Best Games of Arsenal's league campaign

Me and Berty worked on the best league games of this year, and this is what we have:
Everton 1-6 Arsenal
Arsenal start their season off with a bang with 6 goals away to Everton, who'll finish 8th this year, beat United, Chelsea and City at home (and drew with Chelsea and City away) and finished 5th last year.
Arsenal 6-2 Blackburn
The day that marked Arsene Wenger's 13th season at the club saw Arsenal come back twice to score 6 of the best against Blackburn.
Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham
North London derby: check. Tottenham in Top 4: Check. Is there any reason not to have this game?
Liverpool 1-2 Arsenal
Arsenal come back away to Liverpool, who lets not forget, beat United at home, as Arsenal reinvigorate the title race.
Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa
3 against the best defence in the league at that point, and holding Villa scoreless for the first time since the opening game was all part of this Boxing Day thriller (alright, it was December 27th) as Cesc's 22 minute cameo won it for Arsenal.
Arsenal 4-2 Bolton
Arsenal come back twice to beat Bolton 4-2 and go top of the league for the first time since the opening day.
Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool
Days after losing to Chelsea 2-0, the title race was turned back on after Chelsea lost to Everton, United drew with Villa and Arsenal won with a Diaby header.
Stoke 1-3 Arsenal
The most debatable game in the compilation because of the horrific injury suffered by Aaron Ramsey, but it showed the great spirit in the side to comeback and win 3-1.

And now the video:

Arsenal 2009-10 from Aidan Gibson on Vimeo.

The Revival of 4-2-4

Recently, the two teams playing pass and move football, Barcelona and Arsenal, have switched to a 4-2-4 variation formation. And with Arsenal only 3 points behind Chelsea, and Barcelona joint top in Spain, and in the semi finals of the European Cup, there is a good chance that a major competition could be won by a team playing 4-2-4 for the first time since 1970.
What Happened to 4-2-4?
The problem with 4-2-4 is that the midfield gets overrun fairly easily. While it worked during the 60s, and fairly early 70s many managers realised that when possession was lost, it was increasingly difficult to win possession back. Because of this reason, 4-4-2, developed independently of each other in Russia and England by Viktor Maslor and Alf Ramsey. Argentina too, played a 4 man diamond. The death bell was sounding for 4-2-4, and Rinus Michels joined other managers when he realised that 4-2-4 would not work for Ajax. He played 4-3-3, and in the 1974 Final, both teams, Holland and West Germany, played 4-3-3. The age of the 4-2-4 was over, and teams were moving to 4-4-2, catenaccio or giocco al'Italia, 4-5-1, 4-3-3, or the newest formation, 3-5-2, that was developed in 1986 by Carlos Bilardo. In that final, West Germany played 5-3-2, and, as Jonathan Wilson put it, the pyramid was inverted. The days of the 4-2-4 and it's free scoring were over, as the 1990 World Cup had one of the lowest amounts of goals in it. FIFA outlawed the backpass and the tackle from behind, but the 4-2-4 still looked very dead.
4-2-3-1
Yet 4-2-4 was not dead. In fact, did it even die?
One of the last teams to successfully play 4-2-4 was Brazil 1970. However, with Jairzinho and Rivellino playing slightly behind Tostao, and Pele dropping off, what was their formation but 4-2-3-1? 4-2-3-1 is just a slight variation of 4-3-3 or 4-5-1; if it's 4-3-3, just have the wingers drop back a little, and have a midfielder advance, and it becomes 4-2-3-1. Or, it was a variation of 4-4-2; have a striker drop back, wingers push up, and you have 4-2-3-1. The credit in Spain for inventing 4-2-3-1 goes to Juan Manuel Lillo when he was in charge of 3rd Division Cultural Leonesa in 1991/92; it was transported to England when Manchester United adopted the formation after losing to Real Madrid in 2000, though Alex Ferguson claimed he has always played with split forwards. France won Euro 2000 with it, and 4-2-3-1 is now a fairly common formation; looking at the Guardian's Squad Sheets for the weekend's games, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City are all expected to line up in that formation, and England, once the standard bearer for 4-4-2 has now switched to 4-2-3-1. And with 4 defenders, 2 midfielders and 4 attacking players, what is 4-2-3-1 but 4-2-4?
Arsenal and Barcelona
That brings us to Arsenal and Barcelona. Both teams independently came to their 4-2-4 variants after some problems with their preferred 4-3-3. For Arsenal, as described here, the issue was being suspect to counter attacks after defeats to United and Chelsea. Abou Diaby dropped back into the midfield, the wingers drop slightly deeper and Cesc Fabregas played like a ponta da lanca, off of Nikclas Bendtner (that role is now Samir Nasri's after Fabregas' injury). This article in Zonal Marking covers Barcelona's switch; here, Lionel Messi drops back, Andres Iniesta pushes up, and either Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Thierry Henry plays as the number 9, with Henry being more of a false 9. Both are fairly similar, except that with Barcelona's formation, it was a midfielder being pushed up on the left, and Messi, they're most creative player dropping into that playmaker's role, while at Arsenal, it was Fabregas playing in the playmaker's role. Both formations could easily be described as 4-2-3-1, and maybe they should be, but with the 4 attackers being higher up than they would be in a 4-2-3-1 (which can be attributed to the amount of possession both teams have), it's more accurate to describe them as 4-2-4, which, as a formation is having it's swansong before it sweeps into obsolescence for the final time.

