Category Archives: Mathieu Debuchy

Just what, if anything, did Arsenal’s defeat of Man City mean? Anything at all?

On its face, winning the Community Shield may not mean much. Even for a match that pits the Prem champion against the FA Cup winners, there’s little to be taken away from it, even less in a World Cup year. However, for as many players as City were missing, there’s still something to be said for how well we played—even a depleted City side is superior to all but a handful of other Prem sides, and to defeat them 3-0 signifies something. Just how much it signifies, of course, remains to be seen.

One of the more-intriguing sideshows to the main event would be the former Gunners on display—Clichy and Nasri, of course, but perhaps also Sagna. Only two would feature, but there was enough spectacle to keep us all satisfied. Nasri floundered throughout his first-half performance, getting subbed off for Silva (a move that seemed to give City a bit more urgency and cohesion). He was booed loudly during the introductions, and I must say, I don’t dislike the guy for leaving Arsenal so much as I dislike him for who he seems to be: petulant. Self-centered in extremis. Thin-skinned. And so on. So he fizzled a bit despite having a solid chance at denying Arsenal a bit of silverware and proving his critics (namely me) wrong. Karma.

More recently, of course, Bacary Sagna found his way to City and promptly fell into his role of watching someone else play right-back (in this case of irony, it was Clichy). One of the pics of the night has to be the one you see here, in which Sagna appears to feel like he’s made a huge mistake. Maybe yes, maybe no. In either case, it’s fun to contemplate. Sagna may have left, but he got his trophy and leaves gracefully enough to keep the gloating to a minimum.

However, the real story comes from how our squad performed. We did pretty well in going up against an XI that as many as 15 other Prem clubs would love to have, one worth some £172m in transfer-fees alone, by my reckoning. Against this assortment of players, we fielded our own hodge-podge, including three new signings and Sanogo playing in an odd 4-1-4-1 formation. Chambers and Debuchy sparkled, earning “special congratulations” from Arsène in his post-match comments. In fact, were it not for Ramsey’s man-of-the-match performance, we might be toasting one or both defenders for their play. Suffering a bit by contrast was Alexis, who offered glimpses of potential but didn’t quite deliver. He did deliver an incisive pass forward to Sanogo, which eventually led to Ramsey’s goal. Minutes later, Sanogo returned the favor, sending him in behind the defense only for Caballero to beat Alexis to the ball. As Arsène would later put it, Alexis looked “very lively but not completely ready yet”. Pellegrini chimed in as well, saying that “he’s a top player…he will be a great player for Arsenal.”

Even with so many new players in the starting line-up (Chambers, Debuchy, Alexis, Sanogo), there was enough chemistry and understanding to dominate one of the best and most-expensive squads in the world. That does mean something, even if that expensive squad decided not to dedicate itself to the task at hand. It’s a funny thing, winning that much, so suddenly. It placates. It satiates. It leaves a person complacent. Again, it was “just” the Community Shield, but one does have to wonder just how much fire is in that squad’s belly. They have the talent to win the Prem. Do they have the hunger?

Even without Agüero or Kompany (whom City went without for long stretches while winning the Prem anyway) and without Fernandinho or Zabaleta, this was still a formidable City side. This result may not mean much, but it does lay down a marker. If that doesn’t mean much yet, we’ll get a bit more of a glimpse just over a month from now when City pay us a visit: 13 September. Mark your calendars.

Alexis, Chambers, Debuchy and the decline of "positions"

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Caught up in the hype and optimism of new signings and the suggestion of new signings to come, we’ve asked certain, specific questions: is Alexis a striker? Will Chambers become a right-back, centre-back, or defensive midfielder? Should we pursue a box-to-box sort of DM or more of a holding midfielder? These questions come together to beg one larger question, one whose answers might inspire or terrify, depending on where you stand on things. That larger question: could Arsenal play without defined positions? Before you laugh it off, think about it. In the current squad, we have a fair few players flexible enough in their skill-sets and preferred roles that naming or assigning them a position becomes difficult, if not impossible.

For the last few seasons, we’ve centered our offense around a striker, someone who offers himself as a central target and who delivers the bulk of the goals (van Persie) or who does his level-best to hold up play until midfielders can run off of him (Giroud). In the first instance, everything goes through one player and we live or die by his production. Once he left, we seemed to move to a more “egalitarian” approach, enabled by Giroud’s famed work-rate and made-necessary by his poor finishing, both of which encouraged more contributions from other scorers.

