Can Arsenal Progress Under Arteta

This season has been a strange one so far and it’s been a pretty frustrating one from an Arsenal perspective. Every club has had to deal with the worldwide pandemic and it’s affects on revenue and it’s been no different for Arsenal. While all of this has being happening we’re in the middle (well actually still pretty much near the start) of our rebuilding process under Mikel Arteta.

He hasn’t been at the club a year yet and we can’t expect miracles given the squad he has and the limits imposed on transfers by the pandemic. Luckily Arsenal have a very talented crop of young players coming through and some of them have been able to step up when required. He did deliver the FA Cup against some pretty tough odds and it looks like the defensive side of our game has improved for the first time in a few years.

Our problems at the moment lie in attack though and our inability to score goals is hurting us badly. So much was made of our lack of victories away to any of the “big six” in almost six years that it was a huge relief to finally end that run at Old Trafford last month, but that 1-0 win was the only points we have taken and the only goal we have scored in our last four league games. As it stands only the bottom four clubs and Wolves have scored less goals in their first eight games despite Arsenal possessing one of the best strikers in the world.

While a large part of our problem might be the inability to make chances at the moment it’s very hard to look beyond why Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is being played on the left when it seems obvious to one and all that he should be played as the central striker. With him in the middle we can surely play two attacking players, such as Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka in the wide roles and they can supply him with the chances he needs. For me Alexandre Lacazette isn’t good enough to hold the position ahead of Aubameyang and playing him there is hurting us at the moment.

Of course the failure to sign a creative player in midfield has had an affect on our creation and the demise of Mesut Ozil hasn’t helped either. The signing of Thomas Partey has given us some real class in midfield, but we need someone to play in front of him and whoever else is chosen to play alongside him in a defensive role. I think the manager might hope Willian can play there, but he’s looking less likely to do so with each passing game. 

With Ozil completely out of the picture it could mean the only real option is promoting Joe Willock to first team duties. Willock has looked the part in our Europa League games so far, but it’s a big step up from the Europa League to the Premier League. He offers us something different at the moment though and that’s something this team is badly missing. 

When our strikers struggle to score goals it’s a real problem for the team because our midfield just doesn’t have enough goals in it. Willock could possibly be the player to get those goals and it might just be the time to see what he can do.

In the latest 2021 odds to win the Premier League, Arsenal sit just below Leicester at 50/1. The Gunners had an upset defeat at home to Villa in their last game and Villa are listed below them at 66/1. It’s difficult to understand how we have reached a point where Leicester are shorter odds than us to win the league and Villa’s odds aren’t much longer. I know it’s early days in the season, but it’s not easy to argue with those odds.

For me a big part of our problems besides the lack of goals is the lack of pace in our game. We’re too comfortable just to keep possession and work the ball through the team with nobody willing to take an opponent on or make something happen. We’re really struggling to open teams up and the ability to take players on and beat them is one that cannot be underestimated.

We only have to play two of the big six in our next 12 games and that run has to give us an opportunity to make up some ground on the teams ahead of us and put some points on the board. We’ve been out of the Champions League for far too long and there’s a real chance of making the top four this season, but only if we can find some attacking flair. The players may have reacted well to how the manager wants them to play, but now he has to concentrate on improving our attacking options and getting that across to the players.

I think he’s the right man for the job, but it’s not easy watching Arsenal at the moment. When so many fans are left sitting in their homes because of the pandemic it appears that every little problem with the team is under the microscope and that’s understandable with so little else to do at the moment. He needs to keep the fans behind him and he could be in danger of slowly losing them if he can’t solve our attacking issues and make watching them more enjoyable.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal Beat Bournemouth To Reach The FA Cup Fifth Round

Last night went pretty well for Arsenal all things considered as they won 2-1 away to Bournemouth to progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup. Mikel Arteta picked a mixture of youth and experience with Bukayo Saka, Matteo Guendouzi, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah, Emiliano Martinez and Gabriel Martinelli all getting a chance from the start. He also played the recovering Hector Bellerin who was the captain on the night as well as Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Granit Xhaka and Nicolas Pepe.

The young players approached the game as if they had something to prove as Arsenal went on the front foot from the very first minute. A great 22 pass move involving all 10 outfield players ended up with Saka blasting the ball past the Bournemouth keeper to give us the lead after only five minutes. Rather than sit on their laurels Arsenal continued to dominate despite being away from home and a second goal seemed almost inevitable.

