Before the match I tweeted out a series of annoying messages showing how Arsenal have dropped defensively and offensively since Cazorla and Coquelin were injured.
They went like this:
Dribbles per game with Cazorla: 13.6/20.6
Dribbles per game w/o Cazorla: 9.25/13.75
Chances created per game with Cazorla: 13.9
Chances created per game w/o Cazorla: 8.8
Tackles per game with Coquelin: 16.4/36.9
Tackles per game w/o Coquelin: 11.4/27.2
Interceptions per game with Caz/Coq: 20
Interceptions per game w/o Caz/Coq: 16.6
The dribbles stat is important because (as Wenger said in his recent interview about stats) players like Cazorla use their dribble to break midfield pressure. Once the pressure is broken, he’s free in an attacking space and creates more mismatches.
The chances created drop is important because Cazorla is Arsenal’s second creator. He is 2nd on the team with 2.6 key passes per game, Alexis is 3rd with 1.7, and Ramsey is 4th with 1.5.
Cazorla and Özil both like to drop behind the 18 yard line, collect, and if they can pick someone out, they do. If not, they cycle possession. As you’re going to see in the section below, without Cazorla, Özil is doing that all on his own.
In the game against Southampton, Özil created 4 shots for his teammates and took 1 shot for himself, Arsenal only had 8 shots in that game, Özil was 60% of Arsenal’s offense. And the same story today against Bournemouth Özil created 9 shots and took 2, that’s 11/13 shots guys.
Tackles and Interceptions are also down, Coquelin leads the midfield in both of those stats.
My point, which annoyed everyone, is that just buying one midfielder won’t cover for the two we are missing. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish Arsene would buy, of course I do, and he’s already signed that guy Elneny, right?
Since Elneny is unlikely to fill in for both an attacking CM and a defensive CM, rather than simply “buy, buy, buy, buy” Arsenal need to find a way to make up the holes in attack and defense with the players we have through a combination of tactical changes and lineup changes.
Today’s match, against Bournemouth, showed a bit of promise. Tackles were up to 19/30, Interceptions up to 20, dribbles were up to 11/19, and chances created were a whopping 12.
The problem is that those stats were distributed in a weird way: Ox led Arsenal with 4/4 tackles (Ramsey 3/5) while Ramsey had 3 interceptions, but Gabriel had 6; Ox also led Arsenal with 4/5 dribbles but three were into the corner and one was in the right back position, this isn’t the same as Cazorla’s center circle magic; and for the second game in a row, Özil called all the shots with 9 key passes, Bellerin, Walcott, and Giroud chipped in with 1 each.