However, Giroud’s role has made us more-predictable in many ways. Deny passes into Giroud, dispossess him once he has it, or let him shoot, and in each case the defense wins. With the introduction of Alexis as a striker, we might be forced to move away from funneling offense through the centre, which offers us the freedom to attack in more-varied ways. Is Alexis an out-and-striker? Arsène has suggested as much. However, he won’t be playing the same role that Giroud has tried to play. Instead, he’s likely to move around across the front of our attack, and the flexibility this offers would allow him to exchange “positions” with Walcott or Cazorla or Özil or anyone else who has started the game in the midfield, with the result producing a constantly shifting attacking formation that might see Alexis occupying the CAM role, Walcott on the left, Cazorla as the striker, and Özil on the right. Permutations are endless.

And that’s before we look at the defensive midfield. We’ve seen and thrilled at how Ramsey bombs forward and gets back to defended; offering similar skills and mindets are Wilshere, the Ox, Diaby, Rosický. As a result, we’ve wondered whether we should a more-conservative holding midfielder who can shield the defense as Arteta and Flamini have done. However, our pursuit of Khedira suggests that we might see the addition of yet another player with a more flexible and creative conception of his role. A “DM” like Khedira, who looks to get up the pitch, could further destabize the ideas of formation and position. Would we then see Alexis dropping down to defend while Khedira becomes the striker? Perhaps, if only for a few minutes. It’s about as outlandish as asking a lumbering Mertesacker get forward for corner-kicks. However, Khedira is a hypothetical. We could get a holding midfielder like Carvalho. We could get no one.

Let’s set aside the hypothetical-who’s to consider who we do have. Debuchy started his career as a midfielder, a deep-lying playmaker, but has become a right-back. Of course, we already depend on our wide defenders to get forward to provide width, but Debuchy’s background suggests that his skill-set and mentality are more of the creative variety, and he’d be comfortable mixing around, trading places with Flamini or Ramsey for short spells (each of whom has played as needed in the defense, for what that’s worth). We also have Chambers, whose position and role are yet to be sorted. Is he meant to be a right-back, a centre-back, or a defensive midfielder? This, to circle back, seems to beg the bigger question that we started with. Set aside the idea of a position; envision a future in which he trades places/roles with several other players. Could we end up seeing Chambers attacking down the left side while Cazorla tries his hand at right-back? Unlikely. I’m not calling for a complete inversion to the formation; I’m suggesting that we could see an XI that flummoxes opponents and transcends names.

Players would still have to mind their roles and responsibilities, not to mention their opponents’ intentions and strategy. The risk is that, without a defined shape or clear sense of who should be where, we end up on the wrong end of a six-goal scoreline. It’s happened before. Indeed, against “superior” opponents, we would likely have to commit to a more conservative approach—unless, that is, there actually is something to this flexible formation. After all, some of our most-dynamic, dominating teams didn’t score from long stretches of possession; they hit on quick, devastating counter-attacks. Perhaps, instead of trying to thread intricate passess through a thicket of eight or ten foosball-playing defenders and getting caught too high up the pitch, we’re the ones soaking up a bit of pressure in order to unleash those counter-attack, with the attacks consisting of those most likely to get up the pitch fastest. So Walcott’s the one who wins the ball in our third, is it? All the better for Gibbs or Chambers to get up on the weak side to receive a pass from Koscielny, who received it from Walcott, and Alexis is there to finish.

It’s all a bit fantastical and far-fetched, I’ll admit. However, the additions to our squad suggest that Arsène is looking to build a squad that is made up of the kind of players who can play in that kind of “system,” players who bring technique, pace, sense of space, quick decision-making, and the confidence to put it all together so that playing out of position becomes an outdated notion, even if only in brief but breathtaking bursts. I don’t think I go too far out on a limb to suggest it…

Um, Arsène, no offense, but WTF?

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Week after week has turned into day after day. In a transfer-window that is still weeks away from closing, it seems more and more like Arsène is signing players with an eye to something more than simply strengthening the squad. Gone, it seems, are the days when we had to wait until deadline-day to learn of a signing. 10 July: Alexis Sánchez signs. 17 July: Mathieu Debuchy signs. Then, a lull…until 26 July: David Ospina signs, and two days later, 28 July, Calum Chambers signs. Time seems to be folding in on itself at a rate that will see us signing someone else 29 July, then someone else twelve hours later, and another six hours after that, and another, and another…in short, we seem to be disappearing into a wormhole with no end in sight. By the time it’s all said and done, we’ll have signed every player in the known universe, after which quantum physics takes over. It boggles the mind.

