Arsenal Analysis – Where we went wrong and what we need to improve next season

LEICESTER, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 25: Leandro Trossard of Arsenal celebrates with team mate after scoring their sides goal which is later disallowed during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Arsenal FC at The King Power Stadium on February 25, 2023 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Leaps and bounds, but a level below

Arsenal have made great strides but fall short at the last hurdle by Vuyo Mataka

You don’t realise how easy it is to lose a title until you do. You think you can afford to lose games, but when you’re the one that just misses out, you scrutinise all the mistakes that cost you the title. This has been a promising season but it’s not the fairy-tale ending we wanted, and we’re heartbroken at how we lost it. However, next season we know what we are capable of. This club has come a long way, surpassing all expectation but short of true victory. The world finally sees what the club is capable of, now it time to push for real silverware.

Arsenal had a great start to the season, with noteworthy performances against Tottenham and Liverpool, and continued their form after the end of the World Cup. With great business being done, Arsenal look set to continue their charge to the title. With them dropping points to Everton and Brentford and suffering a devastating loss to Manchester City, you could see them falter in their charge to the title. Momentum seemed to be re-established after the Aston Villa match. However, it was evident that individual errors crept in and affected their overall performance. It was most evident when Arsenal played Bournemouth.

Arsenal continued their good form until April, their most difficult part of the season. With the Gunners getting an impressive draw at Anfield, it looked like Arsenal were steps away from winning the title. Disappointing draws to West Ham and Southampton drove us to despair, and it looked like Arsenal’s title hopes were dependent on a win against Man City at the Etihad. A thrashing from City brought Arsenal’s promising season to a bittersweet end.

With Arsenal looking unlikely to win the league, the club can focus on winning the remaining games to keep the pressure on City. Maybe Arsenal’s fortunes can change but let’s not hold our breath.

We can use the time to look at how far the team has come, how well they have played and how they can improve. It’s been a season of improvement for the team and for individuals. Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli showing their brilliance. Xhaka having one of his best seasons ever with Jesus and Zinchenko integrating seamlessly into the squad.

So many players doing well, it’s difficult to see who needs to be replaced for Arsenal to improve. The main focus is the midfield for Arsenal, specifically the defensive midfield and the box-to-box 8 position. Once those issues are sorted, striker, right wing, centre back and right back are secondary issues. For the striker position, a target man that can grow with the team. With the other positions, reinforcement is needed, players that are first team ready that can compete for positions. Another aspect that the manager can fix is rotation, with Arsenal back in the Champions league, Arteta needs to trust in the other squad members to play more often.

Arsenal having a constant 11 will fatigue players that have been playing too much football already. We need to see the likes of Kiwior and Vieira play more games so others can recover, and the squad can be more prepared for the business end of the season. The club knows what must be done for next season, tough decisions will be made.

The most important thing is to strengthen – because the rest of the league will.

Vuyo Mataka


Video – Mikel Arteta talks about the reasons Arsenal have dropped from the top, and addresses the question if we “bottled it”

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19 Comments

  1. The only flaw of Arteta’s brilliant tactics is the lack of plan B when we can’t escape from the opposition’s high press and when we can’t dissect their park-the-bus defense

    Adding Rice, Caicedo or other central midfielder won’t make us bypass the opposition’s midfield. When Saka was closed down by Ake/ Akanji, Ramsdale didn’t have another option to send the ball to

    We did it to Liverpool by instructing Tomiyasu to shut Salah off and to prevent him from receiving long passes from Alisson at the Emirates. In our second meeting, Klopp replaced Jota with Nunez in the second half of the game, to give his backline another long-passing option

    1. i agree with you but we don’t have enough players on the bench to change to plan B like Man city, if they can give Arteta enough budget, to create a good bench, he has done a brilliant job i have supported him through and through he is our own and we are the only team that has a coach that’s doing so well at younger age with young group of players, forward gooners

      1. If we sell some players in the summer, we should have enough money to sign a stronger CF

  2. Yes I agree with you Gai. Your analysis is an example of what I hope Arteta identify and improve new season.
    I also think Arteta need to improve on his rotations awareness some good players in previous seasons like ESR and K Thieney were no longer sharp because of poor rotation in EPL. Zichenko doesn’t have a lengthy physical abilities like some players considering his injury history and same with Pathey. Many of our bench became rusty.

    Also some games are not meant to be “Rolls Royce game” but direct to get result. If we had played Liverpool the way we played New Castle away we could have gotten a different result.

    Hope necessary lessons are learnt by The coaching crew and The Players.

  3. Well, the difference in points with City as on date would range between 1 and 4 as they have a game in hand. In terms of goals, they outscored us by 8, goals conceded they outscored us by 8, hence these stats are not bad at all, considering the investment they have made till date and the bunch of rotten apples we had till last year. There have been some individual errors, but all players have it – Salah missed a pen, etc. etc. We have a brilliant coach, brilliant first team. The likes of Holding, Viera, Eddie are above average at their best, and these need to be shaped up or shipped out. Holding has been here for years so its best to part ways. From the loan deals except Flo, the rest have been disappointments, better let them all go. Does anyone remember Gendouzi?
    The losses in the EL, FA and Carabo cup needs to be probed and corrective action taken.
    Maybe its time to say thank you to Partey, Tomiyasu, Elneny and add some new faces with skill and fitness.

  4. A sensible analysis, apart from the comment that says we need to see more of Viera.

    No, we do not!

    We need to see NOTHING at all of him and quickly get such a weedy and completely ineffective player gone from our club. Without at least AVERAGE strength, no player is any good in our highly physical and fast paced Prem.
    OBVIOUSLY too!

  5. Well blow me down!!!!
    Here I am, getting ready to travel to the game, with the expectation that, while we beat Brighton, City will lose to Everton – in fact, I can’t see us dropping any more points, while city have three hard away games and the return leg with Real Madrid to contend with.

