Welbeck – a diamond could be Arsenal’s best friend?

WHY does a team with three good strikers and no real wide players play a 4-2-3-1? That has been the obvious question at Arsenal recently: they spent £53m on Alexandre Lacazette, £56m on PierreEmerick Aubameyang and now have Danny Welbeck fit again, and yet have not played a way to get the most out of their front line.

This finally changed on Sunday for the arrival of Southampton at the Emirates. Arsene Wenger made seven changes but the biggest one was to the formation, going to a narrow 4-4-2 with almost a diamond midfield, Alex Iwobi effectively playing at the tip. Behind the pair of Welbeck and Aubameyang up front.

It worked: Welbeck set up Aubameyang for the first goal, scored the second and then headed in the third, by which point he was paired with Lacazette.

Arsenal were dangerous throughout, with both Welbeck and Aubameyang able to either come short or run in behind, and caused problems for Southampton’s deeplying back five. Welbeck, after one of his best performances of the season, was delighted with how the new 4-4-2 system had worked.

“As you have seen, I can play with Pierre and with Laca,” Welbeck said.

“I know I can link up with plenty of the players in this team. I think, with the way we play, we can knock it in behind a bit more, and put the other team under a bit more pressure. Sometimes you make those runs and it doesn’t come. But I made those runs, the ball came, and it put them under pressure.”

Arsenal fans have wondered how Lacazette and Aubameyang might play to- gether without shunting one of them out into wide areas. Sunday afternoon seemed to provide an answer in the form of this new narrow 4-4-2. Given that Aubameyang is ineligible for their remaining Europa League games, we could plausibly see Lacazette and Welbeck paired for the second leg in Moscow tomorrow night, before Aubameyang returns for the trip to Newcastle on Sunday lunchtime. Of course the main argument for a 4-23-1 is that Arsenal have so many attacking midfielders they need to get into the team. But Henrikh Mkhitaryan injured knee ligaments against CSKA Moscow will miss the next few weeks, and may not even play again this season. Without having to squeeze both Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil into the same team, suddenly a 4-4-2 diamond makes sense: with Ozil at the tip, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere in the middle and either Granit Xhaka or Mohamed Elneny at the tip. With such a good attacking rightback as Hector Bellerin Arsenal do not need a conventional rightwinger, and they did not have one on the pitch on Sunday. What they need is to make the most of their strikers, an area where they are now so wellequipped tha t Wenger said he will not look at other forwards in this summer’s transfer market. Yes, it was a much-changed team, against relegation battlers Southampton, but it worked, and might just provide a pointer to the future. – The Independent