It was very apparent what the biggest talking point was going to be when the game was brought to a close on Sunday night. The conversation has merit and then when Pierre Emerick Aubameyang plays through 90 minutes of football and does not register a single shot then the proponents of a certain role change appear vindicated. However there is obviously a bigger cause behind Arsenal’s continuing toothlessness, which is beginning to exert an increased weight against Arsenal’s push for the top four.
There’s no general consensus on how this problem as a whole can be fixed , but one thing is very clear is that this is a monster of Mikel Arteta’s own making. The strict structure that he has implemented had a first priority of limiting how many goals Arsenal conceded and to that effect it has somewhat worked. Arsenal had the best defensive albeit after 7 games but that was nevertheless, a positive. The downside was that after 8 games Arsenal have had 73 shots and scored just 9 goals, ranking 15th in the league for both metrics and it is becoming an increasingly large burden to bear. In the first game of the season Aubameyang finished a brilliant passing move which started from Bernd Leno and the praise was unanimous. As the season has wore on however that sort of goal, the result of intricate passing sequences executed with laser like precision have become the bane of Arteta’s side, not because they are inherently bad but because of the undue faith Arteta has placed in them to the detriment of all else.
This made the defeat against Aston Villa all the more painful as Arsenal were torn about by a Villa side that looked like a reincarnation of what Arsenal used to be going forward, an embodiment of freedom and carefreeness that has almost been lost upon this Arteta machine. Juxtapose this against Arsenal’s performance for much of the game a laboured, tedious and uninspired mess and you have quite a difficult spectacle for anyone in red.
The body language of the players during the game was not encouraging at all either and when Thomas Partey had to go off injured at half-time, the minimal thrust Arsenal had from midfield was lost as well. In the second half, Arsenal’s attack was systematic but to the point of being predictable, and there the problem lies. At times you do need a little bit of chaos to make this work.
Arteta’s preferred attacking trio of Aubameyang, Lacazette and Willian works hard to press from the front and help maintain compactness in a way that is invaluable to how good Arsenal have been defensively this season. In the other direction, however, they have been underwhelming to put it kindly. Willian has been consistently unimaginative, Lacazette has been woefully poor with his finishing, costing the Gunners in games against Liverpool and Leicester and Aubameyang has been stranded.
“I need the freedom Villa have. Villa are a team now that if they were walking down the street they’d be wearing the coolest trainers, the coolest trousers.” Precisely the freedom that Ian Wright talks is what this Arsenal team needs, and In large doses. The freedom which will create some semblance of chaos and unpredictability will mean that going forward Arsenal would have a different dimension to themselves.
Arteta has dressed up this Arsenal team in neatly-ironed suits and ties and had them walk in single file, and limited any sort of digression from that prescription, except on Thursdays apparently.
The Europa League has presented an interesting control experiment as Arteta has been willing to allow players like Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock and Nicholas Pepe to essentially run riot in these games. Pepe especially who in many ways embodies unpredictability, in his every action as well as his overall performances. He has contributed two goals and two assists in the three Europa League group games but he doesn’t get to start more in the Premier League precisely because of what has enabled him to be successful in the Europa League. Arteta spoke in a press conference about how he needs to be consistent in every action for all of the 90 minutes in order to start featuring more prominently in the league. That is all well and good but in the situation that Arsenal currently find themselves in, playing Nicholas Pepe instead of Willian would add a shock factor to their attack even in the simple sense that Pepe can beat a man off the dribble. The possibility of that happening will keep fullbacks on their toes, probably even drawing more men towards the Ivorian and creating space for others. The consistency will come, but right now Arteta needs the unpredictability.
The Aston Villa game was the game that needed to happen for Arsenal sooner rather than later. Guardiola, who Arteta used to work under at Manchester City is constantly criticised for missing the mark in high pressure situations because he overdoses on tactics and forgets to keep things simple. Arteta is staring in the face of a growing problem and he needs to make some big calls to sort them out. The ability of the players he has at his disposal is not in doubt but Arteta may need to embrace the chaos if he wants to bring out the best in them.