    I look at the PL table and see two clubs miles ahead of the chasing pack and think those clubs have a lot to do catching The Arsenal and city.

    Perhaps I should just stay at home and wallow in self pity?
    No, I still believe that, with this tired, overworked and underrated squad we can still become PL Champions, so I’ll be at the Emirates, not worrying about next season.

    I wonder if city fans are worrying about us and who we might sign next season?

    1. Welcome optimism Ken, even if MUCH lacking in probability. But the TONE of your message is correct!

      1. Come back to me after Sunday’s results Jon regarding the PL.

        I expect city to beat RM, leaving them with two cup finals and two PL away games… if we do our part and beat Brighton, Forest and Wolves, the pressure on them will be incredible and, if they do the treble, I can only stand back and congratulate them.

        1. You have a deal my super optimistic and extremely dedicated friend. We ALL hope you are proved right, but as you know I also hope but never use HOPE as my guiding light for making predictions.

          Instead, I use all available evidence and percentage of probability and I have the priceless gift, denied to so many, of being able to put aside my own person bias while predicting.

    2. This is the weekend where the title will be won or lost in my opinion. A trip to goodison park to relegation-threatened Everton who just put 5 past Brighton while having to prepare for the biggest match of their season. If City don’t lose pts here then they are cruising to the title as i dont see a pathetic Chelsea or an already in vacation Brentford giving them a challenge.

      If City drawing while we beat Brighton who are our most difficult fixture remaining then momentum shift to our side while there is huge pressure on City

  6. As an Arsenal fan since (1958 ) we didn’t bottle it or lose the
    Title we were never going to win it .
    Arteta has done an amazing job with the players available
    To him and I’m sure he knows exactly where we still need
    Upgrades and we still do need four or five.
    The problem with fans and most utubb Arsenal
    Platform pundits, they start veiwing players through rose
    Coloured glasses, when your winning games sat top of the
    Table. Without naming any one player I would be looking to upgrade both fullbacks plus one new center back
    And two midfielders that’s five. The forward players
    Have excelled and why we sit second in the table with
    Three games to play. Look at the starting eleven nexst
    Season and I don’t think I’ll far off . O money providing
    Perhaps add a new center forward .

  7. Great spirit Ken.Regardless of what happens in the remaining games we have had a very good season for which the players and Management team deserve great credit.As we proved against Newcastle last week we are no longer a soft touch and with 2/3 meaningful additions in the summer window we can look forward to next season with optimism.

    1. Jen Its was the key reason for our slipping up. If he did not get injured then we would have won the title, imo. Look at the evidencefor that opinion; all season with him our defence was doing great . As soon as Holding replaced him, we let in goals galore. MA OUGHT to have got a proper replacement for our top class CB Saliba, far sooner and left buying Kwior til too late and then played him too late too.

      Next key reason was overplaying our key players, esp Saka and seeing them , unsurprisingly, lose form through fatigue.

      Mistakes by MA but made by lack of quality alternatives in a too shallow squad. MA is a top class manager but you can only work with the squad you have and as I have said countless times, Holding, though a great tryer and loyal to a fault, OUGHT to have been let go at least two years ago.
      In fact, he ought never to have been bought, but we all know how AW loved collecting duff CB’S DURING HIS ENTIRE 22 YEARS. Beginning with Senderos and finishing with Mustafi and the ghastly Sokratis!

  8. Whether we have actually fallen short is to be confirmed after the next few games. The author has identified a number of key areas and secondary areas. In my view we need address most of these areas to ensure that we can be competitive across multiple fronts next season.
    I agree that we need to see how Vieira develops and Kiwior will certainly get more playing time. We really need to replace Holding if we can as he has been at Arsenal for some years now and it seems increasingly unlikely that he will reach the levels of the other senior CBs. Elneny, despite his commitment and professionalism will also probably need to be replaced. It’s unlikely that we will seek to move Partey or Tomiyasu both of whom have been key players when fit.

  9. The EL night at Lisbon was a costly and the start of our slump in for.we played extra time and lost on penalties.that night we were supposed to rest some of regulars/starter’s but ended up playing them.on top of that,add injuries to both Saliba and Tomi.in my humble opinion this is also the night that MA lost confidence in most of our fringe players which could explain his reluctance to rotate or make changes after that??to be honest I’m surprised that our players lasted so long without injuries or loss of form.as for next season depending on the departures,I don’t think we’ll need to buy too many players,possibly a new LB,CF,DM,RW,a new back up GK (not convinced by Turner) and a box to box midfielder.lastly,I wish for better squad management,more rotation!!
    Am I asking for too much??

    1. Siamois: That’s quite alot of positions you’ve identified for recruitment.
      For me the ideal situation is to have many versatile players who can double up in various positions. That’s why maybe Rice and Caicedo would be ideal purchases. There are those who believe that Rice will eventually become a CB, but I’m not too convinced about that. Let’s say that he can play in that role if neccessary, it would be useful. Caicedo has not only played MF but also FB/WB. Add to that, Tomiyasu allegedly can play anywhere across the back, and White RB/CB. Kiwior has played LB for Poland recently. On paper that is alot of variety.
      They can all be classified as utility men. I don’t think we should sell Tierney so Arteta should convince him that it’s worth staying.
      I am very optimistic about next season and although there are nagging doubts in the minds of some of our fans, I think the future looks very good. It took me a long time to be convinced of this, but I am now..

      1. I agree we should keep KT,if he stays our defense is sorted.after that 2 midfielders,RW, CF and a new back up GK is not too much if you ask me.like you,I am very optimistic about the near future and it also took me a while before I was convinced,no shame in admitting it,is there??

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