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Why Arsenal should use their plan B more often

By Abhinav Kini

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After Arsenal’s impressive win at Manchester City, Arsene Wenger has to adopt his plan B more often against the big sides.

Back in May when he was engaging in his war of words with Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger implied Arsenal would never “park the bus” like Chelsea.

"“Our policy is to try to play our game because it’s the qualities of our players,” Wenger said."

This was after the fact that the Gunners had conceded 17 goals in three games against Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool last season. However, after their recent win at the Etihad, it’s hard to see Wenger not adopting this approach in the future big games.

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Arsenal did not only take their chances against City, but they defended well, shut down key opposition like David Silva and helped their own defense out. It was a welcome change which surprised many fans as Arsenal usually never change their approach and if they do, it never turned out well.

On Sunday, Arsenal weren’t parking the bus to the extent that they always sat back and relied on set pieces even though that’s how their goals came, but they were tactically mature for a change, surprising even Manchester City manager, Manuel Pellegrini.

"“It was not the usual Arsenal. They played very concentrated and defended very well for 90 minutes.”"

An interesting statistic shows that Arsenal’s most important big away wins have come when they have sat back and allowed the opposition to have the ball.

While that approach goes against Wenger’s philosophy, it’s telling that Arsenal have recorded some of their lowest possession in the last two months, maybe signaling that Wenger does see this plan B as necessary. After all, this was Arsenal’s first away win against Manchester City since their last win in 2010 when they won 3-0.

Wenger was understandably delighted with the performance:

"“What was very pleasing was the manner in which we played because we were compact, disciplined and focused,” the manager told Arsenal Player. “We had a good defensive urgency and every time we won the ball we came out from the back with good pace."

With a winnable Champions League encounter against Monaco approaching while the Gunners still have to travel to Old Trafford and White Hart Lane, this approach could be worth employing again even if it’s just to make sure Arsenal are capable of a good defensive performance rather than it being an off day for City who were without Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure.

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