Arsenal: 4 vital transfers to complete before deadline

Arsenal's Spanish manager Mikel Arteta (L) gestures from the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Brentford and Arsenal at Brentford Community Stadium in London on August 13, 2021. - - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images) /

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LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 12: Martin Odegaard of Arsenal reeves his shirt during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on May 12, 2021 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images) /

3. Attacking Midfielder to Change the Dynamic

What else is there to say? Arsenal had 22 shots to Brentford’s eight and recorded a 1.14 xG to the Bees’ 1.59.

Having begged this team to shoot more, there is a glaring difference between taking a high volume of low quality shots and taking a low volume of high quality shots. Arsenal do the former.

And if they are to have any joy it will come via the feet of Emile Smith Rowe or Kieran Tierney. Desperately left-side heavy, the predictability of play was so frightfully pre-scripted that the game needn’t have been watched. It could have been mapped out in advance.

Martin Odegaard, who looks on course to join, operates most in the right half-spaces and him being in the team at the very least adds variety. The Norwegian is someone who can pick a pass out centrally and spares the burden of touchline bursts from Tierney and Smith Rowe collecting the ball on the half-turn and driving with possession.

Those two avenues are all Arsenal have.

Everyone knows that having one facilitator in the forward line won’t suffice. There weren’t any for six months of last season and we all know how that panned out.

Smith Rowe can only do so much. Sign the creative midfielder, and quickly, or suffer the same consequences.

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