1. Arsenal Badly Miss Diaby
The match on Saturday proved that Arsenal miss a player of Diabys particular skill-set: a player who likes to get forward from a deep lying midfield position, has excellent vision, can pick a long pass, has enough speed and phenomenal dribbling ability to be bothersome, and can make tackles and disrupt the opposition in the midfield. There is no one in the Arsenal team that has displayed similar ability this season. On Saturday, Arsenal played a 4-2-3-1 with Giroud up top alone, Podolski, Cazorla and Gervinho behind him and Ramsey and Artea as the two deep lying midfielders. Aaron Ramseys position alongside of Arteta requires him to adjust as necessary to the type of game Cazorla is having. When a team plays disciplined organized defense as Norwich did on Saturday, and they are determined to smother Cazorla, unpredictable, surging runs from midfield coupled with a midfielder who can strike a dangerous long ball can put that defense in disarray. A player like Diaby can use his dribbling ability and silky movement to do this, Ramsey cannot. I believe this so strongly that I think a midfield of Coquelin playing the deeper role and Arteta playing slightly further forward would be a better midfield combination than Ramsey and Arteta. There is a player at Arsenal who is exciting, has pace, and can carry the ball and take players on in the midfield. His name is Oxlade-Chamberlain. I was disappointed with his introduction not only because he picked up a knock, but because I wanted Ramsey to move to right wing and have the Ox take up his position slightly advanced of Arteta. I acknowledge that Oxlade-Chamberlain does not yet possess the defensive abilities necessary to make that position his full time, but I believe his career is developing in this direction and Arsenal needed his skill-set today.