Over the weekend, our company’s football side was playing in a knockout competition against another company in a locally arranged intra-firm competition. We were 1-2 down at half time. We didn’t play badly but it was obvious that their advantage came from a comparatively skillful midfielder sitting just in front of their back four and dictating the play from deep.

Come half-time, the obvious response was to call in our substitute player who didn’t have much skill but who was physically big and extremely fit to man-mark their opposing playmaker. The ploy worked. Hassled and harried in his own third of the pitch, the opposing team lost their impetus and started to come apart.

With their frustrated playmaker barracking his teammates for not giving him good ball (mainly because our man-marker was denying him space), he lost his head and started playing with his elbows. He was sent off soon after, and they eventually lost the match 6-2.

'For much of last season, Hleb was a joke. He was skilful but slow, showy and ineffective. I confess to being one of those who clamoured for his exit. This season, he is a man transformed'


It was a win more in keeping with Sam Allardyce's tradition than Arsene Wenger's – destroying the beauty in the game and then turning it on its head.

That game reminded me very much of the good ol’ days when Ivan Campo used to be told to do the same thing to Cesc Fabregas. In the good ol’ days, Arsenal would have no answer and a Bolton upset would be on the cards.

On Saturday night, hours after our match ended, we settled to watch Arsenal play Bolton. With Sammy Lee’s departure, it was no surprise when Bolton reverted to type with a typical Allardyce strategy against Arsenal. And Campo was once again asked to be the ball-and-chain around little Cesc.

For all of 45 minutes, it worked. Most will tell you that Arsene’s decision to bring in Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott changed the game, but I believe the change happened even before that. Several games before that.

For much of last season, Aleksandr Hleb was a joke. He was skilful but slow, showy and ineffective. I confess to being one of those who clamoured for his exit. This season, he is a man transformed. What’s better, he seems to have done so unnoticed by opposing managers who still laugh when they see his name in the Arsenal line-up.

On Saturday, after half time, it was noticeable that in order to counter Campo’s effect on Cesc, Arsene moved Eduardo further left and switched Hleb inside to play off Emanuel Adebayor. Bypassing Cesc, Hleb started to maraud just in front of the back four, confusing Bolton, who had expected Campo to pick up Fabregas in the same area.

The confusion led to Bolton’s right pairing of Joey O’Brien and Danny Guthrie drifting inside to follow Hleb and that left room for Gael Clichy to exploit. With Hleb causing damage in the area in front of the back four, Cesc started dropping deeper to launch attacks from there. Campo started looking lost. The result, 2-0 to the Arsenal.
It was a pretty decent tactical switch and, in hindsight, an obvious one. But not one of the Bolton players, or for that matter most of Arsenal’s opponents, seemed to have picked it up or learnt how to adapt to it.

Hleb, the once much-maligned man, has suddenly become something of an alternative pivotal playmaker for his club. He may not be as obvious a creative talent as Fabregas, and against Bolton when he was put through by Walcott, he showed himself susceptible to the occasional howler.

But what Hleb does is lend his skill and close control to support the strikers and cause havoc in the opponents' third. This draws markers towards him and allows the likes of Walcott – who himself has been outstanding of late – to come more into the game.

This causes confusion among opposing managers. When the game goes well, Fabregas will be dictating Arsenal’s play from very high up on the pitch. If Cesc is tightly marked, he will drop deep. Hleb, shunted out wide and held in reserve and looking ineffectual up to that point, will be introduced infield.

The second striker, sometimes the left-footed Robin van Persie or, as against Bolton, Eduardo, will switch. If Hleb is playing on the right, Walcott will be introduced to allow Hleb to come inside. Opponents will not have an alternative man-marker to take on both Hleb and Fabregas. The result, 11 wins in a row.

The idea of Hleb’s ability must have come to Arsene Wenger during last season’s Champions League campaign. For much of last season when Van Persie and Thierry Henry were crocked, Arsene had no choice but to play a 4-5-1 formation with Hleb as the back-up striker. Wenger must have seen that whereas Hleb couldn’t be such a player, what he could do was play as the fulcrum for when Fabregas went deep.

He must have seen that developing this style of play employing an unassuming reserve on the wings would open up opponents who thought they would get a result if they could just keep Fabregas quiet.

It speaks of the genius of the Arsenal manager that he can adapt the same set of players so subtly such that his Arsenal side doesn’t even break stride when the tactical change is introduced. And that the opponents were too distracted by the introduction of Rosicky and Walcott for them to notice that their demise was right in front of them all this time.

It's also no wonder that he keeps playing the unsuitable Abou Diaby on the left when he looks so out of place there – Diaby’s primary purpose is to cover Clichy when he moves up field but more importantly to counter-cover Mathieu Flamini as he moves right to cover Hleb coming infield.

At the start of the season – and I confess for the first few games – I had wondered why Arsene persisted with starting Hleb. Now I know. He is the magic man. And like all magic, you never realise it until the trick is turned.

Long may it be that way!

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