Post by KingHenryThefif
With the end of the transfer window and the first International break of the season, another pivotal clash against the Blues looms once again; a perfect opportunity to show any possible renewed resolve to right the team’s wrongs and compete with a top team on their own patch, following the horrible show at Anfield in the team’s last away game.
With that in mind, this perhaps also presents as an appropriate time to examine the significance of those forwards who have shaped our successful results against the big boys, either with brilliant performances last season/in the past, even as we prepare to visit a team whose hoodoo over us has taken a more embarrassing experience, since the last time we shamed them at their backyard with a wild 5-3 victory recorded in 2011. (Albeit with an almost unrecognizable team from what we currently have)
A breath of fresh air seems to have returned to the Emirates Stadium with back to back home wins, thanks to Danny Welbeck and Alexandre Lacazette, with the latter holding the esteemed advantage of hitting the ground running by scoring in consecutive games on home soil, while the former (Danny Welbeck) also showing the freshness of a new signing.
The England International has had an impressive start to the season, already notching up 3 strikes for club and country. This sharpness is perhaps borne out from the fact he’s enjoying what is only his first preseason prep at the club, due to those two shattering knee injuries that kept him on the sidelines for the better part of his time at Arsenal.
Having started all four (4) Premier League games this season, the former Mancunian is evidently trying to sieze the opportunity and make up for the far too long spell of his unfortunate Arsenal career yet, by covering much ground on the pitch as well as in statistical terms. Although, question marks are still being raised on the technical precision of his touch in goal scoring positions he has consistently managed to get himself into, one would hope the success of his recent development is a systematic process, rather than a lucky break that may still run dry in the near future, like as often been the case.
While the Frenchman will be leading the line in his first taste of a Premier League top 6 encounter assuming he (Lacazette) starts at Stamford Bridge, knows all too well, his partner Welbeck how thin the margins are, in a big game, as he showed in last season’s 2-0 win over his former team, likewise when he led the line impressively, in the FA Cup win over Sunday’s opponents.
Borne out from that famous win in May, the Community Shield gave Lacazette a little doze of what to expect in the crunch games, and if his performance on the day is anything to go by, or better still if he succeeds in replicating the performance of Welbeck last May, then maybe, just maybe we might be able to get a spirited display and result out of visit to the Champions.
With this in mind, it will be interesting to see what decision the boss makes with Welbeck, if he opts to start Alexis Sanchez also alongside Lacazette. This is down to the idea that If Danny is to remain in the starting line up, while Alexis is also accommodated and the duo of Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette keep their respective roles, then a switch to 4-2-3-1 becomes a real possibility.
In the last win recorded over Chelsea, which dates almost exactly a year ago, the duo of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil sparkled beyond brightly, in a game which ironically was seen as the catalyst for Chelsea’s title win and not the reverse case.
The 3-0 win might have not benefited the Arsenal team the way it needed to but a certain conformation derived from the game buttressed the fact that we had discovered an identity which mirrored the consensus opinion that we had two (2) world class attackers who were on a different level from the rest of the team; a pair whose chemistry was second to none within the team.
With the same team now being spearheaded by two (2) different options who weren’t in the team 12 months back, the complimentary patterns between Welbeck-Lacazette and the evergreen telepathy between Ozil-Alexis are no doubt a promising prospect as we head to a rival ground who inarguably had the best form of attacking cohesion.
In this light, other than sacrificing one from the above Arsenal quartet, a brave selection to operate with the dynamism of all four could well be the catalyst to finally getting one over Chelsea at the Bridge, who almost certainly wouldn’t be expecting an Arsenal system change to 4 at the back. Such element of surprise could extend the breath of fresh air that needs to be sustained, similar to the good fortune Chelsea found after the 3-0 mauling at the Emirates last September.
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