DEATH SPIRAL
Based on what I’m seeing now, I am starting to doubt that this Arsenal team has the guts to win the Premier League this season. There are many layers to this collapse in our form, but the key takeaway for me is clear: if you can’t beat a team on 9 points down the stretch, you’re probably f*cked.
Load Management
There are a number of areas that really do give me pause - mainly because they are powered by the familiar: Mikel Arteta still doesn’t know how to rotate players and we’re now seeing the ramifications of that with 11 games to go. There’s a graphic doing the rounds that shows how consistently shite we are at the end of seasons.
We’re hearing chatter about the West Ham and Southampton results. We are basically landing where we always land… Arteta goes all-in for every comp, he has key players that are faves and they play every minute, then they start breaking down and dipping in form… and then everyone realises that Arteta is the worst load management operator at the elite level.
Jurrien Timber and Martin Zubimendi are the focus of ire at the moment. They aren’t at their best… because Arteta decided he can’t stand Norgaard and he’s fallen totally out of love with Ben White. Say what you want about both those players, but they’re really good, and it is kind of inexcusable that Arteta can’t even find it in him to give them run-outs against one of the worst Premier League teams of the last 5 years.
I know how the game works. Dead players dip in form. Fans start picking on dead players. Dead players start reading the heat online. This compounds the bad form. When you are at the stage of fatigue + low confidence + ground zero morale… it’s very hard to escape the problem.
But the key here? This is year four of the same issue. Arteta has hidden behind a small squad in the past, but now he has all the tools, players he’s signed off on… and it’s the same problem. He never learns.
Training Issues
Take a moment. Close your eyes (after you read this, you silly goose). Tell me what made you really excited about the Chelsea and Leeds games. Yes, that’s right, Kai Havertz returning to the fold. What did we talk about on here? That Kai was fragile, that it was imperative that we didn’t overload him like we did to Ben White last year. What did Arteta do? They overworked him in games. They beasted him in training. Then rolled him into a game where he got injured.
It is the same every year. When things get hot, Arteta and his team of coaches lean into training, they can’t resist selecting fragile players over and over, when other coaches take their foot off the gas. It is UNFATHOMABLE that Arteta managed to injure Kai Havertz when he was the great hope for our run-in. Now we’re lumped with Viktor Gyokeres, who recorded his 7th game with zero attempts at goal, and his 15th Premier League game of 25 without a shot on target. If you are claiming this problem is anything outside an excruciatingly average player failing… then you are wrong. There is no both sides on this. We just have to give it up. He’s bad.
Captain Meek
I’ll go here and take the arrows on this one. Odegaard has not shown up like a captain this season. Call him Martin Ozil, because what the hell is going on right now? Where is he when we need him? He picked up another one of those ‘injured for one game’ problems for a tough away game after he was picked on by some fans after the Brentford game? Crazy, that. This is a title run-in, the chance to make history, and our captain has played 1000 minutes of football and he’s dipping in and out. I’m not denying he has had problems this season. What is the problem now?
I don’t care how unsophisticated this view is… I need a table-banger captain. I want a guy who will play with one leg. I can’t have someone who steps out of a big away game against cannon fodder, during a title run-in, who can’t be there. It’s not good enough. Tell me a captain at any other club that’d be doing that? You think Declan and Zubi don’t carry pain? You think Salah and VVD didn’t have niggles last season? When you’re looking at the health of a football organization, players that are leaders, ducking games, is a big one. I am not happy with this. Just think about how you feel when your manager ducks out of a tough chat with an irate customer? How can players not be thinking that as they see Martin saunter back in for the game this weekend?
Summer Transfers
Mikel Arteta wanted Andrea Berta because he believed in the magical powers of super agents. If you’ve read this site for the last 10 years, you’ll know that my view has always been that this is a nonsense, but more importantly, Arteta shouldn’t need to test that theory. He literally experienced this under the old football head from Barca and it was diabolical.
The club backed the manager. The manager backed someone who uses a limited set of agents. The result? After 5 years searching for a next-level striker, we end up with one of the worst players in the league in that position. Arteta ignored the scouts of the old regime that said he was average, and signed off on a player who can’t run, can’t trap a ball, can’t turn a defender, can’t create chances for himself… and is so bad, the players don’t pass to him. Arsenal first half against Wigan, quick balls in behind, 4 goals. Gyokeres comes on, no one gives him the ball. Don’t take my word for his qualities, look at how the players who train with him 5 days a week behave around him.
That was Arteta. His choice. That is the way he chose to use the immense power he’s been given at the club. Viktor Gyokeres.
Just think back to the summer… when was the last time you remember Athletic stories about big name agents greasing the wheels of deals? 6 years ago, right after Nico Pepe. ‘He gave up his fee to make it work’, my word, we were had.
Squad Management
You’ve all had a child, they beg for the toy, they kick, they scream, then they don’t play with it.
How I’m feeling about Eze at the moment. The man makes one mistake against Villa and he’s put out in the cold in a way that Gyokeres has not been for far worse atrocities in front of goal. The cold shoulder is something the England man probably hasn’t felt in 5 years. The reaction from the player was pretty bad. Now he’s timid, ineffectual, and nothing like the monster we watched dominate for Palace.
This player was bought last minute, at a premium, when he should have been snapped up in May when he was cheaper. Steve Parish, literally begging for someone to sign him. The only reason we landed him was because Levy was meddling last minute. Why do I mention that? Because I have the feeling Eze was not part of a grand plan. Because Mikel doesn’t fancy him. A £68m creator has been broken so badly, Arteta would rather trial Saka in the 10 role… even after a banger against Wigan.
How does that message in the squad? I don’t know. But these sorts of public statements have a way of not resonating well.
Tactical Weaknesses
Arsenal have two weaknesses right now. Player mentality. We are soft. We can be got at. The word is out on the streets that we’ll panic in the last 20.
Long balls into big man, late on in a game, that bypass everyone, seem to create untold openings. Brentford played that game and Wolves did the same.
We’re in the home stretch, tired, lacking leadership… and small teams are cracking the code.
So what can we do now? I don’t know. It’s going to be tough.
Spurs have a new manager bounce incoming from a manager who has a very fresh team to choose from. You can bet your bottom dollar Spurs will be desperate to frustrate our title campaign and you can guarantee the nerves we’ve seen a lot of lately will be on full display.
Chelsea will smell blood in the water and no team is better at creating a filthy display of football hedonism than David Moyes and his Everton side.
This could be a terrible three games. The only choice is to win. I’m just not sure I’m seeing the raw ingredients for this team in a historic moment to believe we have that in us.
The fear is in. I’ve seen this film before. Arsenal are no longer favorites for the Premier League title. That is shocking.