It is a staple of mathematics that nine into five will not go. It is a reality of life at Arsenal that, in its illogical and injury-affected way, in some respects it does.
Arsene Wenger overloaded his squad with technical talents. Look at the back of the programme and there is an obvious imbalance, given the surfeit of attacking midfielders and forwards. Even the Frenchman has admitted he left himself short-staffed at the back.
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Yet the plethora of progressive players has rarely provided Wenger a problem. Until now, perhaps. There have been few star-studded benches and few selection dilemmas. Arsenal’s ever-present injuries have simplified the manager’s job.
He has never had to wonder how to fit Alexis Sanchez, Danny Welbeck, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey into the same team.
Or, more pertinently, whom to omit when, realistically, no more than five can start if Wenger is to incorporate a goalkeeper, a back four and someone who, nominally at least, is a defensive midfielder.
The indefatigable Sanchez has started 28 of Arsenal’s 31 games. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Welbeck have usually been available. Each of the others has spent an extended spell on the sidelines.
Now Wilshere, who may be out until March, is the only long-term absentee.
Giroud, who also had a broken leg, is back after a ban. Walcott could make his first league start for a year after knee and groin injuries. Ozil is on the comeback trail after three months out. Ramsey’s hamstring and Welbeck’s thigh problems are clearing up, although the latter will be out for a few more days.
“We have many solutions up front,” Wenger said on Sunday.
After the famine, the feast.
At times, his selections this season appear to have comprised of rounding up the last 12 available players, naming Lukas Podolski on the bench and picking the other 11, some of them out of position.
Now the German substitute is out of the equation; a fine finisher with a marked reluctance to track back now presents Inter Milan with a dilemma.
Wenger has other quandaries. So, too, Mark Hughes, the Stoke City manager who is tasked with working out how Monday’s opponents will line up.
He can anticipate facing the superlative Sanchez, the in-form Cazorla and the energetic Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The chances are that Wenger would not risk all of the returning contingent of Ramsey, Ozil and Walcott from the start.
But, perhaps for the first time, Wenger can give serious consideration to a question most of his counterparts have already had to address: what is the strongest side?
Sanchez is a certain starter, but the top scorer’s ability to play anywhere across the forward line adds to the possible permutations. Just Giroud, of the nine men in question, is only able to occupy one role in the side.
Few of Wenger’s previous teams have been built around a target man, but his fellow Frenchman, with three goals in as many games, was in a rich vein of form before he was stupidly sent off against QPR.
There is the balance of the team to consider. Walcott represents the closest to an out-and-out winger, and there is a danger Arsenal could name a side where everyone converges infield. There is also the thorny issue of the record signing.
“An exceptional player,” Wenger said. But some of Ozil’s early-season outings came when he was exiled to the left flank so Wilshere and Ramsey could team up in attacking central midfield positions.
In recent weeks, Cazorla and Oxlade-Chamberlain have brought their contrasting attributes to the same duties.
It prompts the thought if Arsenal are better off without a specialist No 10. It is an issue of where they can play the playmaker.
And it is a sign the emphasis is changing at Arsenal. For much of the season, it has been more instructive to scour the injury bulletins than the teamsheet. Now, Wenger has more options. His decisions will become more instructive and more interesting.
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