For Arsene Wenger, central midfield rotation is key to success in 2013/14

Patrick Viera and Emmanuel Petit formed a key core to Arsenal’s title winning campaigns (Getty Images)

The previous campaign to assess, and my personal favourite under Wenger, is the double winning season of 2001/02. We scored more goals than in 2003/04, won the league with only one point less and added the FA Cup for good measure. Interestingly this is the campaign where some detailed analysis gives us a better precedent for what I hope will see proper rotation and squad usage under Wenger in the current campaign. The previous campaign was the first without the all conquering Vieira/Petit partnership and Wenger had brought in Lauren as Manu’s replacement with limited success. In reality the berth alongside Paddy has been shared by Gilles Grimandi, Parlour and Lauren and with no one truly staking a claim.

In 2001/02 Wenger had settled on the right back position for Lauren, but Edu had his permit sorted and Giovanni van Bronckhurst had been signed from Rangers. So Wenger had four potential partners for his skipper in Parlour, Grimandi, Gio and Edu. All 4 perhaps offering different attributes, all to a degree proven, but would Wenger settle on one main partner for Vieira or would he rotate? Well I am pleasantly surprised to say that my memory was incorrect and he genuinely did rotate his central midfield partnerships in 2001/2. Of course, Parlour as captain played all most every game but the honour of staring alongside him was fairly evenly shared. My recollection was that Parlour and Vieira and played most matches in tandem.

I looked at the starts for all 5 players in the main three competitions, the league, the FA Cup and the Champions League. It made interesting reading – Vieira started 51 games which was no surprise but the obvious rotation of partners was more than I had recalled.

Starts in Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup:

Gilles Grimandi – 15

Ray Parlour – 15

Van Bronckhurst – 14

Edu – 11

By the end of the campaign there was still a huge variation of starters with Edu and Parlour taking precedence and of course the Romford Pele famously got the Cup final gig. Only Gio was not being given game time in central midfield by the latter part of the campaign.

So having dispelled my own misconception why is this significant today and for this season?

- We have subsequently changed our system and whilst 4/5 central midfielders was sufficient in 2002 and 2004 it is obviously not in 2013. However for 3 positions 6/7 competing is more than sufficient if all are good enough to be rotated.

- Between 2007 and 2013 it would be fair to say whilst we have had 7 or more bodies in the squad we have not had 7 fit and genuinely good enough

- With Ramsey, Cazorla, Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Arteta when fit, we have 5 players all of whom I believe are good enough to rotate at the top level of this league.

- Much as I don’t want to I will leave Abou Diaby out of my thoughts for now.

- I feel Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when fit again, has a long term future at CAM but again perhaps not for this season.

- So when Arteta returns we have 5 competing for 3 berths so is it fair to say that we need a 6th top level player to add into the central midfield equation. Is Cabaye that player?

- If he is, that suggests Wenger will continue with a double pivot and ask two players to share the defensive midfield responsibility, rather than buy an out and out defensive midfielder, the likes of Morgan Schneiderlin.

- In Arteta, Ramsey and Wilshere we certainly have 3 who can comfortably operate in the 2 deeper roles.

- I am desperate to see Cazorla continue at CAM so with Podolski’s injury the need to strengthen on the flanks is greater than the need to strengthen in central midfield, but we do need one more truly top level player to give us a 4th option at pivot. Cabaye is certainly good enough and I would happily see us meet the Newcastle price even thought it pains me that we did not pick him up when he left Ligue 1.