Football Dissected

Depth is an important, fundamental concept in football nowadays, especially at the highest level. And the importance of it was highlighted perfectly on Sunday when Arsenal lost to Manchester United. Questions were already been asked about why Wenger didn’t bring in any players during the January transfer window, but, despite the possibility that he didn’t have any funds to play with, bringing in any extra bodies would have helped.

United midfield probably has the most depth and only Chelsea’s come second. They’ve got ever-impressive Cristiano Ronaldo (best in the world?), former West-Ham graduate Michael Carrick, defensive-shield Owen Hargreaves, Park Ji-Sung, Anderson, Nani, plus they’ve got the experience of veterans Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs to rely on. Chelsea have midfield general Frank Lampard, Nigerian John Obi Mikel, Germany’s finest Michael Ballack, the ever-reliable Claude Makélélé, multi-talented Michael Essien, Shaun Wright-Philips, Florent Malouda and step-over "King" Joe Cole. But Arsenal don’t come anyway near United’s and Chelsea’s levels of depth in midfield. They’ve got Cesc Fàbregas, Alex Hleb, Tomáš Rosický (who’s been out for most of the season), Gilberto Silva, Emmanuel Eboué and Mathieu Flamini. Obviously, they have others like Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott. But neither of them have played regularly this season and in the case of Walcott, he’s been more of an impact player when coming off the bench.

There’s been talk of Ricardo Quaremas coming to Arsenal in the summer, but Porto will definitely want at least £20 million for the Portuguese winger. But will Wenger spend that much on one player, or, more importantly, will he have that much to spend in the summer?