Well, technically 2 points since we got one for the goal-less fight against Burnley but those 2 points couldn’t have been any more important. In a fight for top 4, when half of the season is over and 4-7th position teams are all in the fight, every point matter! For the men in red and white, beating a relegation battling Burnley at home shouldn’t be difficult otherwise. I’ve been critical of Arteta recently but before I go there, lets talk about the match and individual performances.
We didn’t have any strategies other than Tierney’s crosses in the box. This is not a bad strategy if you have someone who can head these balls in the net but that’s not something to expect from Lacazette. The sideway and back passing is boring and we showed zero intent to move the ball from the center.
Lokonga looked like an U23 player who needs couple of season before he can be integrated in the team. Odegaard played well, I must say he is proving me wrong and he is living up to the expectation. In the front 3, Martinelli is brilliant but someone needs to sit with him and tell him not to beat 3 defenders on his own. If you are 2-0 up, sure, show your individual brilliance but I did notice couple times where he lost the ball trying to do something on his own rather than passing to Odegaard. ESR, except couple of runs was average and Saka just looked predictable.
In the post match interview, Arteta highlighted that he would need new signings to challenge top 4.
on if we need new signings to challenge for the top four…
It’s what we planned, but the market is difficult, it’s complicated. We knew that, but it’s a lot to manage and we have to make the right decisions with players that we believe are going to really help us and try to bring in ones that can take us to the next level.
source: arsenal.com
I agree, we need a midfield to partner with Partey and a center forward who can score goals. Though Laca has been more than good recently, we need a 20+ goals a season striker. That’s two of the priority signings we need. However, group of players we have should be enough to get us Champions League! Every other teams are struggling and dropping points except Pool and City.
Coming to midfield – did no one think that keeping AMN could be beneficial? Edu/Mikel decided not to loan him in the summer, then gave him zero game time only to send him on loan in January when Partey and Elneny were off to Afcon. This is before we brought someone! Add to the list Xhaka and Partey’s red card and we were out playing a combination of Lokonga and Odegaard with a depleted bench. Even Willock would have been a decent cover but then we sold him in the summer! We even sent Torreira on loan and Mikel decided that Guendouzi will never play for Arsenal again. It was poor planning.
Frankly, we have just 2 mid who are good enough to play – Partey and Xhaka. And I’m not really a fan of Xhaka. We should have strengthen our midfield in the summer instead of spending a 50m on a CB when we had enough cover in Holding and Saliba. If you decide to loan Torreira, Guendouzi, AMN and sell Willock, why are you buying a CB? What’s with all this defending when you can’t score a goal!
Scoring goal is another challenge that has popped up. Auba looks done and Laca is not the answer. Eddie could have been the stop gap but we will never know since he never starts a game and gets a 10min cameo appearance. Another poor planning! Why was he not given more game time + why Martinelli has not been tried as an option? We sure have enough cover for the left Wing.
Race for top 4 is complicated now for us. We are sitting in 6th position equaling Spurs in points with a game in hand for them.
One positive thing for us is that we have some easier upcoming games. I’m not sure though if I should call them ‘easy’ if we can’t beat Burnley at home but anyways.
We have to play Wolves (A), Brentford (H), Watford (A), Leicester (H), Aston Villa (A), Crystal Palace (A), Brighton (H), Southampton (A). These are all easy fixtures and we should target 20 out of 24 available points. Next two games are the toughest ones for this season. We then play against Man United (H) and West Ham (A). I’m not expecting much in these two games. Last three games are again easy ones – Leeds (H), New Castle (A), Everton (H) where we should grab at least 7 points.
There are 4 other games for which date will be confirmed – Liverpool (H), Wolves (H), Chelsea (A), Tottenham (A). These are tough fixtures bar Wolves but of course we expect a win against Spurs – 6 points to earn here.
If we managed to play some good football and win easy matches, we should be able to get another 33 points. 69 points at the end of the season could get us the Champions League spot. We don’t have any distractions in Carabao / FA Cup and players will have enough rest before next match.
A top 4 finish should be must for Arteta. He was an integral part of all these decisions and should be made liable to the outcome. I will stay away from the ArtetaOut wagon (for now), lets judge him at the end of the season.
Right, enough for today – see you in the comments.
Guen was hot headed. Torreira wanted to go home. Willock is not doing anything great at New Castle.
I agree with Saliba one.
I’d say both Guen and Willock couldn’t have done worse than Lokonga. Guen was a bad move – both talent and money wise. Not only we let go a player who was starting matches at 19 years of age, we also made sure to kill his sale value. Very poor IMO.