Arsenal fan Piers Morgan has highlighted the three “big problems” he believes Mikel Arteta is facing, despite the Gunners claiming a narrow win over Wolves on Thursday night.
A first-half goal from Gabriel was enough to see Arteta’s men claim all three points at Molineux, moving above Manchester United and into the top five of the Premier League in the process.
That was despite the visitors also going down to 10 men when Gabriel Martinelli was sent off by referee Michael Oliver, having committed two bookable offences with five seconds.
The victory over Bruno Lage’s men ensured Arsenal ended a dreadful run of five games without a win in all competitions, crashing out of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup in that span.
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Martinelli’s red card was the 15 th time that Arsenal have had a player sent off since Arteta replaced Unai Emery as manager.
It also means that the Gunners have had more players sent off (four) than they have scored goals (two) in the first 41 days of 2022.
It has been a long wait for their second goal of the year, with their last strike coming on New Year’s Day in the defeat to Manchester City.
Both of those trends have been picked up by Morgan, who has now highlighted the problems facing Arteta.
“Excellent rearguard win by 10-man Arsenal. But our lack of a top striker, lack of a real captain/leader, and shocking lack of general team discipline all remain big problems,” Morgan tweeted.
Two of those problems, the lack of a captain and lack of a striker, were not helped by the January departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Aubameyang was allowed to join Barcelona on a free transfer, with Alexandre Lacazette replacing him as captain.
The striker was not replaced after his move to the Nou Camp, with Arteta also admitting he has no answer to his side’s discipline problem.
“I've run out of ideas I think (to stop the red cards). The character, how we dug in, the spirit we showed, I'm really proud of the boys. There was togetherness and unity,” he told BT Sport.
“We put ourselves in trouble with the red card and we had to dig in. Wolves threw seven players up front and it was difficult to maintain a clean sheet but we defended the box extremely well.
“The character, how we dug in, the spirit we showed, I'm really proud of the boys. There was togetherness and unity.
“We need to play with 11 players in the last 16 games and that is key. To win games with 10 men is very unlikely.
“We have to go game by game and there are small margins to win games. We have to keep improving. Our reality is the next game.”
Arteta will hope he can find a solution to their problems in the final 16 games of the season, with Arsenal well in contention for a top four place.
Chelsea ’s participation in the Club World Cup means the Gunners' next league game will not come until a week on Saturday when they host Brentford.
