Whenever you put Arsenal and formation in the same sentence then the first that comes into mind is Wenger’s favorite 4-2-3-1 system. But surprisingly that isn’t the original Arsenal formation.
The original formation that was used by Wenger was the 4-4-2 formation. He’s been deploying this formation since his early days at Highbury and this system was used during all of his 3 Premier League title triumphs as well as in the 2006 UEFA Champions League final surge. Hence the 4-4-2 deployment was a successful one for Wenger and the team.
Only during the post-Thierry Henry era the modern day 4-2-3-1 formation came into play. To be honest the 4-2-3-1 formation is best-suited for counter-attacking football. But ever since the Emirates stadium was inaugurated in July 2006 the club kept losing their top players and some of them even went to their direct rivals as the board had to repay the loans for the stadium.
Since then the North London club crossed the 80-point mark in PL only once in the next 11 seasons and went past the CL round of 16 stage only thrice leading to a 9-year trophy drought.
Finally, the club somehow managed to break the drought by winning the FA Cup in 2014 and again year after that to become the oldest club competition’s most successful club back then. They also won the FA Community Shield in 2014 & 2015. But the club wasn’t progressing at all.
The Gunners struggles were evident last season. During a brief period in March & early April, the Gunners lost 5 out of 8 PL games and also were also literally thrashed 2-10 on aggregate by FC Bayern Munich in the CL. This led to heavy criticism from every side and most Gooners around the world called for Wenger’s immediate ouster.
However, the 67-year old French manager only then adopted the 3-4-3 formation towards the end of the 2016-17 season as a reaction to the miserable patch of form in March. He last used this formation in 1997 during his 2nd season in-charge.
This change in the club’s formation resulted in 9 wins out of the next 10 matches for the club including wins over Manchester City & Chelsea in the semi-final & final leading to the club’s record 13th FA Cup triumph.
In spite of the 3-4-3 formation’s success, it received mixed reviews from various quarters. For instance former Arsenal centre-back Martin Keown initially criticized this formation. The 50-year old English defender said that Wenger’s change to the 3-4-3 formation would likely need more games to bear fruit as he saw problems with the tactical switch.
Meanwhile Arsenal’s Spanish right-back Hector Bellerin supported the change in the Gunners’ formation early on. He said that considering the style of play, this system really works well. However, Wenger also had earlier stated that the team, on the whole, has been psychologically been benefitted by the 3-4-3 formation. He also said that with three at the back the team looks more stable than ever.
Defensive stability by acquiring the knack of not conceding easy goals is the main reason for sticking to this formation. Now one would have to wait and see if this system would tactically work out in the upcoming season which is a must-win for Wenger and the team after what transpired towards the end of last season.
Therefore there is no room for errors in any department heading into an all-important 2017-18 season.
