Arsenal: Arteta and Edu heap pressure on experience

Where Arsenal go from here can only be up. Literally, that’s the only direction. Arsenal are bottom of the Premier League table with no wins and not a goal scored. It will require another 36 matches before they can technically go lower.

Realistically, however, they can certainly sink to lower depths. Norwich are up next on the Premier League table and unless there is substantial change then and in the following matches, someone else will be tasked with the digging their way out of the hole.

Thus, spending £150m on six new players was felt as a necessary step towards trying to avert the damage. Even though, and let’s not kid ourselves, only one of those signings arrived following the events of that 5-0 drubbing.

They’re all also very young. 23 years old or younger. A specific age profile has been identified and acquired and while they’re an exciting crop of young players, supporters are not expected to be basking in their successes this season.

Mikel Arteta and Edu heap pressure on the experienced players at Arsenal with the signings of six players under the age of 23 for £150m

This youth strategy is long-term thinking. It’s a change in strategy long overdue. However, Arteta being under the mounting pressure he is to deliver short term success may have favoured the addition of players who can contribute meaningfully in his time of need.

If his new arrivals are to do so then they will need the aid of the senior players around them in order to prosper. This a risk not only because it asks a lot of those who fall into that bracket, but also because those tasked with doing so have failed to deliver enough to suggest they’re capable.

Is a core of Granit Xhaka, Bernd Leno, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette the calibre of experienced heads who can help nurture these players on the pitch? It’s down to the older members of the squad to instil a degree of confidence and stability that is the platform for new arrivals and younger players alike to flourish.

Seeing how Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe took upon that responsibility themselves last season, history suggests otherwise. Off the pitch the likes of Lacazette are regularly lauded for their maturity and guidance with the same said of Xhaka. On the pitch, the latter losing his head 30 minutes into matches with stupid lunges off the ground doesn’t solidify those claims.

In acquiring a wealth of young talent without additional experience and know-how, Arteta and Edu’s summer strategy has heaped the pressure on the aforementioned group to supplement the exuberance their junior colleagues will provide.

Perhaps it’s exactly what they need. Aubameyang spoke after the most recent Premier League defeat about how it’s on the senior players to ‘show the way’ for the youngsters.

As senior employees of the squad of this football club it’s their influence that can be defining over the course of the campaign. It’s time to step up.