Arsenal: 3 improvements still to make under Arteta

Arsenal are getting there. Whether one feels it’s taken too long or not is a valid matter of debate but the case is that regardless of that standpoint the manager is here to stay. Mikel Arteta is going nowhere.

Any club that sticks with their boss after the insipid football on show last season and abysmal results that followed is probably going to hold on a little bit longer. Throw £150m worth of new players at the situation and hand him the keys to a manager position and that confirms it.

It would have to get extremely toxic and results would have to plummet to relegation levels for a change to be made. So, fortunately, that isn’t the case.

With it now five games unbeaten in all competitions following the 0-0 draw with Brighton last time out, it might just be time to say a corner is just about being turned. Well, we can at least start murmuring about it, as opposed to shouting it from any rooftops.

Arsenal: 3 improvements still to make under Mikel Arteta as the international break comes following win over Brighton

From day one of the Premier League season to now, there is a different team on show. From the personnel point of view that’s obvious, and having his full complement of players available has had a transformative impact on performances since.

Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City seem a world away, even if the away trip to the south coast was a timely reminder of where this team is.

But this team is far from there. For all the improvements made there are still areas of this team that will require further fine-tuning.

All of which will take time under Arteta. With each midweek spent on the training ground and not overseas is eastern Slovenia, these areas will be meticulously worked on. As the Arsenal train starts getting back on the tracks, there are a couple points to look at.

1. Bring the Goal Difference Back Up

This can be framed in a number of ways: chance creation, chance completion, in game management, team selection. You name it. This could just read ‘score more’.

There are a host of factors involved that will make Arsenal score more goals and the manager needs to be picking and choosing his battles, so to speak.

Kicking the campaign off with goal difference of -9, steps are being made to bring that closer to reasonable figure but whether it’s going for the jugular in matches the side are dominating or selecting a team that can prey on certain weaknesses, it can never be ruled out in the Premier League that positions in the table come down to who has the better goal difference.

Arteta is aware that while results are important, the performances have to merit them in order to be sustainable. A team reliant on fine margins last season can no longer hang its hat the rub of the green.

How Arsenal attack and how frequently they do so will produce goals with the calibre of forwards they have, and Arteta needs to find a way that claws back the handicap they gave themselves early doors.

There is sympathy, however, as so long as the team get into the right areas, something Arteta is improving, it’s down to them to actually kick it in the back of the net. Still, the goal tally has to rise with Brighton changing nothing.

Continued…

2. Stop Using Set Pieces as a Way to Give the Ball Back

It would be partially fair to say that this isn’t Arteta’s job. Nicolas Jover took over from Andreas Georgson as the set piece specialist with his job role fairly self explanatory.

His predecessor mastered the art of making Arsenal harder to score against from dead balls in quite an impressive manner, yet their ineptitude at attacking set pieces was a source of continuous frustration.

Having players in the squad who are rotationally fouled like Bukayo Saka, as annoying as it may be, these then become other opportunities to score. There are other routes to goal, believe it or not. Arsenal might be wise to start using them.

While the argument may be that it’s Jover’s job, Arteta was the man who hired him. It was his appointment just as Georgson was his before. If you can’t do a job then you hire someone who can.

Obviously this isn’t a call for Jover to lose his job as he’s barely been here, but there has got to be a solution found that makes Arsenal more threatening from these situations: Gabriel and Takehiro Tomiyasu are two players who can be dangerous in the penalty area.

Even if it means a few extra set piece and corner drills on the training pitch, something needs to done.

Continued…

3. Find a Plan B

What happens if Arsenal don’t score the perfect goal at the 20th attempt? What if the opponent is shutting the team down so effectively that whatever is thrown at them comes straight back?

Do you just….bring on Alexandre Lacazette? That isn’t a Plan B. There wasn’t a way through at Brighon

What Arsenal do have is different profiles of forwards for each position. If Emile Smith Rowe comes off then Gabriel Martinelli offers an entirely more chaotic and direct approach, with the same going to Nicolas Pepe on the right. These are options, but not Plan B’s as such.

Tactically there doesn’t appear to be such an avenue. It’s plain to see in the way Arsenal are yet to win a fixture under Arteta in which they’ve been trailing at half-time, as the emphasis on ‘walking it in the net’ has never rang truer.

Whether it’s ugly or not, and that doesn’t include Tierney whipping crosses in for nobody to header, this is one part of Arteta’s reign he’s yet to nail down.

It’s worked in a defensive sense, as switching to a back three won silverware, yet from an attacking point of view there are still holes to pick once the one-way attacking philosophy runs dry. Either getting back into games or seeking a late winner, it can’t always be in the pretty, choreographed manner and as saw against Brighton, when something isn’t working Arsenal struggle to navigate around it.