EPL Monday: Arsenal's Defensive Midfield Plight Continues; City's Forgotten Man

Expectations and sports sometimes don’t go hand-in-hand. This weekend featured two big-time rivalry games in the EPL — Liverpool/Everton and Arsenal/Spurs — and both finished, in relative terms, kind of ho-hum 1-1 draws. That’s not to say Phil Jagielka’s late equalizer for Everton wasn’t thrilling, but all things being equal that might have been the tamest Merseyside Derby in a while. Arsenal’s  draw with Tottenham wasn’t all that much more compelling aside from waiting for the inevitable Gunners equalizer (thanks Danny Welbeck) after Spurs went ahead through Nacer Chadli.

Anyways I’ll keep it short in get into a couple things on my mind after the weekend’s games …

Another “crisis” for Wenger

Arsene Wenger has remained in charge of Arsenal for 18 years — a stat that seems all the more amazing since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. The next longest-tenured manager in the EPL is Alan Pardew, who took over Newcastle United in December 2010. If memory serves one of Arlo White’s fun facts during the Arsenal/Spurs match was that the combined other 19 managers have something like 20 years of experience combined compared to Wenger’s 18 years.

Given his status at Arsenal, Wenger is probably never going to be fired. He may resign or retire, but he’s done too much for the club to coldly sack him, bar a takeover of the Gunners by George Steinbrenner’s ghost. Now bear in mind this isn’t in-and-of itself a fireable offense, but Wenger’s blind reliance on Mathieu Flamini as senior defensive cover in the midfield is something that only the Frenchman himself can justify, especially now that it’s the Frenchman’s second tour of duty with the Gunners.

Most managers don’t go into a match expecting three key midfielders to get hurt like Arsenal did Saturday vs. Tottenham, but Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey limped off, while Jack Wilshere pressed on and finishing the game. Given the propensity for injuries in the Arsenal lineup throughout the years, having only Flamini as an option in-game — and guys like Abou Diaby, Francis Coquelin or even 18-year-old Gediom Zelalem in reserve is questionable. (Shockingly, the perpetually injured Diaby isn’t ready to play yet, either.)

The Gunners host Galatasaray Wednesday in the Champions League and then play at Chelsea. Arteta and Ramsey are already ruled out for both games, the Welshman — arguably Arsenal’s best player — could miss up to six weeks with a hamstring pull. A pure defensive-midfielder to provide cover to Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny in transition is a glaring hole at Arsenal. You wonder why the team didn’t pursue Luiz Gustavo when Bayern sold him last summer. Although he wouldn’t have been a long-term solution, but why not take a flier on Esteban Cambiasso for a year when he was a free agent? There’s a chance Calum Chambers could settle into that role, but he’s pressed into service as an outside back due to injuries to Mathieu Debuchy and Nacho Monreal. (Of course last year Wenger “strengthened” the Arsenal midfield taking on Kim Källström on-loan in January when the Swedish international had a back issue.)

Yeah, yeah, you can’t predict injuries … but in Arsenal’s case you might want to make contingency plans.

It’s mildly ironic that Arsenal cannot find a capable defensive-minded midfield when the team’s best success under Wenger came on the back of Patrick Vieira earlier this century.

Dzeko Does it:

Edin Dzeko scored twice for Manchester City, which beat Hull City. City went up 2-0 quick, but Hull got back into it thanks to an own goal and tied it 2-2. It’s a good result for City ahead of a Champions League game with Roma at the Eithad this week.

I’m not exactly sure how much someone with a $40 million transfer fee can be considered underrated, but Dzeko never seems to get a ton of the credit for what goes on at City, overshadowed by the likes of Mario Balotelli or Kun Agüero. Even so, the Bosnian star is a steady, consistent source of goals — 48 in 110 league games for City. It’s certianly a nice luxury to have someone like Dzeko in the mix who is probably the fifth or sixth player you mention when talking about City, right?

Goal of the Week:

Graziano Pelle is already making good on Southampton’s $13 million investment. Pelle — never capped by Italy — already has four goals in the league for second-place Southampton. He and Dusan Tadic have quickly acclimated to the rigors of the Premier League coming over from the Dutch League, which is where new manager Ronald Koeman came from, too. It might only be October but Southampton’s business plan looks pretty good: sell off English players for inflated fees, supplement with reasonably-priced European players, but fundamentally invest and promote from the club’s outstanding youth academy — an academy which produced Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott, among others.

Stat of the Week:

I’ll still say Mario Balotelli was worth the gamble for Liverpool, given his low-ish transfer price but a stat like the one above shows why AC Milan weren’t too sad to part with him (and replace him nominally with Fernando Torres).

Odds & Ends:

Sometimes I think the biggest drawing card for the EPL/European soccer is the games are played when no other sports in America is going on, plus you can watch games all morning and still have enough time for a productive Saturday or Sunday afternoon. That said, I’m not sure how many people watched West Brom trounce Burnley 4-0 in the only game played Sunday. … Wayne Rooney picked up a straight red card for lashing out and kicking Stewart Downing on Saturday. Rooney will get more stick given who he is, but it is his first red card in EPL play in five years. That doesn’t make it any less stupid to kick a player with the ref standing less than 10 feet away. Rooney now misses three games, including United’s tilt with Chelsea on the horizon. … United beat West Ham with 19-year-old Paddy McNair in the center of defense. If United can develop at least one central defender from within for the long term it saves so much money compared to trying to buy a high-priced player from abroad. We’ll have to see how patient Louis van Gaal remains with McNair and Tyler Blackett long-term. … Chelsea cruised 3-0 vs. Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge, no surprise there. … Feels like I write this every week but Liverpool still looks like a team in transition, again not surprising given the influx of new players. … Curious to see what Everton does defensively going forward. Tony Hibbert was a shock starter vs. Liverpool in place of the injured Seamus Coleman, while veteran Sylvain Distin was in street clothes and watched the game from a suite.

Looking ahead:

Champions League play resumes in the midweek. The coming weekend’s best EPL games are both Sunday morning with Manchester United/Everton followed by Chelsea/Arsenal.