Petr Cech welcomes Arsenal's tactical flexibility after Arsene Wenger's back three pays off

Petr Cech has welcomed Arsenal’s new-found flexibility that has come with their move to a back three in recent games.

However the Arsenal goalkeeper believes that a change of formation alone is not going to be decisive if the Gunners continue to struggle with some of their more basic tasks in attack and defence.

For the first time in nearly 20 years Arsene Wenger selected a back three for Arsenal ahead of their game against Middlesbrough last Monday and he continued the trend for Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City.

Both matches ended in 2-1 victories for Arsenal with notable improvements in an at times toothless attack and a defence that had shipped three goals in their preceding three away games.

​Cech welcomed the addition of a new formation to Arsenal’s gameplan, telling the club website: “There are games where you can start with four at the back and it’s not bringing you the advantage you want, so then you switch to a three.

“It’s always good to have both options and then you can use either formation.”

However Cech added that focusing on whether Arsenal defended with three or two centre-backs could obscure the bigger picture.

“I think people go too much with 3-4-3 or whatever,” he said. “You can use any combination - when you are without the ball, everybody defends, when you are with the ball, everybody attacks in a way.

“In the end, when you have possession of the ball, you never attack with only the three at the front.”

Many an Arsenal player seems to have benefitted from Wenger’s reshuffle though, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain unchained as a right wing-back and of Gabriel and Rob Holding evidently more comfortable in a trio than pairing up with Laurent Koscielny.

But there were the teething problems against Manchester City that were to be expected with a formation that the team had only been working on for 15 days, with Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey at times leaving the back three unprotected and Olivier Giroud so far offering little beyond an aerial presence for long balls.

Cech admitted as much, there are difficulties for many Arsenal players in the early days of the new system.

“I think it’s more complicated for the people in midfield, because the numbers and the spaces are different in terms of the defensive organisation,” he said.

“The front three and the midfield need to communicate more in terms of bringing the wing back back to defend or up to attack.

“I think the biggest adjustment is for the wing back. For the others, if you are a three, you defend the width of the box and I would say it’s not that complicated.”