That goal came 20 minutes later when Nketiah had the easy task of stroking the ball home after Arsenal played through the attempted Bournemouth press. It was that man Saka who set it up for him, but yet again it was another great team move from back to front. As the first half progressed Bournemouth gradually came out of their shell, but Martinez wasn’t called upon until shortly before the break and he was up to the task.

Bournemouth took a more agricultural approach after the break as they attempted to “put it up ‘em” and put the frighteners on this young Arsenal team. Enter Guendouzi who was simply having none of it as he got stuck in winning tackles and giving as good as he got. I don’t know if it’s Arteta’s influence which was showing in him last night, but whatever it was he was very impressive.

A word for Joe Willock too who I said yesterday might be the player in our midfield to break into the opposition box given the chance. His ability to carry the ball towards the Bournemouth defence was very impressive too and there is a real case for him to play in that role more often. With so many young players willing to give it their all when they get a chance the future certainly looks promising.

I haven’t forgotten Martinelli or Nketiah with the former putting in another great shift and the later doing what he does best and putting the ball in the back of the net. When they were backed up by a disciplined Xhaka the team had a great shape although Xhaka still managed a couple of his usual lapses. He’s being asked to play a deeper role than previously and he’s growing into it as well as regaining the respect of the fans after the incident against Palace earlier in the season.

Bournemouth came into the game a lot more after the break, but for all their huffing and puffing they rarely threatened the Arsenal goal. We were a little vulnerable on crosses as Martinez struggled to impose himself and he got away with a couple of poor punches from those crosses. There wasn’t a lot he could do about the Bournemouth goal when it did come, but at least it was late enough to cause us little bother for the rest of the game.

The goal came in the fifth of almost 11 added minutes at the end of the game and the main reason for all that added time was a very unfortunate injury to Mustafi. He was actually having a very good game on the night and I can’t remember him putting a foot wrong at any stage. The traveling fans were so impressed they were even singing his praises at one stage which is surely something we haven’t heard in a long time.

The injury to Mustafi only increases our need to add a central defender with Calum Chambers already out for the rest of the season and Rob Holding still looking like he has a way to go to get back to form after his injury. We have been linked with a couple of players and it looks like a deal might be on the cards before the transfer window closes on Friday night. If it happens I think it will probably be the only deal we do.

The draw for the fifth round was made before the game and we will face another trip to the south coast to play League One side Portsmouth in early March. We’re getting towards the business end of the FA Cup and a win against Portsmouth would put us through to the last eight if we can do it. I won’t quite say I can smell the sweet air of a Wembley final, but who knows where we might end up come May.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arteta’s Arsenal Slowly Improving

Mikel Arteta hasn’t been in charge at Arsenal too long, but the signs are already very encouraging. We might have only won once in his six league games at the helm, but we have only lost one game too. The trick is to start turning some of those draws into wins and that’s when the real progress will be evident.

The draw at Chelsea on Tuesday night had to be a huge boost for Arteta and the players too. To twice come from behind to get a 2-2 after playing for over an hour with 10 men showed real strength of character and commitment from the players. While we can be unhappy with both of the goals we conceded the players defended very well when under a lot of pressure.

The contribution of Gabriel Martinelli in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was a huge boost and Arteta has to now consider him as one of the first names on the team sheet every week. His 67 yard run and finish for our first goal was simply magnificent and it’s been too long since we saw a goal to raise our spirits as much as that goal did. Thanks to Hector Bellerin’s late equaliser that Martinelli goal got some reward on the night and we took a very unlikely point given the circumstances.

There is no doubt we have some real issues in terms of personnel, but we also have some very good players to call on. I’m still longing to see a front three of Martinelli, Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe and the options it will give us in terms of pace and finishing ability. Playing those three players together would leave no room in the team for Alexandre Lacazette, but it has to be something for Arteta to try as he looks for some balance in our attack.

It’s our lack of goals and goalscoring opportunities which is holding us back at the moment and I think those three up front might help to solve that problem. The fact we have virtually no scoring potential in our midfield is a real worry too and it’s not something which can be easily solved with the players we currently possess. Maybe Joe Willock could be the player who can make runs from the centre into the box to offer that threat, but he would have to start ahead of Mesut Ozil to do so given our current formation.

Arteta is going with two more or less holding midfielders which is perfectly understandable as it gives us a platform to build on and some added protection for the defence. The current first choice duo don’t offer too much in terms of scoring intent though except for the very rare screamer from Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira occasionally breaking free of his defensive shackles to pop up in the box. It’s an issue which will probably be best solved in the transfer window and that probably means waiting until the summer.

