5 Problems That Are Blighting Arsenal's Season

3. Terrible Game Management

It's been a general criticism of Arsenal's neat, intricate passing style that they are regularly guilty of trying to "walk the ball into the net" under Arsene Wenger's leadership. While mostly little more than a humorous take on the team's style, over reliance on this approach to the game is actually another of the things leading to Arsenal's downfall again this season. Though it is undoubtedly Wenger's philosophy that has seen the Gunners play some of the game's most aesthetically pleasing football in recent years, its contribution to their failings isn't necessarily just his fault. The truth is that Arsenal just don't have enough players with the intelligence to manage the game on the pitch. Case in point are their two most recent outings, during both of which the Gunners surrendered leads and forfeited vital points. In the first of these, it became clear that the majority of Arsenal's good discipline and on-pitch management comes from captain Mikel Arteta. He is not the most physical defensive midfielder, but he was smart enough to negate the pacey counter-attacking threat Anderlecht posed when the Gunners were 3-0 up. His replacement, Mathieu Flamini, seems to have the awareness of a dog chasing a bone on the pitch for Arsenal and it was when he entered the fray that cracks started to appear. Arteta was also absent from Arsenal's embarrassing second surrender against Swansea and the players were equally guilty of poor game management allowing Swansea to break. Both Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain tried to do too much with the ball in Swansea's half, and when the Swans broke past a too-advanced Flamini the Gunners' back four were left exposed. From a resulting free kick the Welsh side's equaliser was scored and the revival was sparked. Without Arteta, Arsenal are a craft without a pilot on the pitch, and there needs to be more work done in building upon intelligent play from all players when Arsenal take the lead.