19 November 2024
Always the Bridesmaid Never the Bride
Arsenal headed into this season with most pundits seeing them as the only team capable of dethroning Man City at the summit of the Premier League. The transformation of The Gunners under Mikel Arteta has won him plenty of plaudits, but despite this success the trophy room at The Emirates still seems somewhat barren. Fans were hoping this would be the season they end their long wait for another title.
The Gunners have not won the Premier League since 2004. Had you told Arsene Wenger’s champions they would go two decades without winning it again, you would have been laughed at. Mikel Arteta’s side even spent 248 days at the top of the table in the 2022/23 season before letting an eight point lead slip to allow Man City to win the title once again. It was all starting to seem like some sick joke with many Gunners’ fans expecting to see Jigsaw appear saying ‘I want to play a game…’
Since taking over at Arsenal in December 2019, Mikel Arteta has spent close to £700m in the transfer market, showing a lot of backing from the owners. You wonder whether at some point, they will want to see some silverware as a return on their investment. The Spaniard was given a contract extension until 2027 such was the feeling at the time that they needed to tie him down to the club. You begin to wonder what his targets set out by the board were.
Bringing Champions League football back to North London was important and they have achieved that. However, being in a competition and looking to win it are two very different things. The Gunners have never won the European Cup and it is something that rival fans never let them forget. It seems crazy that the bookies have them as one of the favourites to go on and win the competition considering that fact.
As things stand this season, The Gunners are currently nine points behind leaders Liverpool. The campaign has not got off to the start that the fans, and many pundits, predicted. Losing Martin Odegaard to injury has cost them dearly. Without his creativity in the middle of the park, Arsenal have looked unable to break sides down when they have dominated possession. This then makes you question the depth of quality within the squad.
When they were signed, fans thought the arrival of both Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko were nothing short of a masterstroke by the Spaniard. Reflecting back on that now, the £74m Man City got for the pair seems like the sort of stitch up you would get the Rogue Traders team in to investigate. The treatment room in North London gets to see these players more than the fans do nowadays. The Brazilian striker has scored 15 goals in 62 games in the Premier League for The Gunners.
That is the massive elephant in the room for this side of Mikel Arteta’s, they do not have a proven goalscorer. Despite spending heavily to improve the squad, the Spaniard keeps failing to address the striker problem. He seemed to think the answer to the problem was Chelsea flop Kai Havertz, but nothing in his career stats would suggest this to anyone else. The club even decided to sell Folarin Balogun in the summer, despite scoring 21 goals on loan to Reims the season before.
One thing you cannot deny, this Arsenal squad does have some talented players. Whether it is enough to win a league title is another matter. Bukayo Saka is the star of the show in North London, of that there is no doubt. Teams largely need to focus on how to keep him quiet to overcome The Gunners’ threat. Gabriel Martinelli seems to miss so many chances and his conversion rate can be costly.
The likes of Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard have scored important goals to win games for The Gunners but they are never going to fire a team to the Premier League title. Ethan Nwaneri looks a promising talent and has come off the bench to good effect but you have to be careful piling such pressure on young shoulders to perform. This side is screaming out for a striker with a resume filled with goals. Mikel Arteta should have made Ivan Toney a priority target last summer.
The infamous Arsenal set piece machine has been faltering of late and failing to produce the goals they have come to rely upon. It almost seems as though their opponents have became wise to their use of the dark arts at corners. Blocking players off, getting physical with markers and roughing up the keeper have worked so well until now. More often of late the delivery has been severely lacking to make their mark.
Arsenal’s defence is spoken about as a rock and nearly impenetrable. The fact of the matter is they really struggle with a high press, teams just do not apply it against them enough. William Saliba and Gabriel work well together but in the wide positions they are only blessed with full-backs who are better going forward than they are at defending. Playing Oleksandr Zinchenko on the left is often like giving your opponent a man advantage, he goes walkabout far too much.
David Raya has made the keeper shirt his own since his loan spell. He is a good shot stopper but like so many keepers in the modern game, he often parries his saves back into the danger-area. He always looks like he has got a howler in his locker too. Whether it be a stray pass to the opponent’s striker or completely missing a cross, he is often fighting the urge to let it surface. Sides are creating plenty of chances against The Gunners this campaign.
As things stand, Arsenal are still in the title race, just. To win that elusive Premier League title they need their rivals to hit a long patch of bad form, that is for sure. Whether the hierarchy will ask questions of Mikel Arteta if he endures another trophyless season remains to be seen. To compare him and his squad to that of Arsene Wenger and years gone by is an insult to the Frenchman. Unless they buy a world class striker in the January transfer window, the long wait for trophies may well continue.
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