Arsenal: Who needs a striker with this marauding midfield?

We could do worse, therefore, than to field six midfielders without an out-and-out striker. As much as we may fret over Giroud’s ability to sustain his current form over the long term, we have players who can still strike fear into the hearts of opposing defenses. With a midfield rotation of Arteta, Ramsey, and Flamini at its base, and with some combination of Wilshere, Gnabry, Özil, Rosický, Cazorla, Walcott, Podolski, and the Ox on the attack, there are few squads who could stop us.

Led by Ozil and Ramsey, Arsenal’s midfield have been in fine form this season

In fact, for as good as he’s been to date, Giroud might in some ways impede our attack. As a focal point, he lacks pace. Without him, we might even see a more-fluid, tiki-taka style in which six (or more) technically-gifted and fleet-of-foot footballers flummox and then eviscerate opposing defences:

• Defender #1: Where’s Özil?
• Defender #2: I thought you were marking him!
• Defender #1: I was, but he dropped back, so I picked up Rosický!
• Defender #3: What? I’m tracking Rosický!
• Defender #2: What? He’s playing down our right side and you’re our right-back—aren’t you? We’re getting pulled out of shape!
• Defender #4: I’m lost! I was tracking Cazorla on our right, but now he’s on the opposite side. Should I follow him or stay home?
• Keeper: Too late. They scored while you guys were getting sorted. Thanks for nothing.

And so on. We’re hardly a “total football” club by any stretch of the imagination, but we do have a number of players who can fill a wide variety of roles. Heck, we even have a few defenders versatile enough to play in more-forward roles should the occasion permit. Vermaelen’s name has been bandied about, for example, as a defensive midfielder, such is his willingness to bomb forward. It’s not for nothing that we’ve seen goals already from Gibbs, Mertesacker, and Sagna; or that Koscielny netted against Newcastle to secure our 4th place finish last year (and almost did so again against Napoli).

For as much as we talk about positions and squad-depth, then, it’s worth remembering that, when healthy, we can field a starting XI that can instill fear in opposing defenses, dominate possession, play beautiful football, and win matches. Come January, of course, it might be nice to see us add another striker to support and compete with Giroud. Until then, I rather like the idea of an amoeba-esque attack, with any number of midfielders marauding around the pitch. It takes a certain amount of communication, of course, to insure that defensive responsibilities are attended to, but the attacking possibilities seem limitless.

We could do worse than to rest Giroud on Sunday against West Brom. Befuddling the Baggies with an (apparently) amorphous midfield might just see us nab our 13th straight away-win, a club record as far as I can figure.

Right. We have a fair few days before that match with West Brom. There’s apparently some footballing of some sort on Thursday night, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is…whatever. If it was important, I’m sure I’d remember what it is. So it goes.