Why it’s not so three ’n’ easy

THE last time Arsene Wenger played with three at the back, I was in the team alongside Tony Adams and Steve Bould at Derby in May 1997! If you want to play with a back three, you have to know the system inside out. It is not something you can simply adapt to overnight. We first started playing this way under Bruce Rioch. Even though we had a group of experienced central defenders, the system was initially difficult to pick up. It required walkthroughs every Monday morning in training of scenarios we might face. Arsenal may have won last night but they had a few teething problems — particularly when it came to Alvaro Negredo’s equaliser. After Alexis Sanchez lost the ball high up the pitch, Stewart Downing bombed forward into the space vacated by Nacho Monreal at left wing back. When Downing came in on his left foot, the central defenders should have held their line to catch the forwards offisde. Instead, they dropped deep too early and their marking was too loose. There were other issues. Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka did not offer enough protection in front of the back three. If Arsenal play this formation against stronger sides than Middlesbrough then their central midfielders must provide the defensive screen Nemanja Matic and N’Golo Kante give Chelsea. If Ramsey wants to break forward then Sanchez or Mesut Ozil need to fill in for him. One player who benefited from the change in tactics was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He was more effective going forward and playing wing back forced him to be involved a lot more. He could thrive in this system but defensively he needs to get back into position more quickly. I can see Wenger persisting with the system between now and the end of the season. Last night, it was still very much a work in progress.