It started off, as all such processes do, with a big bang as we signed Sánchez. Not content to have poached from Real Madrid last summer, Arsène apparently felt that he had to burgle Barça, signing the scorer of 19 goals and 10 assists (good for 2nd and 3rd in the squad, respectively) for a mere £35m. That one was for the haters, those who brayed that Arsène won’t spend and that the big names won’t play for Arsenal. In two successive summer-windows, Arsène extended his arm and unfolded a certain, central digit and made sure that those donkeys understood whence (vence?) Wenger comes: “I’ve now signed players from Real Madrid and Barcelona, beyotches (pardon his French). What? Wot? You want me to sign from Bayern? We shall see.”

However, Arsène couldn’t resist certain impulses. Once his French-quotient dipped a bit following the sayonara de Sagna, we were greeted by the Debuchy debut (fair warning: you’re going to see a fair-few featurings of frequent falliterations from this fpoint fporward. I’ve had a fpint or ftwo…). Not content to b*tch-slap a few back-benchers, Arsène scratched an old itch by bringing in a Frenchie to play right-back, a debutante by the name of Debuchy. This one was an old-school signing, harkening back to the good old days of bringing in a few Frenchmen to fortify. Debuchy slots in for Sagna, who sidled off to Citeh. So it goes.

Speaking of scratching certain itches, Arsène couldn’t resist the signing of a certain stick-minder, this one of the a South American sort, to step up against Szczesny, perhaps even supplanting the Pole. Again, this signing carried calling-cards of the Wengerian-variety: A pittance paid. Found from France. Nicked from the Niçoise. Nevermind.

Closer to home, Arsène just had to tweak the Mancs, especially those who saw fit to splurge several shillings on Shaw, choosing Chambers for about half what those hankerers handed over for their Hail Mary. All alliteration aside, Arsenal may have acquired the better of Southampton’s defenders. Time will tell.

What’s next? Will we see the signing of Sami, the claiming of Khedira? Or will it be the bringing-back to Britain of Balotelli? We live in interesting times when it’s Arsenal that’s most active in the transfer-window. Willl wonders never cease? The only element missing to this point is the signing of a clinical closer, a striker who scores seemingly at will, at a fee that flummoxes the flibbertigibbets. I’m sure that Arsène will find him…

With Chambers, Arsenal pile on to Southampton’s misery…

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I don’t know what to think at this point. I take the wife out to celebrate her birthday and set aside Arsenal (my, er, second love) and come back to find out that, not only have we not yet signed Ospina or Khedira, but that we’re apparently all-in for Calum Chambers, a 19-year old right-back from Southampton. We just signed Debuchy, did we not? Are we not therefore set at the position, what with a 28-year old, established international player, supported by a competent if not compelling 22-year old Gunner and Gooner? What’s more, we have other, more-pressing priorities, such as the already-alluded-to keeper and defensive-midfield positions. What, then, are we to make of this apparent raid of the Saints?

Long-time readers of this blog will know that I root for the underdog (a relative term, at times…). For the better part of the last two decades, I have rooted for a club that has comported itself with dignity and restraint, all the more so in the face of the craven, covetous, competition it has faced from Chelsea and Man City, and (to a lesser extent) Man U and Liverpool. I love anyone who punches above his or her weight, and that does mean that I have a soft spot of sorts for Southampton. It’s not just underdogs, however. They gotta bring moxie, gumption, cojones. Southampton, Swansea, and Everton, to name a few, prove the old adage, “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.”

Before we continue, I have to condemn dog-fighting. Barbaric practice. The whole point of sport, after all, is to afford civilized cultures a non-lethal method for resolving disputes. One side pits its most athletic and determined against the other side, and a winner is determined not on fatalities but on skill. Dog-fighting, like war itself, reverts us to more-base instincts without offering any retreat or surrender, indulging our worst instincts and tendencies instead of elevating us. Apologies for betting too poetic.

