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How long do you have?
There is no need to jerk an uncontrollable knee and claim that Mikel Arteta should be fired and that weapon Another trophyless season is destined and should be more concerned about finishing outside the Champions League places than the top of the Premier League.
It’s not really even close to being a crisis, is it? They are six points clear of league leaders Liverpool. With 54 left to play, 4th in form tableunbeaten in matches in which they have led or scored first, are in a strong position to go straight into the last 16 of the Champions League and are in the semi-finals of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle United. Losing in time.
More worryingly, They have fewer goals from open play in the Premier League in 2024/25 than Wolves and Brentford.. They have the most dead-ball passes leading to a goal in the division with nine but are seventh for open play with 45, a dangerous 23 behind Liverpool, who are second-placed Tottenham. 15 ahead, fair for Arsenal.
Arsenal have relied too much on one-on-one goals to be able to bail themselves out with set-piece goals.
Being good in the corners is far from the problem and is one of the few saving graces for Arteta and his players at the moment, but a clear over-reliance on open play and a lack of creativity will cause the club’s supporters to suffer. It is one of many problems. , some of whom are mentally ill enough to want Arteta fired.
Here are five reasons why Arsenal fans are down in the dumps with their season on the brink of an end…
Negative attack options
The weapon’s biggest problem is clearly in attack. Bukayo Saka is their only permanent forward and won’t be back until March at the earliest. All positives come down the right and all three right-leaning players – Benjamin White, Martin Odegaard and Saka – have suffered injuries this campaign, completely destroying the cohesion of the side. .
That means Gabriel Martinelli or whoever is playing on the left has been more involved and with Arsenal’s star boy out for a while, finding that man to start on the right is quite difficult. .
Ethan Nwaneri proved to be a solid option with impressive performances at Brentford and a goal at Brighton, but now he is also injured. I personally like Gabriel Jesus in this side and think Leandro Trossard and Martinelli should be kept as far away as possible.
Trossard has been a real source of frustration for me and many other weapons fans. He is a fantastic super sub but looks like a different player when he starts playing. The fire in his belly must be strong when he comes off the bench as Troussard has scored some big goals as a substitute, including against Aston Villa this season and last out against Bayern Munich. Being a super sub isn’t a desirable tag as a footballer but it’s better than being labeled a worthless starter, which the Belgian is becoming.
Some Arsenal fans may not like it but Martinelli is another disappointing player to watch and one I believe has hit the wall and may peak in the 2022/23 campaign. reached when he scored 15 Premier League goals. He doesn’t need an elite wide forward arsenal right now, which may be a more pressing need than a new striker.
Oh, the inevitable striker narrative. It’s so boring though So Essential weapons only need one, don’t they? It’s as simple as that. Alexander Isak would be absolutely perfect but very expensive. 2024 Top Scorer Victor Guevara A goal machine but boss in Portugal, Dost scored 93 in 127 for Sporting. Gyokeres will complete that tally if he scores 19 in his next 48.
The identity of Arsenal’s next striker is (realistically) anyone’s guess. We all know that Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are not the world-class players that this team desperately needs.
Arsenal also signed Raheem Sterling, right? Well, former sporting director Edo Gasper gave us a peek through the Arsenal window when he said there were no plans to sign him until the closing hours of the summer transfer window. It went about as well as anyone could have expected.
In an ideal world Arsenal would go out and sign him. Nico Williams of the Athletic Club In January but it is very unrealistic. This will require owner intervention and the chances of this happening are slim to none. Not to mention it would likely breach the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.
Even signing one of them would solve a lot of problems, but that’s not going to happen and another inactive January transfer window will probably be the reason Arsenal fall short like every other year.
Liverpool are doing just fine without an out-and-out No.9 goalscorer but have Mohamed Salah on one side and then Luis Diaz, Diego Jota or Cody Gakpo on the other. Bukayo Saka is capable of being that outlet but he is a group in this Arsenal attack, which means a superstar through the middle or on the left is sorely needed, especially with Saka out injured.
Madness
Sacrificing playmaking and creativity, Mikel Arteta signed Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad and loaned Fabio Vieira to FC Porto in the summer. Vieira was undoubtedly the equal of Arsenal, who were also in favor of selling Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham, but letting him go meant the only direct back-up to Martin Odegaard was 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, who could be trusted to play. can Right wing but apparently not in the hustle and bustle of central midfield.
Admittedly, Merino’s signature and physicality as well as Havertz’s form were up front. Reasons why I thought Arsenal could overtake Manchester City in the Premier League title race.. Yes, it’s all very inconsistent and you could say my knee is shaking right now, but I was fooled and overwhelmed by the fun of the early season. Besides, I just said they’d destroy the city. I didn’t say anything about Liverpool.
