Arsenal 0-0 Everton: Flat Gunners made worse by Arteta’s second half changes

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

I had half expected the first half of yesterday’s game to be the one where we struggled most. Playing just three days after a midweek Champions League game against a side who have had 10 days of rest, it wouldn’t have been a big surprise if we were a bit flat. And we were, but in comparison to what followed after the break, it was almost night and day.

Reflecting on our opportunities to score, it was the ones early on that leave me with regret this morning. After Everton had what was possibly their only shot of the game in the 7th minute, we started to really dominate. Good work from Myles Lewis-Skelly and a nice ball into the box from Mikel Merino provided Martin Odegaard with a good chance, but he skied the ball over the bar. Minutes later the captain showed nice quick feet to fashion a chance for himself from the edge of the box, but with Jordan Pickford rooted to the spot, he dragged the ball wide.

Superb work from Saka around the half-hour mark provided yet another chance for Odegaard, perhaps one he should have done better with, but the Everton defender made a very good block and the ball squirted just over the bar. There were other moments here and there, it wasn’t scintillating by any means, but as a precursor to a second half where we’d play ‘warmed up’, it that makes sense, it’s a story we’ve seen before.

The second period started well, a cross from Odegaard was headed down by Kai Havertz, and Saka’s volley was well saved by Pickford. That was just 2 minutes in, but unfortunately that’s about as good as it got. We struggled to break down a stubborn Everton side, and I think it’s clear now teams who do this to Arsenal have a great chance of frustrating us. I don’t think it’s unique to us, by the way, it’s a game-plan many teams use because it’s effective, but it feels like our Achilles heel now. We don’t have the tools to unlock sides when they do it well.

Finding that balance between Arsenal being really poor yesterday (which we were) and Everton carrying out that game-plan well (which they did), is tricky, but for me at least, it’s much more the former than the latter. We found it impossible to up the pace and intensity of the game, only Saka provided any of that with some bursting runs and beating some men to give us a bit of drive. Beyond that, it was flat. The football equivalent of nursing your punctured car to the garage, listening to that horrible sound of flapping rubber all the way.

I said in yesterday’s preview, I thought the bench might be important for us in this game, because that midweek v freshness dynamic would be at play. As it turned out, we needed it to be, but it really, really wasn’t. If anything, what Mikel Arteta did with his substitutions made us worse. The removals of both Rice and Odegaard just after the hour mark didn’t help. If he had to take Rice off because of injury, fair enough, but his ‘tactical’ decision to put Ethan Nwaneri on for the Norwegian was a bad move. I don’t think Odegaard was at his best yesterday, but he was combining with Saka and we were worse when he went off.

Arteta doesn’t make too many tactical missteps, but this was one. Nwaneri struggled to get into the game, just 10 touches of the ball in 30 minutes or so, and most of them seemed to come straight away before he faded completely. I don’t think his positioning was quite right, but that was something the manager could have addressed from the sideline quite easily. I’m as enthused about him as anyone, but I don’t think Arteta made the right decision with that change. How about trying Odegaard and Nwaneri, and replace the more functional Merino – especially when you need a goal.

When you’re at home, dominating territory and possession, do you need Jorginho and Thomas Partey to trade wall passes on the halfway line? Could we have sacrificed a defender, and shifted temporarily to a back three, to put another attacking player on? Gabriel Jesus came on, dropped way too deep then basically disappeared. Leandro Trossard was no improvement on Gabriel Martinelli who dropped another poor performance against a veteran full-back who he should have tested more. And once more, when we need a goal, there was no sign of Raheem Sterling. Games like this are not uncommon, when you’re a ‘top team’ you have to find a way to win somehow, but if you have a player who is basically unusable on your bench, then you make your life so much harder.

Much like the Fulham game last week, this performance collectively and some of the individual displays, make it so clear that January is now vital for this team. Yes, we could have made more of some early chances, but to huff and puff our way through that second half without really turning the screw on Everton was so disappointing. This isn’t an unfamiliar scenario, and how often have we seen it where in the final 15-20 minutes you build real attacking momentum and everyone asks ‘Why didn’t you play like that from the start?!’

We couldn’t even do that yesterday, and I don’t think it was lack of effort or application, but a lack of something ‘extra’ that this team badly needs. If you want to call it individualism or something else, there’s room for something different, and what we’re seeing the absolute need for at least one addition to the forward line as soon as we can possibly do it. Even with all the caveats about January being a difficult market etc, it can be done if the will and resources are there – and the lack of output from too many of our attacking options should be ringing alarm bells internally.

We get zero from Sterling. Jesus now has 1 goal in his last 33 games for the club. Trossard and Martinelli are having a crap-off right now. Havertz is a player I like but will never be super-prolific, and only Saka has the kind of numbers you need from a player who can help drive you to a title. But you need those numbers from at least one more, and we don’t have that guy who perhaps, could be the difference on a day like yesterday. I saw Josh Kroenke was at the game yesterday, hopefully it’s as obvious to him as everyone else, because there’s only so much time you can hope a player comes good. At some point you have to make the call on them. We have at least two, possibly, three, for whom the bells should toll.

Afterwards, Arteta said:

I’m very disappointed because when you do what we’ve done today against them, you have to win the game, you know. But at the end, this is football, it’s the hardest thing. Those last 20- 25 meters to do what we have to do. Credit to them as well, how they block shots, Jordan Pickford for the saves that he’s made, the way they defend, the desire that they defend with. But honestly, it’s difficult to ask something else to the team. Individually, can we do things a little bit better and deliver more quality and deliver the magic moment? In that case that is necessary, yes, but that’s something that is not easy.

I agree, it’s not easy, but if you continue to try and hammer a nail with a foam hammer, then that’s gonna make it even more difficult. There’s some serious thinking needed about this squad now, the summer window hasn’t done enough to improve us (or even maintain the level), and if we allow January to pass us by, there will be more days like yesterday which leave us frustrated and full of regret.

Till tomorrow.

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