Sunday's loss to West Ham has raised a lot of questions marks for the Gunner faithful, so let's go through Arsenal's starting XI and see what we can glean from their woeful performance in Matchday 1.
In goal: Petr Cech and his famous scrum cap made those that support him look like they should be wearing tin-foil hats. His two errors were costly and decisive: exiting his area to chase an air ball that he didn't reach...
...and his misreading of a relatively routine near post attempt...
...only served to compound the struggles Arsenal was having at the other end with a floundering attack. While he is not solely to blame for both goals as the defensive pairing of Mertesacker and Koscielny were disorganized and overly passive, his first performance has completely failed to live up to the expectations he garnered coming into this campaign. Last season the prevailing narrative was that Ospina and Szczesny were definitely solid keepers that made minimal mistakes and solid saves, but a world class goalkeeper (like Petr Cech) would save Arsenal 10-15 points a season by making the saves that no one expects him to make. Not only did he fail to do that in this first match, but he inflicted more pain than he avoided. After the mixed signals of an impressive preseason, and this shocker of a first game, expect every move he makes going forward to be dramatized and over analyzed
The back four: As was previously mentioned, the two center-halves played as bad as they have in recent memory. Usually an organized delegation of Koscielny's marauding and Per's resoluteness, they seemed nervous, unaware, and inflexible. Nacho Monreal on the other hand continued his multi-year run of improvement and remained confident in his defending and attacking, between which he distributed time perfectly. On the other side Mathieu Debuchy was somewhere in between the two; he defended solidly, but seemed rusty going forward. I expect him to sharpen up going forward, however, and secure a starting role with Nacho.
The midfield: Where to start. They tried to play a more fluid set up with Ramsey and Cazorla kind of swapping positions and moving Ox over to the right and it couldn't have worked worse. Each player failed to succeed because of their own distinct reasons:
Coquelin: It seemed like he watched a few too many Sergio Busquets highlight videos before this match because he suddenly thought he needed to be the one that initiated the attacks with long balls and switching play from side-to-side. Unfortunately, he's pretty terrible at doing so. He needs to understand that his role in the squad is not to try and technically compete with the likes of Cazorla, Özil, Ramsey, Wilshire, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky and simply get stuck into the defense as is his best position.
Ramsey: His pairing with Coquelin is partially to blame for the latter's poor performance as Aaron decided to run around like a chicken with his head cut off all game (and his feet for that matter). Besides his structure-less, clumsy attacking, he seemed to make a point to make the wrong decision in the final third every time he received the ball.
Cazorla: While he didn't make nearly as many tangible mistakes as some of his midfield compatriots and he defended relatively well, we can tell that the wing certainly is not the position for him any longer. His play has become too patient and indecisive to be one of the three main attackers. Instead his usual position alongside Francis Coquelin in the center of the park suits his new play style far better. Wenger needs to rely on that synergistic midfield pairing consistently as it is one of the best things Arsenal have going for them right now.
Oxlade-Chamberlain: Barring his defensive mishaps and loss of possession leading to a goal, he actually emerged as a small ray of hope during this match. In games like these where teams are willing to sit back deep and defend, Arsenal are not going to break down defenses with only the crisp pass and move style you get with Özil, Ramsey, Giroud, and Cazorla. What's needed is individual creativity and directness that they can receive from players like the Ox, Alexis, and Wilshire. Not that the others don't have huge roles for the team, but Wenger needs to put out a squad with complementary styles if he wants a dynamic, adaptable, title winning force in North London.
Özil: Albeit heavy-footed and slightly uncreative, I don't actually think his performance today was that poor. Nobody expected him to play his sharpest and most graceful in the first game of the season and significant failings all around him only made his job that much harder. That being said, what Özil needs to learn from this game is how to be a leader. His meek personality leads him to sink into the shadows of tough games like this far too easily. His world-beating ability gives him to responsibility to, when everybody else is stumbling around aimlessly (cough Ramsey cough Giroud), organize and spearhead Arsenal's attack.
Giroud: It's disheartening, I know, but I've come to this conclusion; he is what he is and (in my opinion) Wenger needs to call a spade a spade and quit pretending he's something he's not. When the team is playing badly, Giroud is not going to make the team play better. He is not going to score goals against the run of play. He is always going to need significant and effective creativity behind him to score consistent goals in the Premier League. With the exception of a corner or a set piece here and there, he does not have the individual skill to be considered anything more than a member of the supporting cast at a club as large as Arsenal. I disagree that Arsenal CAN'T win the league with Giroud, but it's time to stop worrying about starting players who may or may not LOSE Arsenal the league and work to buy players that have the sort of individual brilliance than can WIN the league.
All in all, this game highlighted a whole host of inadequacies that Wenger has to work to remediate throughout the season. The answer isn't necessarily to buy, but if its Benzema it sure could help.
In Wenger we trust.
