let the saga of fabreas and nasri pass. Sell both the players for a free minded play .
Not really fair on Ramsey considering what his come back from this year or did you forget he had he leg snapped in half. Going to take time for him to come to the form he was in before. Might I remind this dim witted blogger who he and Wilshere dominated Utd as well.
i love them but is better to sell both !! Buy Ribery if possible, one central defender (Diego Lugano?!?!) and someone that can fill Clichy departure and don’t forget we have Lansbury and Frimpong !!!!
Arsenal will surely do better without both asfar as wenger will replace them with geniune players
i think your harsh on nasri – his brilliant form at the start of the season was b’cos he was in the middle!
its a simple change over with song and wilshere as the supporting midfield with nasri being more attacking
gervinho and theo on either wing with rvp up front
with ramsey he can play in any of the 3 midifield roles and it might a good time to see what arshavin is capable of when in the central role aswell!!
replace both wenger
Nasri can’t pass the ball for shit. He doesn’t have the vision required to fill Cesc’s role. If we don’t reinvest in a player like Sjneider after Cesc’s departure I’d try Arshavin in this spot.
Wenger sell both player and replace thm with barton,ribery and mata.
No one wil ever replace Cesc tho’ i want him sold coz its so evident that he wants 2 leave,this instead is goin 2 distablise wat once lukd so promisd coz we only own his presenc but his heart n mind is elswhere,dwhy cant Wenger consider what Ac Milan has 2 offer?
Wenger has to replace fabregas by Arshavin, where he does not have to defend!
Szczesny
Sagna Jagielka Vermaelen Baines
Song Wilshere
Nasri Arshavin Gervinho
RobinvPersie
Fabianski, Djourou, Koscielny, Gibbs, Ramsey, Frimpong, Rosicky, Diaby, Walcott, Carlos Vela, Chamakh on the bench!
Because the AC Milan offer is rubbish. Trying to offload players we do not need. Alcantara is the better deal.
SELL DIABY AND BUY MESUT OZIL
@ jack,i didnt consider ramsey’s performance afta the injury.i was talking of his play before.you better go and watch his games before you start dismissing the points carelessly.unless you want to convince me you only started watching arsenal after ramsey’s leg was broken.thats why i said his defence splitting passes are rare,not that they are absent.if you read that part clearly,you will find out who’s the dimwit between me and you.
whatever please splash cash to buy either Gary Cahill or Cris Samba. arsenal need a solid defend.in beside arsenal need a winger like pires and midfield like viera to drive the team forward. Plz Wenger we d gunners fans suffering the loss..
Jack im with you mate.
Kevin, Ramsey isnt that kind of player, he doesnt play the deffence splitting balls, he links up play, he gets in the opponents box he shoots from distance, just because you play center midd doesnt mean you have to play through balls all the time.
Look when Vieira and Petit were our 2 center midds, hardly Cesc Fabregas when it came to passing but what they did was effective and so is Ramsey.
Before hes injury I actually rated him more than I did wilshire, or atleast on par, hes class, good with both feet and can dribble abit, If Ramsey gets to play all this season like Wilshire did last he will shine and next year there will be no need for a Cesc replacement so I hope Cesc gets hes wish and goes Barca and Ramsey and WIlshire play together all season, maybe buy a backup center midd
both nasri and fabregas should be sold cos they are tired of staying at the emirates. so that we wont regret it by the time season starts.
To hell wit fabregas nd nasri,arsene wenger turns both of them 2 a world clas players.who re they b4.wen flamini nd hleb want 2 go,everi guners were beggng them,we got a beta replacemnt in nasri then.rememba hleb cant score we got nasri 2 replace him nd he performd wel.let them go.we re gona c a beta replacemnt
Not bothered. Without him, we’re better off the ball.
I get ur point brad,but remember what arsenal’s game revolves on-the passes.n that means the man behind the striker must be good at them not just a normal passer.thats why gerrard or lampard or carrick cant fit in our system
Point of correction hleb can pass d ball beta dan nasir,mor creative dan nasir,even creat mor or assist in scoring chances.I rate hleb higher n better dan nasir.Let nasir go 2 man city n d nxt season he wil find himself at sunderland or newcastle
I read with total sadness and disgust that a big club’s senior Vice President could utter such a demoralising remark as to brand our best playmaker in the world his ‘Second Important Target’ signing for Barca, which would mean Cesc is only of secondary importance the club. It definately hurts the so-called 2nd target to a large extend as that would have meant Cesc would often be warming the bench (I wonder how Cesc would have felt) Or is it the Barca VP’s ploy to try to send the message across that Cesc is worth lesser that the 40 million pound?
For those of us who have been a little critical of Cesc’s last season dipping of form and did not perform to expectation, I would wish that we will not throw any more criticms at him. Here we have with us a perfect human being being pushed to a position of torn between 2 lovers. While his heart has always been with Arsenal, but he still has many childhood friends in Barca which is also in his native country where he yearns to return to be closer to his parents too. He has been in 2 minds – a homeland that he desires to return and, a great Arsenal club that he has grown to love so much- coupled with the Wenger’s fatherly love. Its this fatherly love that our professor has a soft spot of trying to fulfill his favourite son’s dream return – if he insists, to his homeland by not demanding for more than the 40 million mark which we all know Cesc is worth more than that.
Having said the above, I am not too sure how Cesc would react to the ‘2nd important target’ branding. If at all its dmoralising which I think it is, then it is now a better time to have our talismanic captain back from the neutral ground. So my fellow lifetime Gunnerfans, our captain is not what we think he is and that best midfielder in the world is truly worthy of our trust, love and plenty of respect! Afterall, he has given us so much, hasnt he?