In-depth Analysis of Arsenal’s season so far – Where did we go wrong?

An Analysis of Arsenal’s 2020-2021 Season so far by Leke Osmani

Arsenal. 2020-2021. Prior to the Premier League matches of April 5^th, we’re in 10^th place in the league. Out of the FA Cup. Out of the EFL Cup. Winners of the Community Shield. In the Quarter-Finals of the Europa League. It’s nothing to write home about and it’s got every Arsenal fan cursing with every breath they take; some even have nightmares of this season. This article will analyse this season and try to see what went wrong, where it went wrong and why it went wrong. You may be thinking it’s already gone wrong what do we do now. Well, we can analyse and make an informed decision of how to approach matters better in the future. We can learn Arsenal fans. We can learn. This is a process after all and we might as well understand the bad side of it as well.

We’re going to look at transfers during the summer and during the winter. We’re going to look at how matches went during each month. We’re going to analyse and see what went wrong and where. Grab a stress ball because we’re going to relive some bad moments from this season, that much I can guarantee.

September

Let’s start with September. First let’s look at the transfers for the first team only.

Let’s look at the Transfers Out first.

Martinez:

Martinez was sold. Martinez spoke yesterday that he wanted to leave the club and that Arteta allowed him to do so. You cannot keep a player that does not want to stay.

Torreira:

Torreira did not fit into Arteta’s plans and was allowed to leave for a season to also free up space for Partey to come into the team.

Guendouzi:

Guendouzi was sent out on loan due to a lack of discipline and this sent a strong message to the rest of the team regarding Arteta’s authority.

Mhkitaryan:

Mhkitaryan had his contract terminated by Arsenal. This was done as he was not performing to his previous Premier League standards and the club decided to terminate his contract to free up the wage bill.

Let’s now look at the Transfers In:

Willian:

Willian was brought in to help provide competition for places in the attacking roles. He also brings experience to a youthful Arsenal side.

Gabriel:

Gabriel was brought in to become a starting centerback for Arsenal and he has done just that. He has a good, determined personality as well.

Ceballos:

Ceballos was retained for another season to provide competition for places in the center of the park. He is also a determined individual.

Runarsson:

Runarsson was brought in to be a backup for Leno. He has not done well at all in that regard.

Partey:

Partey was brought in as a statement of intent to help toughen up the midfield. He is also a strong character that gives his all in each performance. He also has experience to add to this youthful Arsenal side.

Elneny:

Elneny cam back from loan and has provided competition for places in midfield. He is also a determined individual.

Saliba:

Saliba was brought back to provide competition for places in the heart of defence. He is an exciting youth prospect who has much more to offer.

All in all, it can be argued that not enough players were discarded in the summer. The players that were retained and were bought all have a determined nature to them or are exciting young players. Only two can be considered to be first-team starters: Gabriel and Partey. They have proven to be good additions. The downfall of this window is that the squad become too big. With Ozil and Sokratis not being included in the squads for the Premier League or for the Europa League. This must of created a very tense and awkward situation for Arteta and the registered members of the squad to deal with day in and day out.

Now let us look at the Matches for September (the Community Shield Final will be included here).

We got 4 wins out of 5 for September. Losing 3-1 to Liverpool. Strangely enough we have beaten three top half sides and lost once to a top 6 side. We lost one Premier League match right after a win in a cup competition.

October:

Let’s look at the matches for October and see what they have to say for how we progressed.

We got 4 wins out of 6 for October. We beat one top 6 side and the bottom placed team. We lost two matches to top 3 sides. We lost two Premier League matches after a win each in a cup competition prior.

November:

Let’s look at the matches for November and see how we fared.

We won 3 out of 6 matches. We beat one top 2 side. Lost to a top 3 side and bottom half side. We drew against a bottom half side. We also beat all sides in the Europa League we faced. We lost a Premier League match and a drew a Premier League match right after a win in a cup competition and then lost another Premier League match after a cup competition win.

September-October-November Recap:

We managed to win 11 games. We drew in one game. We lost 5 games. We won 11 out of 17 games. That’s not the best start to the season. Interestingly enough, we managed to lose 4 Premier League games right after having won a Cup Competition game. We also drew 1 Premier League match after having won a Cup Competition game. That means that 5 Premier League games were not won after having won a Cup Competition prior to those matches.

December:

Let’s now look at how we fared in December.

We managed to win 4 out of 9 games. We beat one top 4 side and one bottom half side. We drew against a bottom half side. We lost to the league leaders, 2 top 8 sides and to a bottom half side. We also won all our Europa League matches and lost our EFL Cup match. We have the usual pattern of losing 3 Premier League matches and drawing 1 Premier League match after a Europa League win. Interestingly enough, after our EFL Cup loss we managed to win two Premier League matches. It seems that winning in one competition enforces our efforts in that competition and losing in one competition enforces our efforts towards other competitions. We seem to not have a focus on winning a particular competition other than the Europa League. The EFL Cup loss must have shocked the team into wanting to win in the Premier League so that they regain confidence for the Europa League.

