Horses for courses.

It’s an oft heard British idiom to explain how you should select the best person for the particular job, and it’s exactly how I felt watching us pass-pass-pass at Swansea in the first half on Monday.

Swansea were successfully marshalling a somewhat isolated Olivier Giroud in much the same way Spurs managed earlier this year, nullifying his height and strength by crowding him. Neither Alexis nor Ramsey were able to either get close enough to support him, nor find the space to exploit elsewhere.

Every time we did manage to counter, a series of rotational fouling ensured that Swansea never faced a free-flowing Arsenal, and their stifling tactics against Giroud were effective. Eventually, a number of our midfielders were able to break in behind the Swansea defence, but either the balls weren’t quite right or they weren’t quite able to pull the ball in.

For the first 45 minutes (and a little beyond) on Monday, we played short, grounded passes across the pitch and then lofted some desperate balls over the top every time one of the midfielders made anything approaching a run in behind. While playing a centre forward whose strengths are his physicality and his deft touch to play in colleagues when the ball is played into him vertically.

The game was crying out for Theo Walcott.

It looked like Arsene agreed, sending the winger out on an extended warm-up over half time, albeit only eventually bringing the forward on with 20 minutes to go.

At which point, after spending 70 minutes playing through balls down the side and lofting passes over the top, the rest of the Arsenal team reverted to sending high crosses into the box.

So just to be clear: we took off a man who is 6’3″, having played tika-taka football all evening, and brought on a man who is 5’9″ and proceeded to play hoofball. Seriously.

We’ve all talked a lot about the injury ‘crisis‘ at the start of the season which saw us win just two of eight games and is effectively the reason that right now we sit 14 points behind Chelsea. So yes, we did have to play a different lineup every week as a result.

Yet Arsene Wenger prizes intelligence as a fundamental quality that he requires all his players have, to give them that adaptability to react to situations and adjust their approach to the players around them. Of all the teams, ours ought to be able to respond (at least a bit better) to changing personnel.

Monday’s game was a microcosm of that issue, where the players seemed unable to correctly base their play on the teammates around them, unable to adjust to taking off a target man and bringing on a speedster.

In fact I would have liked to see us play Walcott and Giroud together to force the Swansea defence to decide if they would rather focus their effort on covering the aerial threat or the speed threat. Aside from that, if our players are as intelligent as all that, then they ought to recognise the strengths of their teammates and play to them.

I’ve written before of my frustrations when Walcott plays that we don’t see enough balls knocked over or through the opposition defences, not least when we are under pressure and need an out ball. I don’t see any signs that we have improved.

Of course, if Walcott is to leave the club then it takes that particular focal point away, but it won’t fundamentally change the fact that the players who will remain were unable to adapt.

On the face of it, it makes little sense – this is the same group of players who so expertly adjusted their approach to nullify Man City, to put Man United to the sword in the cup, to absolutely destroy Liverpool. We praised them for their ability to analyse and counteract the strengths of their opposition, and use their own weapons to maximum effect.

Yet in the last few games we have seen something of a return to the old Arsenal, short on ideas and common sense while playing sterile passing football across the front of the opposition box. Late on we did have chances to win the game, more than enough of them, but we made a rod for our own back by not making the most of the players we had on the pitch earlier in the game.

I don’t have the answers, perhaps more work needs to be done on the training ground to get the newer players like Ozil and Sanchez onto the same wavelength as Walcott, perhaps it’s borne out of the fact that the same team has taken to the field for each of the last five games and has become somewhat set in its ways.

What I do know is that if the players are as intelligent as Arsene Wenger desires, then we need to see more evidence of their ability to respond to the players, and the situations, around them.

Sunday would be a good place to start.