The Liverpool model has been looked to as one to aspire to with their midfield adding very few goals, but their front three scoring heaps of them. To be honest Aubameyang, Martinelli and Pepe (if they were the trio) would have to add about 50 league goals a season between them to match the output of the Liverpool trio. It’s a big ask for them and they might get there, but it will take time.

For them to do so we need our two fullbacks to contribute as much as their’s do and we’re currently a long way off that. The return of Hector Bellerin is very welcome on that count and getting Kieran Tierney fit again would be an added bonus for that target. Even with those two back they would have to improve their final ball an awful lot to match the assists Liverpool get from their two full backs.

The one place where we’re actually getting a good return is from our set pieces with our central defenders doing their bit in front of the opposition goal. Our corners have been very good in the main and I don’t think any other team has more goals from corners in the league so far this season. If only they were as good at keeping the opposition out at the other end.

Overall I am really hopeful with the direction we’re going in, but the signs are it will be a slow and laborious task to try to get us back among the elite teams of Premier League football. Arteta certainly talks the talk and the signs so far are he might just walk the walk too.

We face a trip to Bournemouth tonight in the fourth round of the FA Cup and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him put out a fairly strong team all things considered. With Aubameyang serving the last game of his suspension I’d be surprised if Martinelli didn’t start and we might see Eddie Nketiah at some stage too. I imagine Matteo Guendouzi will come into the midfield while Emiliano Martinez will play in goal with Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles probably getting a look in too.

It’s been almost a week since our last game and the players have plenty of time to recover after this game too so fatigue shouldn’t be a factor in team choice. Bournemouth managed to win their first game in quite a while last week to climb out of the relegation zone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they rested a lot of players tonight with that relegation battle in mind. They’ve struggled to score goals for a long time this season and their defence has become very leaky too.

We should see whether we have improved since we drew 1-1 away to them very early in Arteta’s reign and I hope those results will be positive. We’re still struggling to create chances away from home and every player other than Aubameyang has struggled on the road. A strong display tonight should give us even more optimism after the result at Chelsea last week.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Arsenal’s Tour Of The U.S. Comes To An End

Arsenal have spent the last two weeks touring the United Srates and it’s hard to view the tour as anything other than a success as the they return home to play the Emirates Cup this weekend. They played four games against teams of different qualities and ended up with three wins and a draw although they did technically lose that game in a penalty shootout. We also got to see a good sprinkling of the younger players we have at the club and a few of those players have been added to the first team squad this season.

First up there was a fairly comfortable 3-0 win against Colorado Rapids as we put Stan Kroenke’s American team to the sword. Unai Emery went with a fairly young team and they didn’t let him down with Bukayo Saka and new boy Gabriel Martinelli among the goals. The games were coming thick and fast and it was only two days later when our opponents went up a lot in class.

The manager played a stronger team against Bayern Munich and they managed to squeeze out a narrow 2-1 victory. The goals came from an own goal and a late winner from another youngster as Eddie Nketiah got his name on the scoreboard. He’s one of the young players who has been added to the first team squad, but there’s still a possibility he could go out on loan. If he does I think it has to be a loan where we can recall him at any time in case either Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Alexandre Lacazette were to get injured.

We followed the win against Bayern with another relatively comfortable 3-0 win against Fiorentina and that man Nketiah bagged a brace with yet another youngster who has been added to the first team squad scoring too as Joe Willock grabbed himself a goal. Of all the youngsters added to the squad he might just be the one to have the biggest impact this season. 

Our last game came against Real Madrid and even though we drew 2-2 they won on penalties for whatever that’s worth. Lacazette and Aubameyang were the scorers, but we gave up a 2-0 lead as both teams ended the game with 10 men. In the grand scheme of things the results don’t matter too much, but it’s always nice to get a few wins under your belt.

So it’s back to home turf on Sunday afternoon as we take on Lyon in the Emirates Cup before heading off to play Angers and Barcelona in the final two warm up games ahead of the new season. There’s still plenty of work to be done in the transfer market before the window closes ahead of our first game away to Newcastle. In true Arsenal fashion we still haven’t signed anyone of real note even if there are high hopes for Martinelli, but he must surely be followed by others.

We do seem set to capture William Saliba from St. Etienne, but he will also be loaned back to them for this season too. Dani Ceballos also looks to be on his way to us on loan from Real Madrid for the season, but there is no real update on our other supposed targets. Our chances of signing Kieran Tierney and Wilfried Zaha seem to be fading while we might be in the market for Everton Soares if the Zaha deal fails to materialise.

As it stands our squad is wafer thin with genuinely experienced players and some of those young players added to the first team squad might get some very good chances to prove their worth this season. I do think we will add to the squad though and the sooner we do it the better.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.