The Amazon documentary All or Nothing taught us that Mikel Arteta gets upset when his team loses a duel. Since the 2022/23 title bottle job, the Spaniard has vowed to fill his squad with dual-winning machines. After bringing in Declan Rice and Havertz in the summer of 2023, Arteta spent heavily on Merino and Riccardo Calafiori – two big men – to make his squad more physically imposing (and handsome).
He hasn’t done enough. Both players already have injury problems and Merino is really struggling to make Arsenal a better team. The Spaniard ranks second among Premier League midfielders for duels but 43rd for chances created. As a box-to-box midfielder, Merino should contribute a lot going forward, but has proven limited in possession while doing a decent job of getting the ball back for his team.
The sacrifice of creativity is really hurting Arsenal and making Odegaard’s job more difficult. He is being paid the same as last season to do more. I can relate.
More on Arsenal from F365
👉 Arteta as good as Ferguson at spending but worse than Ten Hague and Ranieri at trophy turnover
👉 Mikel Arteta won’t last ’til the summer unless the arsenal improves
👉 Issac beats Arsenal star as Newcastle’s perfect away display should precede Arteta transfer U-turn
👉 Odegaard tops every Arsenal signing after Wenger, Willian bottom
A lot of weight on Martin Odegaard’s shoulders
We touched on the right side of Arsenal’s attack/build-up play and Odegaard is a huge part of that. The Gunners captain missed 12 games after injuring his ankle in September and that spell has been a real slog. It felt like an eternity and when he returned to the starting XI, Arsenal improved surprisingly quickly.
Odegaard is a world-class playmaker but is the only player capable of pulling the rabbit out of the hat while Saka has been sidelined. Over the years, Man City have had Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish to carry the load whenever Kevin De Bruyne has been injured, and Arteta has tried and failed with the experience of the Trussard midfield, while Merino’s Strengthening their team together, Rice and Thomas Partey are often together in midfield.
With Odegard being back fit, he has shown signs of burnout in his last few appearances. Of course, it’s only a short time and he could be sick, but without his partner Bakiyo, it’s all becoming too much.
Saka’s absence has increased the workload, the pressure and the burden on Odegaard to produce, and the lack of creativity recruited in previous transfer windows means it is all on him, unless Nwaniri Chand. Don’t step up significantly when you come back in weeks. Odegaard not only has a lot to do, but it makes it a lot easier for the opposition, who know they just have to shut him down. Teams have doubled down on Saka over the years and won’t hesitate to do the same with Odegaard.
Recalling Vieira might help but signing a world class forward would be much more useful. Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in is a brilliant, versatile option this month but not a game changer.
Focused too much on defensive recruiting.
A theme is developing here.
Against Newcastle on Tuesday, Arsenal started Miles Lewis Scally (a natural central midfielder) at left-back and had two natural left-backs on the bench, plus Calafiori and Jacob Cuvier, who Arteta wants to play left-back. Too much?
Signing Calafiori wasn’t completely unnecessary as he’s the best of those players, but spending almost £40m on him while dropping £30m on Merino was probably a bit silly. Arsenal could have signed Nico Williams for him and had something left over for his wages, image rights and all that rubbish.
Arteta’s attacking signings as Arsenal boss are Huertz (who you could also class as a midfield signing), Jesus, Troussard, Sterling, Marquinhos and Willian. The first three have all proven to be useful signatures but nothing more. Havertz and Jesus aren’t the difference makers, while we’ve explained our gripe with Troussard.
Overall, the offensive recruiting has been surprising. Not because all those players are crap, but because there is nowhere near enough activity. There has been more than enough defensively, though, with Arteta signing seven full-backs, five centre-backs, five defensive midfielders and five goalkeepers. That adds up to 17 over his past five but just six over his next three. If Martinelli’s plateau and the lack of cutting edge of Havertz and Jesus hasn’t convinced Arteta to splash the attacker with the X-factor yet, we have no idea what will.
Set pieces that go from a secret weapon to Arsenal’s only weapon
Basically, Arsenal need to stop becoming Stoke City. Well, not quite, but the story always comes back to his creativity and lack of elite No. 9 or left wing.
Arsenal’s set-piece know-how is a weapon they hold over their title rivals. It gave them a different way to score when struggling to break a low block or create chances against the best teams in the Premier League and it’s a way of scoring goals that we used to associate with those teams. Who were struggling in the relegation battle or a huge underdog away from an upward one.
It’s genius to make it a non-secret weapon and even now the managers have got their hands on it, yet they can’t stop it. Great, yeah, also the bit about the title challenger relying too much on angles, innit?
Creativity is the big picture and this overdependence is a piece we had to discuss.
It’s fair to say that the negativity is stemming from a seemingly negative approach on the pitch and a lack of exciting transitions. We all know Arsenal won’t be active this month but Arteta has upset fans before with questionable decisions. Always comes out on top. The good news is that he probably doesn’t need to spend in January because I’ve kissed death (or life) – they’ll now win every Premier League game until the end of the season.
