Defensive woes continue
With an awareness of what’s on the line, Mikel Arteta was careful not to dig his players out too much after the full time whistle. His assessment of why his side had dropped points for a third successive match though was pretty damning.
“We have to look in the mirror,” the Spaniard said. “We gave three easy goals away again. When that’s the case it’s really difficult to win this league.”
The defence has been a real issue for Arsenal recently. People will point to the absence of William Saliba for that, but Rob Holding is not the reason they conceded three on Friday night. This is an issue that stretches back a long time now.
READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on Arsenal's defence, Man City doubt, title race and Martinelli
In the first three games of 2023, Arsenal managed to keep three clean sheets. In their next 17 matches, they have managed the same amount. The goals conceded statistics since the World Cup do not make for pretty reading either. The Gunners are conceding an average 0.5 goals per game more since Boxing Day, and this is a real problem. Moments like Eddie Nketiah’s winner against Manchester United, Reiss Nelson’s strike against Bournemouth or Jorignho’s late effort against Aston Villa are great, but they’re impossible to replicate across an entire season. As we saw on Friday night, if you’re too porous at the back, then eventually you will leave your attackers with too big a mountain to climb.
Arteta didn’t seem to be in the mood to be quizzed on his side’s record after the match, but did begrudgingly concede that individual errors had been to blame against Southampton. When you stretch it back across the post-World Cup period though there are trends that emerge.
A big one is set pieces. Arsenal conceded five goals from set pieces prior to the World Cup and have now let in nine since then. What was an area of real strength is now a vulnerability as Duje Caleta-Car’s goal on Friday showed. The Gunners are also scoring later in matches than they were earlier in the season where fast starts were common. This desperation to pile forward leaves them vulnerable at the back as we saw with Jarod Bowen’s goal last week and Theo Walcott’s strike on Friday.
Coming up against one of the most formidable offensive units in football history, Arteta must somehow find a solution to this trend at London Colney. People have suggested moving Thomas Partey to right back and shifting Ben White infield, or even throwing Reuell Walters in. But if we’re being realistic there’s little chance of something totally out of the blue being tried with this much on the line. It’s hard to see Arteta making any changes in personnel for City, so the defensive improvements will have to come from those already on the pitch.
Vieira wastes chance
Patrick Vieira was in the stands on Friday night His namesake may as well have been there with him.
With Granit Xhaka out ill, this was Fabio Vieira’s chance to come into the side and stake his claim. A home match against the worst side in the Premier League this season felt like it was the perfect set-up for a player like him, but it wasn’t to be.
Of course, the hectic nature of the game did not help. Just as when he came into the starting XI against Bournemouth, Vieira saw his side go a goal down in the opening minute, totally changing the course of the match. It was this that Arteta pointed to when explaining his anonymous display.
“Fabio he hasn’t had enough minutes,” the Spaniard said. “He had good periods but as well when the game starts at 1 or 2-0 and things don’t go your way it becomes more difficult. That doesn’t help.”
Still though it’s moments like this that the big players live for. Vieira may be young and adapting to a new league, but even if the Emirates turf had been covered in snow he would barely have left a footprint.
The 22-year-old looked totally devoid of confidence which translated into a lack of conviction in the final third. One occasion that particularly stood out was when the ball fell to the Portuguese midfielder on the edge of the box, only for him to take a touch and curl a weak effort wide.
Of course there are mitigating circumstance. Arteta is right that he hasn’t played enough minutes to get a rhythm, but Vieira surely would have been expecting this. Coming into a club where you are vying for a starting spot with the captain and vice captain, opportunities are going to be few and far between. This is where Vieira needs to find a way of seizing them just as Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah have done this season, or Mohamed Elneny did last year. Arsenal will hope that Xhaka is fully recovered for City, but if he’s not it’s hard to see how Leandro Trossard doesn’t start in midfield instead after the impact the Belgian had off the bench. This may seem harsh, but if Arsenal want to claim the big prizes then they cannot be carrying passengers in crucial matches.
Arsenal out of character again
The Emirates had been cacophonous for 106 minutes. At full time on Friday night, it fell silent. Both sets of players collapsed to the floor. You could hear the drip from the stadium’s leaky roof, as the seemingly stunned stadium announcer forgot to play any sort of anaemic upbeat song to provide a mild tonic to the disappointment. Eventually Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody wants to rule the world’ was meekly piped through the speakers. As the Arsenal players trudged off they knew they may have blown their chance to do exactly that.
It's not so much that the Gunners have stumbled in the title race. It’s the way they’ve done it. As many surveyed the run in, it was games at Anfield, the Etihad and St. James’ Park that caused people to suck air through their teeth like a mechanic diagnosing a car fault. Southampton at home was supposed to be a banker. From 30 seconds in, it was clear that wasn’t going to be the case.
The consistency of this Arsenal side given their young age has probably been the most remarkable thing about them. On Friday night though it deserted them. Aaron Ramsdale, usually so accomplished when playing out from the back, inexplicably gave the ball away on the edge of the box to allow Carlos Alcaraz to capitalise. At a stoppage in play Mikel Arteta pulled his keeper aside and began slapping him on the chest to get him going again, but it was to no avail. The pressure was clearly getting to his side.
The uncharacteristic mistakes then began to spread. Not long after Martin Odegaard – probably the most technically secure player in this Arsenal squad – misplaced a simple pass in the middle of the pitch. The error was then compounded by Gabriel – arguably the best centre back in the Premier League this season – totally losing track of Theo Walcott to allow the Saints a second.
Gabriel Martinelli’s goal seemed to provide some hope, but Arsenal never looked themselves. The Gunners have been offensively supreme this season but with a title on the line their offensive principles deserted them. They failed to muster a significant attacking chance in the second half and instead of waking them up to what was at stake, Duje Caleta-Car’s header seemed to only send them further into a slumber.
Martin Odegaard’s late effort revived some hope, and as Bukayo Saka poked home the equaliser on the stroke of the 90th minute, it felt like another Bournemouth moment could be on the cards. But just as Reiss Nelson’s strike will be a ‘where were you when’ moment for Arsenal fans, Simon Hooper’s full time whistle may be a time they look back on to ask what were you doing when the best shot at a title in nearly 20 years fell away.
It is of course not over, and unsurprisingly Mikel Arteta wanted to focus on that after the game. “At the end, it’s tough because you see them on the floor, you have to leave them,” the Spaniard said in his post-match press conference. “Everybody has to disconnect tonight, digest and start to think ‘what’s the best way to go to Manchester to beat them’?”
The title is still technically in Arsenal’s hands. If they go to the Etihad and win who knows what the mood could be. But the way City are playing right now, this title race feels like a cheetah chasing down a wounded gazelle. Arsenal are on a run of doing things out of character though. If they can continue that at a ground where they haven’t won in eight years on Wednesday night, then maybe they can use their new trait to their advantage.
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