BRAVERY COULD DETERMINE THE TITLE FINISH THIS SEASON AND ARTETA & ARSENAL MUST SHOW IT.
Arsenal have finally restored a purposeful range of 5 points on their closest rivals to the title, Manchester City with 12 games to go.
Wins against Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Everton have restored the belief around the Emirates stadium and around the world for Arsenal fans.
But it hasn’t always been this way. The Arsenal is just withering a huge storm that threatened their most promising push for another title 20 years down the line.
Arsenal’s first loss of the season was on September 4th 2022 against Manchester United away, where they lost 3-1. During the match Arsenal had scored the first goal through Martinelli which was ruled out. However, a report in December 2022 on VAR’s 48 interventions that far, cited that goal as one of the six that had been wrongly called. There is no telling how the match would have turned out if the goal had stood, but Arsenal gave a good account of themselves in that match and the result looked harsh.
While opposing fans were quick to predict the “usual collapse” of Arsenal’s title challenge, Arsenal were back in business showing the loss was just a blip, beating Brentford, Tottenham, Liverpool and Leeds to silence the naysayers. Arsenal was to lose two crucial points to Southampton, but were back to winning ways, quickly beating Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.
Then, Arsenal was knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Brighton and suddenly it looked like the predicted collapse was about to set in. However, Arsenal was to beat Wolves away 0-2 to cool nerves before the World Cup break.
The 2022 World Cup Qatar was so unusual, coming in mid-season, and there was no telling what the effects would be to Arsenal’s trophy challenge. The doomsayers predicted it would be calamitous as Arsenal lost one of their star performers – Gabriel Jesus to injury. The saving grace was that there was the January transfer window and Arsenal could sign replacements.
Yet, again, it looked like Arsenal had gotten the short end of the stick during the transfer deals, suffering loss of hot pursuits in not just one but three occasions. There was their earlier pursuit for Joao Felix, on a half season loan, which Chelsea were to win; Then Arsenal looked to have won the pursuit of Mykhaylo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea struck again, stealing the deal on the nick. Arsenal also pursued Moises Caicedo from Brighton so much so that it looked like this time it would be different but Caicedo would eventually remain at Brighton. Arsenal However signed Leandro Trossard from Brighton, Jorginho from Chelsea and Jakub Kiwior from Spenzia.
In December, after the World Cup, Arsenal seemed to have continued where they left off and beat West Ham and Brighton before the year turned. January 2023 was billed as Arsenal’s January by naysayers to mean that this is when Arsenal suffers.
And they had a run of matches that looked to confirm this premise as Arsenal would face a resurgent Newcastle, Tottenham, Manchester United and Manchester City in the FA Cup. Arsenal drew with Newcasttle, won all the rest of the games and lost narrowly to Manchester City.
Then came February where Arsenal lost to Everton, drew with Brentford, and lost at home to their main title rivals and defending champions – Manchester City. Suddenly it was looking like the wheels were coming off and the title challenge was going to be exited.
But somehow, Arsenal found the will power to win again and have gone on a 4-match victory coming from behind to beat Aston Villa 4-2, executing a tough protection of a slim lead against Leicester and surviving a defensive masterclass in the first-half against Everton to emphatically seal a revenge victory of 4-0, and of course the amazing comeback win against Bournemouth.
Already, Trossard and Jorginho have made their contributions into the title race. Trossard has weighed in with a goal and two assists and Jorginho has helped in replacing Partey, as well as helping himself to a goal to the good and turning the tide in the Aston Villa match.
It looks like the title race will go to the wire and April will be big. Arsenal must be ready to finish the title race on a high. Arsenal must negotiate successfully past Fulham and Crystal Palace in March for the Premier League. March also has the two clashes with Sporting Lisbon for the Europa League to complicate matters.
Then comes April, with Leeds United, a resurging Liverpool away, West Ham away, Southampton, Manchester City away and Chelsea. There will be the small matter of Europa League quarter finals if Arsenal goes past Sporting Lisbon.
A big April will require Arsenal to get results away, in some of the grounds Arsenal have recently faltered. So far Arteta has deployed the same pattern of play in 4.3.3, and used almost the same players. Arsenal has an almost predictable line-up which makes it easy to plan a play against them.
Maybe it is time for Mikel Arteta to play some of these games with a 3-man defense to tighten the midfield. This is especially so with Arsenal now in possession of players like Emile Smith Rowe, and potentially Gabriel Jesus both returning from injury, and the likes of Jorginho, Trossard and Zinchenko who can execute powerful wingback roles to perfection plus the likes of Xhaka who can support the defense when needed,
I think Arteta should start drilling such game variations to prepare in time.
I would personally love to see Gabriel Jesus on the Front line, Martinelli on a free role supporting all the attacking departments, Saka on the right, Odegaard attacking, Trossard on the left wing, Partey and Xhaka in the centre and with Xhaka on extra role to defend the spaces at the back, then in defence Saliba on the right, Gabriel in the centre and Tierney in the left back.
It would be a brave lineup. In the second half, he can remove Martinelli, bring in ESR to continue the overload in attacking spaces and bring in Zenchenko to offer even more overload all over the pitch where needed.
It’s a variation that I feel if we had started with against Manchester City, we should have seen a different result. It’s a courageous line-up but a variation that can spring a surprise or two in the tough grounds of Anfield and the Etihad. Imagine if Arsenal won in both these grounds in April?
It is what Arsenal must be ready to execute to deliver on the promise this season has been.
Nikko Gunners