Arsenal legend Thierry Henry believes his old club can often over-play possesion, and should cut down trying to do ‘the Arsenal ball’.

Analysing the Arsenal win over Leicester, Henry identified that Alexandre Lacazette’s movement was not being fully utilised by the Gunners’ style of play, particularly Granit Xhaka, who was ignoring obvious passes to the striker, in favour of more intricate football.

“Granit Xhaka has it in his locker to play that ball over the top. He has an amazing left foot. If he has time on the ball he does not need to play through the middle sometimes,” he said, reports Sport Sports via the Express.

“Why do you want to play what I call ‘the Arsenal ball’ to the winger who comes in the pocket? Why don’t you play the other ball? That’s the best ball in the game because you go straight to goal. They don’t like it.”

Alexandre did take one of the few chances he was given to provide Arsenal with the lead early on, but was then limited to only a couple more shots in the match, the second of which won the corner from which Giroud scored the winner.

In order to provide Arsenal’s record signing with more opportunities, Henry says Xhaka should try playing more direct. The Swiss international is already one of the more direct players in the team, always looking to play a long ball to a wide-forward or wing-back, but Henry wants him to skip the middle man and go straight to the striker.

If Xhaka and Lacazette could learn to link up in this fashion, then it’d certainly add an extra dimension to the Gunners’ attacks. In the past, I feel Olivier Giroud hasn’t been mobile enough for this kind of ball, despite all the other attributes he brings to the team.

Alexis Sanchez had the mobility and the ability to finish, but I think he perhaps wasn’t as used to making strikers runs, having spent a lot of time on the wing during his career. Lacazette could provide Arsenal with a new option, it’s up to the team to take advantage of it.