Then there’s the small matter of Alexis

When Alexis plays as a striker, as long as he gets good service from deep and has runners overlapping, he’s a nightmare to defend against because he has the quality to both find the perfect pass required to find the runner or punish the defence for giving him too much space in order to keep an eye on said runner.

When he plays as a left winger, the same applies, but with the added caveat of him being Arjen Robben’s right-footed twin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAquon08gYA

But when Arsenal line up in a 3-4-2-1, he’s caught between both of those positions, and as a result loses some of the threat that makes him such a dangerous player.

With one less player in the middle to pass to, and with only the left wing back and striker as an overlapping runner to find, he ends up standing thirty yards from goal with nothing to do but try to beat the whole defence by himself with a mazy dribble or creative pass.

He doesn’t score the goal shown above if Iwobi isn’t there as an option to pass to, giving the defence two things to worry about simultaneously which gave Alexis the half yard he needed.

When he’s playing with creative players like Özil and Lacazette, this will be less of a problem, as their constant movement up front will be more than enough to compensate for the lack of numbers.

But on nights like Thursday, Arsenal shouldn’t be afraid to trust Plan B, and put players in positions where they can contribute, rather than shoehorn players into a system just for continuity’s sake.

This won’t apply on Sunday, as we will absolutely need to play three at the back to help cover the threat of Chelsea’s front line. (Please be better than you were at Anfield. Please?)

But moving forward, Arsenal shouldn’t be afraid of starting with a four man backline.

Any time you can make the opposition guess as to how you will line up is time they can’t spend on other matters, and right now, Arsenal need all the help they can get.