Starting With Watford at The Emirates, Arsene Wenger Needs To Show His Hand

There is that periods during the season when something inside snaps and you immediately know that in spite of all the work done prior; Arsenal will come up empty again. Once more, the season is dead and the annual chase for Champions league qualification is all that remains.

Last season, it was that FA cup quarter final at the Emirates where Watford knocked us out without a whimper. We were on course for a consecutive FA cup but had one eye on the Wednesday trip to Camp Nou for the second leg of round of 16 tie. Just like now, we were eight points behind the league leaders (Leicester).

With Watford tonight at the Emirates, like any other mid-table team, you just don’t know what to expect. What we know is that we cannot afford to let it slip once again thanks to poor schedule management. 

Last season, many argued that Watford knocked us out of the FA cup as we were too focused on a winless Champions League tie. Arsenal trailed Barcelona by two away goals thus needing three goals without reply to progress. Heck, in any event even a win would only have served to derail our feeble title challenge as there was little chance we would pip Bayern, Juventus or the Madrid teams to the European title.

Today, that same danger  persists. Arsenal's next ten fixtures include games against Chelsea, Bayern, Leicester and Liverpool. These are crucial times for the team, but we can’t obsess over tomorrow with today not given. A win tonight against Watford will surely relieve the pressure on the weekend tie against Chelsea as it could be the difference between playing for fourth place or reigning in runaway league leaders Chelsea.

In this presser, Wenger acknowledged an embarrassment of riches in attack hinting at rotation in the coming games. With a full defense too, ingenuity in tactical formation could help cover for the obvious gap in midfield. With Gabriel, Mustafi and Koscienly it could be time to try the in vogue 3-5-2 in preparation for Chelsea as matching the formation seems to be the norm when facing Chelsea. 

Whether the boss elects to go with Giroud/ Alexis/ Perez up top or persist with the Chamberlain in the middle experiment, by his own admission, Wenger acknowledges that he has the squad to succeed. He could be serving the second game of his touchline ban, but from where we sit, we couldn’t agree more about this Arsenal squad's potential. What remains then is prudent game and schedule management. In other words, it is up to the manger to deliver the goods in the coming days. Excited to see the team sheet later on tonight

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