Arsenal in disguise

Don't laugh, it's true . . . kind of.

Comments Alex McLeish made the other day got me thinking.

Eck said that Blues tended to be more threatening when they slipped balls into the right areas - those 'pockets' and little 'holes' - for Christian Benitez and Cameron Jerome.

Benitez is not a goalscorer - how many times has he been through and failed to finish? - but he's like a Peter Beardsley, clever, tricky and able to set others up in and around the penalty box.

Jerome, when he doesn't have to think about it, can stick a chance away. He's an instinctive finisher, best when running onto a ball in front of him.

When the duo click, Blues are a better team for it.

When they were paired for the first time, against Sunderland at home, Blues became harder to contain in the final third and less predictable.

Fifteen games later, with them holding sway more often than not, Blues were still unbeaten.

So what has this got to do with Arsenal?

Well, most of Blues goals, and most of their most best play, comes from moves that end with the ball slid forward through the centre.

With no real natural width, Blues rarely get down the sides and pull back from the byline. Therefore we don't see players storming onto crosses and heading strongly beyond the goalkeeper, your traditional type of centre-forward goals.

What we see is Benitez's clever inter-play, Jerome bulling on through, Lee Bowyer making telling late runs, James McFadden trying to deliver a pass or beat and man or two, or three, even Barry Ferguson (Everton, Forest) arriving in dangerous zones.

So taking away Blues set-piece threat, the way the team is set up is to pass through the opposition, to find the right ball down the channel or into feet up at the top.

Stephen Carr hasn't been rampaging on like he can and Liam Ridgewell is eager to get forward, but it's not a natural habitat for him being the flying, overlapping full-back.

We know Benitez and Jerome have their limitations, we know Blues are not a prolific goalscoring team and don't shoot enough from distance.

However, their method so far this season has brought reward in the shape of a record run of results, eighth place in the Premier League and an FA Cup quarter-final.

On Tuesday at Portsmouth, even taking into account how poor Pompey are, some of the passing play was delightful, but also penetrative and swift, which it wasn't in the Cup.

Michel is a Michael Carrick-lite, Craig Gardner adds dynamism and the fact that Sebastian Larsson and McFadden were left out will have refocused their minds.

Primarily, Blues strength this season has been their defensive platform. The team is resolute, compact, they don't get dragged about.

They welcome possession, the ball is not a hot potato, and they try to construct moves with thought. Ferguson does so much being the metronome.

Should McLeish succeed in giving them a new dimension and look out wide in the summer with, say, a Charles N'Zogbia or Aiden McGeady, plus a couple of strikers, then they could have more strings to the bow and perhaps find more ways to score and be a menace.