League scenario

This year, the Premier League is going to go to the last day of the season, and it's still a 3 horse race. Goal difference is a major factor, and after having been ahead early, Arsenal are now behind in goal difference, and if it comes down to goal difference, I think Arsenal will not win the league.
Here is how the table reads right now

Team	Pld	Pts
Man United	31	69
Arsenal	31	67
Chelsea	30	65

So, in the course of the next 7 games (8 for Chelsea), United need to drop 3 points. United are away to Bolton, home to Chelsea, away to Blackburn (after the Champions League), away to Manchester City, away to Spurs, away to Sunderland and home to Stoke. They could definitely drop 4 points in draws with Chelsea and City.
Chelsea, if they beat Portsmouth, will have 68 points. They need to then drop 2, and do that by drawing with Man United. Their fixtures are: away to Portsmouth, home to Villa, away to United, home to Bolton after the FA Cup semi final, away to Spurs, home to Stoke, away to Liverpool and home to Wigan.
Assuming both United and Chelsea drop 4 points (United in draws with Chelsea and City; Chelsea with draws with United and Liverpool), and Arsenal win all their remaining games, the table will look like this:
Team Pld Pts
Arsenal 38 88
Man Utd 38 86
Chelsea 38 85

We are only in control of our own games, but lets hope that Chelsea and United drop points, starting with Chelsea home to Villa.

Arsenal get Barca in one for the purists

This quarter final will be one for the purists and the neutral, as Arsenal drew Barcelona. I think I can speak for many Arsenal supporters when I say Barca and Man United were the 2 I wanted to avoid. While I look forward to the chance for revenge from 2 years ago, the thought of Lionel Messi against Sol Campbell scares the hell out of me.

Arsenal and Barcelona play very similar passing games, obviously, pressing games and formations. Both are regularly described as a 4-3-3, and while Arsenal's was, both, independently have switched from a 4-3-3 to what is more like a 4-2-4 type. Arsenal's 4-2-4 is better described as a 4-2-1-3, with Cesc Fabregas playing just off the main striker in a ponta da lanca role. Barcelona's 4-2-4 type formation is different. As pointed out in some excellent articles on Zonal Marking, Barcelona's 4-2-4, which is their plan B, comes from pushing Andres Iniesta higher up on the left wing, and moving Pedro over to the right, and pushing Messi inside. Thierry Henry plays as the centre forward, but drops off like a false nine.

Both formations allow for a playmaker behind the forward line, as Fabregas is given license to roam at Arsenal, while at Barcelona, with Pedro and Messi both on the right, Messi can roam in a similar position to Fabregas.

Defensive solidity will be the key for Arsenal; both sides are very good going forward, but Barcelona have only conceded 16 goals in La Liga this season while Arsenal have conceded 33 in the Premier League. If Barcelona score, they're more likely to hold on to a league than Arsenal, which is why keeping a clean sheet at home is crucial. If we don't concede at home, even in a 0-0, it would be more pressure for Barcelona because they know even a draw would see us through. So, for Arsenal there can be no defensive mishaps, otherwise the Champions League is surely over for another year.

Quick Monday Round-Up

Not a lot happening...
from the Guardian Cesc says he wants a Didier Drogba type forward, and Arsene says the youngsters will play at Olympiakos. As everyone has seen, the Ruud Van Nistelrooy to Arsenal link gets debunked by the boss while he talks about Silvestre being a quiet leader. There will be a full Olympiakos preview tomorrow, with Cesc, Arshavin, Gallas, Denilson and Almunia all not expected to make the trip. There are 45 players available for selection in the Champions League, with some players not available because they are away on loan.
I think the team will be this:
Arsenal (4-3-3): Fabianski, Gilbert, Senderos, Vermaelen, Silvestre; Ramsey, Eastmond, Merida; Walcott, Eduardo, Wilshere. Subs: Mannone, Cruise, Coquelin, Bartley, Randall,Watt, Sunu.
More tomorrow

Injury update

From Arsene's press conference, Eboue had a muscular problem, Gallas a hamstring, Traore a hamstring and Rosicky a groin problem. He is hopeful that Eboue, Gallas and Traore are not serious, but Rosicky is out for a while. Eduardo had a thigh problem, which is a recurrance, but according to the medical staff he should be back next week.