Arsenal 4-2 Leicester: What Cooper has to change ahead of crucial games

Arsenal achieved 16 shots on target to the Foxes' three. With an xG of 4.7 to our 0.3. Not to mention 74% possession to our 26%. There is little to show the utter domination the best North London team better than those stats. We were lucky to have been in the game at all. However, once you got there - in that drawing position - how does a team capitulate so resoundingly? That is where Cooper comes in.

Steve Cooper has been rightly criticised for poor initial team selection throughout the season. Some of our performances have been pretty good considering what would seem like an unconfident tinkering approach took by the head coach. There are some positions the Welshman is certainly confident, and it is those where he makes mistakes.

The system itself is broadly a good idea with the players available. Out of possession, we have four defenders, two shielding midfielders, and usually two others (a winger and an advanced midfielder) roaming to provide defensive support. In possession, we usually see Victor Kristiansen maraud forward, a winger come into attacking midfield, and a back three form the defensive line.

The issue here is in transition. A pacy, forward-thinking team can exploit the lack of organisation in those moments of transition, thus creating an overload on one of the wings before cutting inside. This is how Arsenal scored their goals: beat us out wide and the centre - despite having two DMs - will struggle to cope.

So, under Steve Cooper we have a one-half shaky team which struggles to create, and struggles to defend. That is crux of what we will need to see changed against the next four teams: the system, and team selection.