The win at West Ham was a relief but it was completely overshadowed by the injuries to Hector Bellerin (hamstring) and Kieran Tierney (dislocated shoulder) which have presented the interim manager Freddie Ljungberg with a sizeable headache ahead of the clash at the Emirates to Manchester City.
Ljungberg has little choice but to go with either Chambers, Maitland Niles, Kolasinac or Mustafi in the roles, which will obviously impact on his chances of a decent result against Manchester City.
The Swede will be hoping to see more of the second half performance against West Ham from the likes of Ozil, Martinelli, Pepe and Aubameyang against a Manchester City side that is misfiring at present. Ljundberg will surely persist with his front trio even though Lacazette will view his exclusion as unjust. In Ljungberg’s defence, when trying to nurture confidence, changes tend to upset any rhythm and what Arsenal need at present is stability.
The fans are used to seeing a defensive crisis at this time of the year and it’s particularly galling that it’s the left and right backs again. They weren’t available for the start of the season and have only featured separately more often than not.
It’s once again underlines Arsenal’s ignorant and arrogant position in regards of investing in its defence and this season has highlighted the stupidity of not heavily investing in the summer.
‘Make do’ and ‘makeshift’ are terms that could be applied to the current Arsenal side that has endured a similar fate under Wenger and Emery. Ljungberg would love to be able to address this issue immediately, but may well be back in his assistants role before long, with Arsenal looking to appoint a successor at the earliest opportunity.
Hopefully the gunners board won’t apply the same haphazard logic to the vacancy as they have to their defence just because of the win against West Ham.
Arsenal need experience and a manager that can juggle numerous balls at once. It was disappointing to learn that yet another manager has declared that is unlikely to be heading to the Emirates. This time it’s Rafa Benitez, who declared he was happy managing in the Chinese Super League and wouldn’t be heading back to England anytime soon.
It’s seems like a job that no one is overly keen to take with omissions happening on an almost daily basis. This is in-spite of the gunners hierarchy insisting that the post is one of the best jobs in club football.
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Surely Arsenal won’t dither much longer with the side struggling so badly. It’s rumoured that the interview process has begun behind closed doors and that the Arsenal board are looking to resolve the issue quickly.
If only the new manager had a magic wand to resolve the defensive issues, we’d all sleep sound in our beds. In the meantime, it will be a very difficult task for Freddie to fight Manchester City without his two main full-backs.
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