A recent poll among Arsenal fans has revealed they would rather the team stuck with the current 3-4-2-1 system, despite the losses to Liverpool and Stoke, rather than reverting to a back four.
Our poll conducted on Twitter revealed 56% of fans think that the system needs time, as opposed to the rest who voting for a change.
Arsenal fans, is it time to revert to a back four/stick with three-man defence for Saturday's Premier League meeting with Bournemouth? #AFC
— Crippy Cooke (@CrippyCooke) September 5, 2017
The system hasn’t appeared to be very effective in the Gunners’ Premier League matches so far, but then there were some mitigating circumstances.
For one, Arsenal did create a lot of chances against Leicester and Stoke, conceding very few at the other end. Unfortunately, on both occasions, most of those chances were wasted by the Gunners, while their opponents were clinical by comparison. Alexis Sanchez’s re-introduction could help to change this wastefulness.
Secondly, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was being shoehorned into the side wherever Arsene Wenger could force him in – resulting in disappointing performances at left-wing-back from the 24-year-old and Hector Bellerin when the Ox was played on the right.
New signing Sead Kolašinac is the ready-made replacement who can actually play as a left wing-back. And now Oxlade-Chamberlain has left for Liverpool, he might finally get a chance to show what he can do.
We’ll have to wait and see if this is enough to make a difference, but for now it seems fans would rather take that chance than try something new.