Hello, everyone.
It’s January 2nd and we play our next Premier League game on January 20th. We are five points behind the leader Liverpool, who beat Newcastle last night in an extraordinary match. After having been the best at Christmas, the atmosphere was good. A few days later and things have changed. It’s understandable that playing so badly isn’t fun at all.
The current picture is a perfect example of how quickly the festive period can change things, but there is still a long way to go. The FA Cup clash against the Mugsmashers on Sunday will be interesting, and I think Mikel Arteta will give his all, but in terms of the league, he certainly has some things to sort out with this team.
The attack is not working as well as it should, which is essential for me, because you can compensate for some defensive problems if you can score goals. To some extent, Liverpool are a great example of this. They are not as solid at the back as they are, but they are very powerful at the front.
We have exposed the performance and statistics of our forwards in recent days and, as we discussed yesterday on Arsecast Extra, that is why if there was a January addition to the forward line, I would be much more inclined to bring in another player from band instead of the absolute striker that so many people covet. There are countless reasons for this, most of which I’ve discussed before, but ultimately it comes down to making that type of signature much more realistic. I don’t think we should approach Ivan Toney for the amount of money Brentford are looking for, and beyond that, the quality of striker people want and availability in January are more or less incompatible.
For those who don’t think we need that type of player, just look at Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli and tell me that somehow they aren’t struggling with the load right now. It’s also worth remembering that last year Arsenal were prepared to do something big for Mykhaylo Mudryk, a player who, despite the chaotic nature of what has happened at Chelsea since his arrival, has taken some time to get used to the Premier League level. . Maybe it would have been easier to get to a more stable environment at Arsenal, but the very fact that we were prepared to do something as big as we did with such a raw player 12 months ago says something about what the manager felt the equipment needed.
In my opinion, we still need it. Especially since the options we currently have in the team are not the ones Arteta believes he can use. Reiss Nelson is not considered good enough to start in the Premier League, while Emile Smith Rowe must wonder how he gets minutes when he can’t even move forward in a game that was crying out for someone to do something different with the ball. As for Leandro Trossard, I would be much happier seeing him up front if we didn’t have Gabriel Jesus as a starter, but when we deploy him elsewhere (especially in the left 8), he leaves me, if not cold, then lukewarm at best. cases.
Elsewhere, the recent move to play Declan Rice so deep hasn’t really worked. Against Fulham he was basically an auxiliary centre-half at times, and on a day when his passing range was off, the distances were too great between him and the players he was trying to link up with. It’s clearly by design, but I don’t think it helped.
It’s difficult to analyze Fulham’s performance well, because although we’ve had some concerns about our efficiency in the final third, I don’t think we’ve seen that kind of performance before. At least not this season. We have lost chances, yes. We have played differently this season, yes. But I don’t think we’ve ever had an individual and collective day off like that. The optimistic part of me hopes it was so bad that it was one of those days that most teams have. My glass half empty harbors concerns that we may have been caught a little bit, although I think the pace of our game (or lack thereof) is a major contributor to this.
However, as I said yesterday, a mid-season problem is much more preferable than a problem in April or May. You’ve got time to recover and now it’s up to the manager to make sure this last week has been an outlier in a season where we’ve been tough to beat. I realize that January’s priorities for the transfer market may lie elsewhere, and I think the news that Thomas Partey will not be going to the AFCON suggests that his injury is much more serious than we know, but to win titles you need a striker who makes the difference. line. Liverpool have that, Manchester City have that, Arsenal don’t.
Easier said than done of course, but I hope the last few weeks have clearly shown that while we have needs in defense and potentially in midfield, more is needed on the more important side of the pitch.
The Arsecast Extra is below if you haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet. More here tomorrow.
