Football365 Posted 30/10/08 12:05 Arsene Wenger has a problem: Denilson is playing too well. Lesson number one from the debacle of Arsenal's failure to collect three points on Wednesday night despite having a two-goal lead over the team bottom of the table with a minute remaining is that their team is fatally imbalanced. Going forward like this, they cannot win the league. Or much else besides. A midfield formed of four creators will inevitably create plenty of goals. But offering scant protection to the defence, it is almost as inevitable that there will plenty of openings at the other end as well. Hence Arsenal conceding at an average of a goal a game so far. Hence Arsenal only winning only six of their first ten matches. And in a league with an ever-decreasing margin for error, that's quite a problem. Questioned about whether the absence of a defensive midfielder was the cause of Spurs' comeback, Wenger's reply was telling in its politician-style avoidance: "I don't know because I feel that Denilson had another outstanding game today. When we conceded the goal we had our defensive midfielders on the pitch. We had Song on the pitch who is a defender and midfielder when we conceded the two goals." The argument is narrow-minded because, even before the late gifts, Arsenal had already conceded goals sourced from the vacant gap in the centre of midfield. That's two more than Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United conceded on a night when all three of Arsenal's title rivals won to nil. As a route to the championship, a midfield without bite is a dead end. Surprising to say of a Professor of Economics, but Wenger's numbers do not add up. With Denilson in partnership with Cesc Fabregas, the Gunners have scored the most goals in the league bar Manchester City. With a defence devoid of protection, they have also conceded twice as many league goals as the combined average of Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool. In football, tactics are essentially a balancing act. With his current team essentially comprised of six attackers and four defenders, Wenger's is fatally imbalanced. The calculation - if there ever was such a calculation and the 'solution' of partnering Fabregas with Denilson wasn't forced upon the Frenchman by his bewildering refusal to replace any of the three defensively-minded central-midfielders he sold this year - that a potent attack would override the weakness of a porous defence has already come a cropper. There will be days of brilliance. But also nights of capitulation. And just as it will always award the same amount of points for a 1-0 victory as a 4-0 rout, the league table will continue to punish the absence of consistency. Wenger's obvious solution would be to omit Denilson in favour of either Song or Johan Djourou (Abou Diaby, despite his resemblance to Patrick Vieira is no more a defensive midfielder than Manuel Almunia is a top-class goalkeeper). But the young Brazilian has, by a distance, been Arsenal's most reliable midfielder this term. If form was the yardstick, the chop would befall Cesc Fabregas (although his indifferent displays this season are further evidence that Wenger's current preferred midfield combination is failed). No wonder Wenger admits he doesn't know. One botched calculation has become an impossible juggling act. For Liverpool, by contrast, the numbers are adding up. Having introduced a 4-2-3-1 formation at the start of the season, Benitez's team is essentially formed of six defensive players and four attackers. The Spaniard's calculation - and you can be sure that in Rafa's case it was a calculation - is that, with a formidable defence, a title push can be maintained even if Pool's goal threat remains inferior to their Big Four rivals. It is a fact that ten of Liverpool's twelve victories this season have been achieved by a single-goal winning margin. But the implicit suggestion of precariousness is entirely misleading. Put simply, Liverpool's goals are spread evenly and achieve the maximum reward with the minimum of bother. These are precisely the type of results that Benitez's calculations would have added up to when he considered the introduction of an extra midfield sentry. A system that wins 1-0 will win, over the course of a season, against one, like Arsenal's, that is exciting but vulnerable. So long as Liverpool continue to play with two midfield holders and a pair of full-backs unwilling to cross the halfway line, they will not be prolific goalscorers. But neither will they concede many. Inevitably, there will be matches when Liverpool are wounded at the back - if the Italian national side of 1990 could not keep a clean sheet in every game then no team ever will - and matches when their offensive quartet are blunted. But so far, so good. The numbers work. Which is why Liverpool are top of the table and six points clear of Arsenal. The Tale Of The Stats Number Of Clean Sheets Kept In The League Liverpool: 6. Arsenal: 4. Number Of Times To Have Scored Three Or More Goals In A Game Liverpool: 3. Arsenal: 8. Most Common Winning Margin (Premiership & CL) Liverpool: 1-0 (four times). Arsenal: 4-0 (three times). Goals Scored (Prem & CL) Liverpool: 22. Arsenal: 38. Average Number Of Goals Per Game (Prem & CL) Liverpool: 1.4. Arsenal: 2.5. Goals Conceded (Prem & CL) Liverpool: 9. Arsenal: 13. Average Number Of Goals Conceded Per Game (Prem & CL) Liverpool: 0.6. Arsenal: 0.9