Back to the business at hand. As I understand it, we’ve all but signed 19-year old Calum Chambers from Southampton for £12m. If true, we’ve slapped in the face not one but two other right-backs, one of them Debuchy, who was brought in for a similar fee despite having proven himself for club and country, and the other Jenkinson, a dyed-in-the-wool Gooner who is also a Gunner. Color me confused. Yes, I know that there are rumors of a loan-deal for Jenkinson, with West Ham an apparent front-runner. And yes, I am fully aware of the man’s deficiencies. It’s also clear that West Ham could use a young, aspiring right-back to step in for their currently ageing and somewhat-inadequate duo. Still, for as much as I may worry about how these rumors may affect Corporal Jenkinson, I can’t help but worry over larger issues.

Southampton, like Arsenal, is renowned for developing young talent. However, they suffer all too often the bitter disappointment of seeing their best and brightest depart for greener pastures. Where might they be with Walcott, Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, Lallana, and Lambert, among others, still in the squad? We might have to add to this list Chambers, Rodriguez, Lovren, and Schneiderlin, among others. For as much as we might covet one or two of these players, we rend garments and punch dry-wall over the departure of our own starlets, and so we have to acknowledge the same suffering when it’s inflicted on others.

After all, it’s not as if the Saints practice a defensive, cynical, or vindictive style, as other clubs so often do. Go into a match against Stoke or Sunderland or Tottenham, and you know that there will be fouls and cautions from here to Timbuktu. The Saints, among a select few others, at least have tried to play a more-attractive, forward-thinking kind of football based on possession, skill, and technique, and fair play to them for doing so with players who, by and large, are still learning the finer points of the game and are in the earliest stages of their careers.

After all, when you’re a manager and you see that your opposition clearly out-classes you, it’s damned-tempting to tell the lads to defend deep and look to hit on a quick counter. Southampton don’t do that. They look to take the game by the scruff, regardless of whom they face. There’s something in that for us to learn from. It’d be a pity if we only learn it by poaching their players from them…

Bienvenue, Mathieu Debuchy, à Arsenal!

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It’s official—Mathieu Debuchy has joined Arsenal. After a long courting, which happened in the shadows cast by the consummation of the Alexis Sánchez and the apparent pursuit of Sami Khedira, we’ve made our second significant signing of the summer—and it’s still the middle of July. At this rate, we’ll no doubt make two or three more signings, topped by a glut of 17 more signings on deadline day. More seriously, it seems like we’re addressing needs in order of importance: Sánchez will challenge, replace, and play alongside Giroud up top, and we now have a right-back to replace the departed Bacary Sagna. As discussed we here, there are ways to think of Debuchy as an upgrade in some ways on Sagna…

…not to mention that we keep Ludivine in the squad as well. Okay, not that Ludivine, but a Ludivine nonetheless. The arrival of Ludivine Debuchy and her husband should strengthen the squad in important ways. For those who lusted after Serge Aurier, we can content ourselves in the knowledge that we’re getting an experienced international with deep familiarity with the Prem. He may not be as sexy as Aurier, but he’s arguably a better fit for our needs. He may not be available to face Boreham Wood on Saturday, but he’ll likely pop up for the Emirates Cup. Dandy.

Speaking of the signing, Arsène had the following to say:

We are delighted to welcome Mathieu Debuchy to Arsenal Football Club. He has shown he can perform at the highest level with his club sides and also for France. He is a quality defender who has good Premier League experience and I’m confident he will fit in very well with us.

Indeed, he has been one of Newcastle’s strongest and best players, and his addition to Arsenal bodes well for our defense now and in the future. At 28, he’s still got quite a bit in the tank, but he’s not so young that Jenkinson should worry. In fact, the signing may mean that Jenkinson stays with Arsenal rather than going out on loan. Whereas the addition of Aurier might have meant the end of Jenkinson’s time with Arsenal, Debuchy looks to be a shrewd, short-term signing who can deliver for another three or four years while handing the reins over to Jenkinson—or until Jenkinson wrests the reins from him. We’ll take a closer look at what Debuchy’s signing means later.

For now, enjoy the fact that we’re on a roll in this transfer-window, having added two players already. The details around Debuchy’s deal haven’t been released yet, but the deal probably cost us £12m. On the subject of numbers, the more-shocking one may just be that Debuchy will wear #2. Why should this shock? It means that we’re starting to get players to wear proper squad numbers! Will wonders never cease…