Has Arsenal’s blistering start to the season made Arteta’s job harder?
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have started the new season with nine wins from their 10 Premier League outings, but does that make it easier or harder to for the boss to do his job?
With a gruelling 38-game league campaign to cope with, on the back of challenging to win the Europa League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup, Arteta will rightly be considering ways to rotate his squad, and at present, we have largely used our European exploits to give minutes to the extended squad.
While we have made wholesale changes to the line-up on Thursday nights, you could argue that the manager has still not rotated enough, and with the World Cup set to disrupt this season like no other, it is difficult to gauge the best plan of action to deal with the upcoming obstacles.
One thing we have always been punished by in previous seasons is injuries, and while we have already seen Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney missing this term, we have more than managed to come through fixtures unscathed. While others have stepped up when needed, you could argue that the manager could have a bit of wiggle room to rotate a little more than he has, but it would be wholly predictable to name Arteta’s XI for any game if we know who is and isn’t fit.
While we sit at the top of the table, we become a target, and many teams will change up their game. While teams will have previously come out to beat us, now more and more teams will instead opt to try and stop us, and try to play out a draw. By failing to rotate at all, we leave ourselves susceptible to becoming a little predictable, never mind fatigued, and we could well come unstuck, and that is without the added worry of losing a key player to injury due to overuse…
Do you believe that Arteta’s job is easier now because his team does more or less pick itself? Or does it open the door for complacency and actually make it more difficult to tinker with the side?
Patrick
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