NaijNaira
During their match against Everton, Arsenal were outplayed, with Mikel Arteta noting his side had difficulty controlling the direct style of play.
In response to this setback, Arteta had plenty of options including new signings Jorginho, Jakub Kiwior, and Leandro Trossard sitting on the bench.
Despite having these tools at his disposal however, he chose not to choose differently than he had when successful before making substitutions with similarly-positioned players such as taking off Thomas Partey for Jorginho and Gabriel Martinelli for Leandro Trossard; or sacrificing more defensively-minded Granit Xhaka for Fabio Vieira in place of Martin Odegaard who has been one of Arsenal’s most creative players.
Ultimately, it is easy to look back and criticize Arteta’s decisions but now that he has a squad that can potentially solve any problems they may face, perhaps if they find themselves stuck again in the remainder of the season he will be more inclined to use it in the future.
The narrative around Arsenal’s title charge has basically been that Eddy Nketiah is the main man, with many suggesting Gabriel Jesus won’t be able to reclaim his spot when he returns from injury.
However, in their match against Everton, the Gunners were lacking movement in attack and Nketiah struggled to unsettle the defence.
On the one occasion he did move away from the central area, he fashioned a chance for Martin Odegaard that unfortunately was miss-kicked.
His overall performance may have been off but it provided a timely reminder of what Jesus’ presence brings to the team – movement off the ball and quality opportunities created.
With defeat still fresh in their minds, Mikel Arteta took an unorthodox approach to lifting spirits among his Arsenal players following Saturday’s match.
His message was filled with love, as he called on the team to come together and overcome any difficulties they face over the course of their Premier League title drive this season.
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it was clear that Arteta was emphasising the importance of unity and camaraderie in overcoming tough times, rather than letting moments like these bring about further losses.
Bouncing back after losses has been an issue for the Gunners in previous seasons but now may be different – Arteta is intent on his team pushing forward from setbacks and going on to fulfil their title ambitions over the coming weeks.
We’ll have to wait until next week’s match against Brentford to see if Arteta’s words have had the desired effect.