January:

Let’s take a look at January.

We managed to win 4 out of 6 games. We won against four bottom half sides. We drew against a top 2 side and a bottom half side. Interestingly enough, the EFL Cup from December still had an effect as Arsenal went on a winning streak and even won two games after the FA Cup win. We did also draw a game after the FA Cup win. This is the second time this has happened the whole season since the Community Shield win against Liverpool.

This is a good time to look at the Winter Transfer period.

Let’s look at the Transfers Out first.

Saliba:

Saliba was sent out on loan as Arteta did not deem him ready for the Premier League.

Kolasinac:

Kolasinac was sent out on loan to decrease the number of players in the squad.

Macey:

Macey was allowed to leave on a Free Transfer. This was done as he was not deemed good enough to play for the First Team.

Sokratis:

Sokratis had his contract mutually terminated. This was done as he was not registered and to decrease the number of players in the squad.

Ozil:

Ozil was released from his contract. This was done as he was not registered and to decrease the number of players in the squad.

Willock:

Willock was sent out on loan. This was done for Willock to get more playing time and to decrease the number of players in the squad.

Mustafi:

Mustafi terminated his contract with Arsenal. This was done to decrease the number of players in the squad.

Maitland-Niles:

Maitland-Niles was sent out on loan. This was done as he needed more game time and he was consistently unhappy with his playing position. This also decreased the number of players in the squad.

Now let us look at the Transfers In:

Ryan:

Ryan was brought in on loan to provide competition to Leno and to be his backup.

Odegaard:

Odegaard was brought in on loan to provide that creative spark in attack. He has done that exceptionally well.

In total, 8 players left Arsenal and 2 joined. The team is now 6 players smaller and much easier for Arteta to manage. The letting go of Sokratis and Ozil also meant that they were then able to play football again. The release of Ozil also eased media pressure on Ozil and Arteta regarding his future. The bringing in of Odegaard has also increased Arsenal’s attacking potency.

February:

Now let’s look at February.

We managed to win 3 out of 7 games. We drew 1 game. We lost 3 games. We won against a top 4 side and a bottom half side. We lost against the league leaders, a top half side and a bottom half side. We drew a Europa League game and won a Europa League game. We lost two games in a row right after our draw in January with Manchester United. We then won a game prior to a Europa League match. We lost a Premier League match after a Europa League draw. We then won the return fixture of our Europa league matches. We then strangely enough for the second time this season won a Premier League match after a Europe League win. We seem to come alive in the Europa League matches and decline prior to the Europa League matches and after. Bar the win against Leicester City. This begins to make one think, have we been after Europa League success since the beginning of the 2020-2021 season?

March:

Let us look at March and our only match in April.

We managed to win 2 games out of 6. We drew 2 games. We lost 2 games. We won against a top 6 side. We drew against two top half sides. We lost against a top 6 side. We did something different this month from every month prior. We won a Premier League after a Europa League win. We managed to do this against Tottenham Hotspur. We did this, I believe, strictly from desire. Desire to be better than Tottenham Hotspur. We have only seen this desire prior to this game in Europe League Matches. We then lost a Europa League match, drew a Premier League game and lost a Premier League game. This is much more like Arsenal this season. Failing for consistency after having won a game they deem important.

December-January-February-March Recap:

We won 12 games. We drew 5 games. We lost 9 games. We won 12 out of 26 games. Let’s look at how we fared right after a Cup Competition game. We won 3 games after a Cup Competition win. We drew 3 games after a Cup Competition game. We lost 4 games after a Cup Competition win.

Full Season Review:

We have not lived up to scratch in the Premier League. We have won 12 games and lost 12 games in the Premier League, and we have drawn 6 games. We have 12 wins out of 30 games. Prior to the second period, we lost one game more than we won. In the second period, we won one more game than we lost. That is not a great improvement but it is an improvement. Statistically speaking we have remained the same in terms of win percentage in the Premier League.

This is certainly not top four potential and we are way below the mark necessary to compete for Europe.

In the Cup Competitions we have managed to perform very well. We have won 12 games, drawn 1 and lost 2. This is a definite improvement from our Premier League form. In the first period we won 7 games out of 7. In the second period, we won 5 games, drew 1 game and lost 2 games. Statistically speaking we declined but the quality of the sides increases as the Cup Competitions progress.

Results could suggest that we are gunning for the Europa League. This could also suggest that we were never really trying to get into the top four places since the beginning of the season but rather focusing on the Cup Competitions.

Let us know what you think of our season so far and whether we are in it for the Europa League!

As always COYG!