Arsenal & Arteta’s recovery has no time to spare

Emile Smith Rowe Needs Help to Propel Arsenal Up the Table

Far from looking scared or inconsistent, Emile Smith Rowe has been awesome at times this season. He must be accentuated by the rest of his teammates, from the ones previously mentioned, to those like Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey.

The backline, without William Saliba thanks to another loan, and Konstantinos Mavropanos thanks to a loan-buy deal, has gotten another shot in the arm on deadline day with the signature of Bologna’s Japanese defender Takehiro Tomiyasu. With his addition, alongside that of Ben White‘s so recently and Gabriel Magalhaes’s last season, the entire backline of Arsenal has been revamped.

The team still has Kieren Tierney and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, capable of playing either corner or more advanced in the midfield, and with some lucky breaks the entire team could really get into a groove between this first and second international break. It’s a strong team. Stronger than the table dictates.

While no points were able to be taken from the first matches, nine to 12 points should be expected from this second run of games. A match against AFC Wimbledon in the third round of the Carabao Cup will likely be another match where this high-priced Gunners squad takes out their frustrations on far inferior opposition, but they will have to take care of Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates only days later.

Games against Norwich City, Burnley, and Brighton should be victories, although not easy ones at all. All three clubs, especially the Seagulls, are determined outfits that will put up a real fight. Yet Arsenal have not left themselves in a scenario early on in which they can afford to just slide by winning some games here and some there; they will have to win those they are expected to, as well as those they are not expected to at this time. Nothing else will suffice.

If they do not, it could mean, whether fairly or not, the end of Arteta as the boss of Arsenal. They likely moved on from Unai Emery too late and likely will move on from Arteta too quickly; such is life in this post-Wenger Arsenal era. I hope they do not, and I hope they can get this ship sailing straight again so that this ‘Arteta Revolution’ can take shape the way many of us envisioned when he was hired by the club.

For Arsenal to stop this fate, they will have to win some matches, and win them quickly and in succession. Only time will tell, but it will tell us sooner than later.