Flitting around the Arsenal blogs this week I read a reader’s comment that had me blinking and reading it twice, I was indeed astounded.

The writer of the original article that brought about the comment was just making the point that although the common word is that Arsenal don’t have any decent players, the club is not doing too badly at the moment, and contrary to popular belief, the club does indeed have a good squad.

The correspondent wrote and said, “You can’t say that. The club doesn’t even have a recognised defensive midfielder. This is chaos!” or words to that effect.

Now there were two things that struck me about this.

The first was that yes we do have a defensive midfielder. In fact we have two. One is Arteta, and the other is Frimpong. Frimpong made a few appearances as a back-up to Song as a defensive midfielder, before going out on loan and getting a series of very unfortunate injuries. But he is back now, he is on the bench and judging by how he was two years ago, I’d say he is probably ready to perform.

As for Arteta, he has played, through his career, both the “pivotal” role of defensive midfielder and in a more attacking role that he developed with Everton.

But let’s not be too harsh on the writer of that comment. Maybe the writer was meaning, “we don’t have any fit and established first team defensive midfielders.”

Yet even here his argument seems to fall down, to me. Because the writer has not actually considered what Arsenal is doing tactically.

For me the sheer strength of the Arsenal midfield, and indeed the entire team is the rotational system of play that they use.

Now Arsenal has been using rotational approaches for years, and really you don’t have to go back any further than Pires and Henry to see rotation happening to perfection.

When Henry came, I remember a number of us questioning what the centre forward was doing playing on the left wing. Gradually we got used to the idea, but it was only after Pires joined and then got through his first year that we could truly see what Wenger was playing at.

Henry would get the ball and then go out to the left, which was where Pires was lurking. Henry would take two men with him, leaving Pires standing close by with one more marking him. Pires moved away from the ball and ended up in the centre forward spot, having lost his marker who was still fixated by Henry. Henry would then burst through, send the ball to Pires, and Pires then either shot or returned the ball to Henry or Bergkamp for either of them to shoot.

In short Pires and Henry rotated and Bergkamp filled in the gap.

But now we’ve gone further. Wilshere plays attacking midfield or defensive midfield. Ramsey plays attacking midfield or defensive midfield. Rosicky, quite amazingly, plays attacking midfield or defensive midfield. And they do a perfect mix and match job.

The opposition have not got a clue who is going to pop up where, so if they try to play a pressing game they have no idea where they are supposed to be when.

It is a brilliant ploy, but it is not that hard to see. The three players in the middle rotate, and the game has been completed by the staggering advances in Ramsey’s ability over the past year. He has been the final element in the process that can make it all work.

Now what is worrying is not anything that is happening on the pitch, nor the fact that some silly supposed Arsenal supporter is more interested in attacking his club’s manager than in watching the team, but rather that members of the press corps seem to be picking up on these rather childish commentaries from supposed “supporters” and repeating them.

Martin Jol certainly knew why Arsenal beat Fulham so easily – it was the rotating midfield. What a shame some supposed Arsenal supporters have not seen it.

I think this must be one of the most dare-devil tactical advances that Arsenal under Wenger has ever made – equivalent perhaps to the previously unseen move to counter-attacking football under Herbert Chapman in 1925. Perhaps over time others will come to appreciate just what we are seeing here as some fans seemingly are not recognising it yet.