Opinion – Will Arteta be a success if we just sort our defence out?

Life is a competition. In life, we need to earn whatever we get because it won’t be given to us on a platter of Gold. In Football, every team, every player, every supporter, and everybody related with football, all want to be seen and known as serial winners and competitors. When people you compete against in football recognize you as a strong competitor, then you may want to do more in order not to disappoint people.

Before Arsenal went in for Mikel Arteta, many people had blown Arteta’s trumpet! To many people, Arteta was a success waiting to happen; to others, he was ready to step up from being Guardiola’s assistant, to be the main coach of a football team and while to some others, he was the perfect fit for Arsenal. Well, he got the Arsenal job and is doing reasonably well so far. The accolades have been coming in for Mikel. Not a few have been impressed with him. One person who actually believes that with Arteta Arsenal would be competitive again, is no other person than the current Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp.

In a recent story by talksport.com, Jurgen Klopp is reported to believe that Arsenal are not too far from taking the next step under Arteta. Talksport reported Klopp saying: “……..Arsenal, for example, is a team offensively that are still a really good side but defensive organization doesn’t work out yet. The moment they sort that, they make the next step.”

Well said Klopp. Arsenal are truly showing signs of about moving to the next level, but before that happens they have to sort out their defensive issues. It is not a hidden secret that for so many seasons now, Arsenal’s undoing has been their leaky defence. We have bought defenders who were doing well in their club, only for them to come to Arsenal and switch off.

Last season we suffered greatly in games we should have won because our defenders found it hard doing their jobs. Games were lost because of our porous defence. It was based on this that we set a target to get defenders in the summer. We did actually buy a defender but we didn’t address the defensive issues. This season has not been different from the last, defensively. We have conceded a lot of goals and this has weighed negatively on us.

Let us hope that we can get one or two defenders on loan this January to solve our defensive issues and then by summer, we would go all out and spend the money needed to address our defensive issues once and for all. Arteta needs to fulfill the prophesy, but the board needs to help him do that.

We are Arsenal and we are proud.

Sylvester Kwentua.