It’s a difficult moment to be a Gooner, but Mikel Arteta must have had it even more challenging. After the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle, which left our Gunners winless in three league games, the hope was that they would force their way back to winning when they faced Inter Milan.
However, they lost 1-0 due to a controversial penalty (which Calhanoglu converted) after Mikel Merino was judged to have handled the ball in the penalty box. As controversial as that spot kick was, the Gunners felt they were denied a clear penalty earlier on after Inter’s goalkeeper punched Mikel Merino, who was attempting to head in a beautiful cross into the box.
Yes, the Gunners may feel unfairly treated, but why didn’t they capitalize on their opportunities with 20 shots and none a goal?
Nevertheless, this game will breathe new life into the “Arteta Out” calls. The Spanish coach isn’t doing himself any favours; some of his moves have left the Gooners with more questions than answers.
Arteta needs to learn how to rotate his team; his current strategy of sticking with his starting 11 until injuries force adjustments isn’t optimal. I doubt the Arsenal boss would have made a change to the Arsenal lineup that lost to Newcastle if Declan Rice was fit.
It’s unfortunate that Arsenal’s manager prioritises seniority over profiles when injuries occur. Unfortunately, Myles Lewis Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri have not received the chances they deserve.
Many Gooners were frustrated with the Kai Havertz-Leandro Trossard experiment after the Newcastle game, but the Arsenal manager is unwilling to change his tactics because he believes in the process, even if a change is necessary.
Yes, we know Arsenal is at its finest defensively, but that doesn’t mean we always rely on defensive pragmatism to deal with harder opponents. Perhaps the squad would have a better chance of winning if they tried to play their own game.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>What a crazy stat. <a href=”https://t.co/crgEueLigy”>pic.twitter.com/crgEueLigy</a></p>— WelBeast (@WelBeast) <a href=”https://twitter.com/WelBeast/status/1853614352928014401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>November 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
The Arsenal women’s technical bench has found a way to get the best out of the team through subs. Arsenal can do that, but the substitutes are always too late – in 7 minutes on the pitch, Nwaneri did better than Trossard, who was on for 82 minutes.
It’s also not always necessary to prioritise physique over technique. For example, starting Raheem Sterling, Ethan Nwaneri, or Gabriel Jesus over Trossard against Inter Milan would have been appropriate. Unfortunately, Arteta will not adjust a winning 11, even if the next opponent requires a different setup.
Any player who makes the Arsenal squad should be given a fair chance to play, but Arteta alienates players when he has a new preferred option, destroying their confidence and transfer values. For instance, if Arsenal continues to overlook Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, their values will significantly decline.
We applaud Arsenal for how they’ve conducted themselves, but the fact that they’ve never got it right with forward recruitment is startling. Arteta and the Arsenal recruitment team bear sole responsibility for the Arsenal attack’s problems.
That said, a win over Inter Milan would undoubtedly have been the ideal way for Arsenal to bounce back, but they now have a must-win London derby to contend with to try and arrest our awful run of form.
Darren N
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When we say Nwaneri did better ?
What did he do ?
That’s right what’s you say
A world-class striker wouldn’t be able to score without the diagonal passes and movement from our right-sided AM/ winger
Remember about Aubameyang who didn’t fit into Arteta’s system, despite being deadly in counter-attacks
We just need Odegaard back to interchange his position with Saka or play Nwaneri there
If Arsenal really want a new CF, he’d better be someone in the mold of Giroud or Vlahovic
@Gai I bet Arsenal won’t go for Vlahovic again and Giroud imo won’t be able to cope with Epl physicality or rigor again. He isn’t getting younger.
I watched Osimehin’s 2 goals against Spurds in Europa yesterday that’s the kind of CF we should be testing our resolve on and Gyokeres.Two dominant, physical and prolific CF and can hold the ball well.
I wonder why Arteta can’t try Zichenko in Odegard’s role? He is an experienced left footed midfielder with good passes.
Yes, clearly any striker will have to fit in with the system of play but that in no way detracts from the need to get one.
The only problem is that Arsenal can’t get one currently even if they (a) wanted to and (b) had a candidate in mind. That was business for last summer and now, not again until January at the earliest – and probably not then, unfortunately.
We dont possibly need a new striker. We 100% definitely need a new striker. Plain as the nose on your face.
A striker could have help add something, it certainly would not have detracted. 46 crosses? To whom exactly?
46 crosses reeks of desperation and a manager devoid of solutions and even ideas. Their defense (6 in the back at times) was never conceding a cross, even if we were still playing today.
Arteta is really struggling to overcome adversity currently, and lacking a plan B offensively and a midfield rife with DM’s certainly is not helping his cause.
I’m glad to see Odegaard return, but I wonder if that is only a band-aid and doesn’t solve the larger problem.
Our midfield is currently unbalanced and overweight with DM type midfielders with similar skillsets except for Odegaard and Nwaneri; whom isn’t really tried.
We have no plan B option in our attack, and look quite slow and predictable in our build up and play.
IMO, Arteta must allow the RW and LW roam freely that’s the only way we’ll improve without a proper CF for now,
These way they can shoot more without having to dribble pass more defenders,
hugging the sides slows our attack and allows oppositions double up on us,
Merino is a good player but he needs to come off the bench same as Nwaneri and Trossard.
Arteta needs to be flexible, I see Jesus as a better No 8 than Trossard, in terms of leading the charge, stamina,defence and tight spaces.
Not according to certain Arsenal fans who claimed we scored x amount of goals last season.
Everyone forgot that our output was largely inflated by our high scoring run across a few games post Jan 23/24 season.
It’s rare for a team to win a title without a high scoring forward and I don’t understand why people thought we’re an exception to this, especially without having World Class players in other positions.
This was always going to happen, especially when you rely on younger players still developing who won’t be able to perform consistently at such a level as they’re “still developing”
Of course. We do now, we did back in the summer. Arsenal can’t buy one currently, but there were ten weeks to at least try and bring one in during the last window.
The idea that, primarily Havertz excepted, Arsenal may have to rely upon Jesus is, well, pretty laughable – and not with hindsight. One goal (against Preston – not even the Inter Milan of the Championship) since January!
He isn’t Trossard . . .
So his performances are wonderful to his romancers.