Arsenal’s fading domestic title challenge is as a result of too much of a risk-free mindset and losing parts of what they were good at, in the eyes of former striker and club legend Thierry Henry.
The Gunners have dropped out of immediate contention at the top of the Premier League after a run of three wins in their last nine, with Mikel Arteta’s side thriving at set-piece situations but otherwise looking short of creativity and goalscoring avenues at times.
Henry pointed out that in comparison to league leaders Liverpool, Arsenal’s style was less impactful in the final third and less capable of finding solutions to the defences in their way, suggesting Arteta had much work on to get the team back to a point where they’d be among the challengers.
“A lot of things need to change in order to win the title. You said the word ‘winning’ the Premier League; when I see Liverpool play, it looks like they’re trying to win it. I see other teams play [and] it looks like ‘let’s not lose it’,” he explained on Sky Sports during a discussion on Arsenal’s attacking plan.
“When I see Liverpool play Fulham with ten men, how can you send five bodies in between lines, other ways of trying to create decoys and opportunities.
“If you’re going to win the league you have to go and grab it and win it. You show the teams attacking on the right [side of the pitch] - we know what Man City did for years, we know what [Mohamed] Salah does. You all know in my time we were attacking on the left. You have to find a solution.”
While Bukayo Saka has excelled once more down that same flank for the Gunners, scoring five and assisting ten in the Premier League so far, productivity has not been as forthcoming from the opposite side of the pitch.
Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli have six goals and three assists between them, with the former often playing a central role earlier in the campaign too.
Henry pointed out that during the peak of Arsenal’s trophy-laden years when he was still on the pitch, his impact down the left was balanced out by Freddie Ljungberg’s movement and goalscoring ability from the right - and says the current team have lost much of what made them unpredictable and difficult to stop in previous campaigns.
“It’s not that one man scores and you win, everybody needs to score and be important and create. Freddie used to make the runs in between lines and score.
“This is what it is. When you want to be champions and find a way, this is what’s happening to Man City right now. People adapt to what you do. What are you going to bring the year after and the year after?
“Set pieces are coming but don’t go away from what you were and what you were creating before.”
