Unless a pass is absolutely perfect, and a run is perfectly timed, Arsenal have no answer to teams who simply position their wingers beside their fullbacks when defending the ball. Every time Arsenal look for that ball around the defence, they find that the defence is waiting exactly where they want to pass to. So Arsenal shuffle the ball over to the other side of the pitch, in the hope of the defensive line following the ball and then leaving space. That doesn’t work, so Arsenal go back the other way again.

And so on, and so on, all until Alexis gets frustrated and either tries to beat four men by himself outside the penalty area, or he waits for Monreal to run around the outside and passes it to him instead. Now, if Monreal was as much of an attacking threat as say Marcus Alonso is for Chelsea, or Seamus Coleman is for Everton, then sending him on overlapping runs would be a fine idea.

But he isn’t.

Nacho Monreal has played 163 games for Arsenal. He’s scored two goals.

Nacho Monreal has played 32 games for Arsenal this season. He has two assists.