Arsenal’s needlessly difficult win over Cardiff highlights what Denis Suarez will bring to Unai Emery’s team

Alex Iwobi shone for Arsenal in the second-half, helping to finally break up the monotony of sideways and backwards passes. Suarez should help his new side to do the same

The immediate impact Alex Iwobi made in the second-half of Arsenal’s needlessly difficult win against Cardiff last night highlighted exactly why the club were so desperate to recruit Denis Suárez from Barcelona this winter.

At half-time, Arsenal were in trouble. With no fewer than three defensive midfielders selected to start at home against one of the league's poorest sides, Arsenal looked desperately wooden, slow to get the ball forward and repeatedly stretched on the counter-attack. Cardiff should have had a penalty when Oumar Niasse was blatantly tripped by Nacho Monreal, while Bobby Reid was guilty of spurning two gilt-edged opportunities.

“I don't think we have ever had nineteen shots away from home before. If they'd have had our chances, they'd have probably beaten us four or five,” Neil Warnock reflected after the match. “We spoke in the dressing room at half-time that 0-0 was a good result for us,” Unai Emery would later add, more than a touch sheepishly.

It is to Emery’s credit that — for the 20th time this season — he decided to make a change at half-time. Off came the disappointing Mohamed Elneny. And on came Iwobi, who helped to turn the game with his desire to pick up the ball in midfield and drive forward. The 22-year-old may have his faults, but until he was introduced Arsenal seemed content to shuttle the ball around sideways with precious little desire to play into the thin strip of space behind Cardiff’s entrenched rearguard.

Newsflash: Arsenal are no longer a squad fit to burst with a seemingly endless carousel of wispy playmakers, content to pass, tap and flick their way around cloddish defenders in pursuit of the most aesthetically pleasing goal possible. They still retain a pair of exceptionally talented number tens — for the time being, at least — but sorely lack the midfield creativity which seemed to define the second half of Arsène Wenger’s troubled reign.

Instead, Emery’s Arsenal are concerningly reliant on their two forwards, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, both of whom scored against Cardiff. With a distinct lack of creativity behind them, and with Emery switching his tactical system as rapidly as his players pick up injuries, the pair are expected not just to score goals, but create their own chances, too.

Against Cardiff, nobody made more key passes than Aubameyang (3), while only the outstanding Mattéo Guendouzi managed more successful dribbles than an increasingly frustrated Lacazette. Arsenal’s forwards were not even particularly good — they have simply grown used to foraging for the ball instead of waiting around aimlessly as their midfield struggles to get them into the game.

Here’s where Suárez will come in so useful. The 25-year-old is exactly the sort of player Emery has been craving: “somebody with the possibility to help us by playing on the wing, right or left”. Somebody who can comfortably operate in a 4-3-3, a technical winger who can comfortably retain possession in the final third, with an eye for the kind of final pass that has so far been lacking this season.

“We need wingers,” Emery admitted after the win against Cardiff. “And a player like Suárez — I know him. He played with me in Sevilla and this is his quality.”

Suárez has a quality that a tactical pragmatist like Emery prizes above all else: versatility. During his breakthrough campaign with Barcelona B five years ago, Suárez made his name on the left, cutting inside to shoot with his favoured right foot. Yet at Sevilla — under Emery — he featured across the midfield, often starting on the right.

On Tuesday evening, Arsenal were increasingly close to finalising the loan deal, which is expected to be triumphantly announced today. Suárez was not in Barcelona’s squad for the Copa del Rey quarter-final second leg against Sevilla, with Ernesto Valverde wishing the player well at his pre-match press conference.

Arsenal want to sign Denis Suarez (REX / Independent)

Who knows exactly how Suárez will perform during his second stint in English football. He is far from the first player to arrive in the Premier League with a reputation for being composed on the ball and keen to burst forward into the final third — abilities that will be put to the test by the division’s most physical defences.

But, against Cardiff last night, Arsenal were crying out for a player with his skill set. Had Suárez started the match, it is unlikely Mesut Ozil would have been forced to drop so deep in search of the ball, and unlikelier still Aubameyang and Lacazette would have been so starved of service. He has an excellent platform to shine at Arsenal, if only Emery can find the best system to accommodate him, and stick with it for longer than five minutes.