Arsenal: Mikel Arteta has opportunity to be ruthless

While lacking in elite quality, the Arsenal squad is relatively deep and varied. During the second half of the season, this gives Mikel Arteta the chance to be ruthless as he shapes what will be the future of his team.

The Arsenal squad is not at its greatest level. It hasn’t been for many years. But while the downwards trajectory of the season suggests there are more troubles than reasons for hope, dig beneath the surface and there is a collection of players to both work with and compete against one another.

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Where the personnel really struggles is in its lack of elite quality. Put simply, there isn’t. Perhaps only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bernd Leno could make a claim to be a top-three player at their respective positions in the Premier League. But while the top-end talent is not quite there yet, the depth and variety is.

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This is what head coach Mikel Arteta can use to his advantage. The new Arsenal manager has the remainder of the season to further form his plans for the team moving forward and begin to understand what his players are and are not capable of, thus helping to structure the moves that must be made in the looming summer transfer window, the first of Arteta’s tenure. The next few months, then, is a formulation period for Arteta and his squad.

And this is where that depth really comes in handy. While Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette are the starting centre-forwards, Eddie Nketiah has now returned and is raring for starts; where Nicolas Pepe is struggling to bed in on the flank, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka are both flourishing, with Reiss Nelson returning from injury, too. And they are just the attacking options.

Assuming Mesut Ozil, Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira are the current starting central midfielders, Arteta has the improving and talented trio of Matteo Guendouzi, Dani Ceballos and Joe Willock to turn to should the starters fail to perform as demanded.

And even at the back, where Arsenal have been so drastically poor for so many years, Arteta still has plenty of options to use, including Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sead Kolasinac, Cedric, Rob Holding and Pablo Mari, all of which would not be considered starters when every player is fit and available.

This is not to laud the squad that Arteta has to use. There are some serious issues with it and significant spending is required if the club is to ever challenge for a top-four place and more in the coming years. But there is serious competition at almost every single position in the team, and that provides Arteta with the chance to pit his players against one another, to demand the best of them, and to make ruthless decisions when they do not perform as required.

Arteta has inner-squad competition. And as he continues to form his ideas about the players he has and the team that they may one day make up, that is something that he would be wise to lean on and explot. He has the opportunity to be ruthless.