Arsenal and the art of the stupid pass – is that on Arteta?

Frustration springs to mind. Lots and lots of frustration. Buckets of the stuff. Arsenal threw away the perfect start at home to Crystal Palace and proceeded to steal it back in unworthy fashion. Everything in between failed to capture the imagination.

There is one Mohamed Elneny who supporters are universally agreed on shouldn’t be in the team. His penchant for passing every which way other than forward is borderline commendable. Even when it’s the difficult option he’ll move heaven and earth to ensure sideways and backwards reigns supreme.

Even out of the team it appears his influence is rubbing off.

Arsenal were dreadful on Monday against Crystal Palace, and one of the common denominators of the side’s failings was the meekness and baffling decision making in possession.

Arsenal and the art of the stupid pass was on full show against Crystal Palace – but is that on Mikel Arteta and his yearning for perfect football?

Kieran Tierney channeled his inner Elneny with an absurd amount of passes adopting a negative approach, just as the forwards in exciting zones made infuriating one-touch calls. On the occasions where line breaking passes found their way into threatening areas, it almost like some form of robotic programming as the following pass would repeatedly find its way back to the least desirable area of the pitch.

Belief sapped out of the team having gone a goal up, at home, to the side 14th in the Premier League table. In those instances players lose their composure, take too many or too few touches and resort to restricted and contentious calls in the quest for progression.

The question is whether some of the exasperating decisions when receiving a progressive pass were the result of some peculiar loss of confidence, or the result of a manager instructing his players to persist with the holy grail of choreographed construction.

Whether it was Emile Smith Rowe entering phase three and then feeding the ball wide to Nicolas Pepe on the touchline (he jumped to numerous silly conclusions in his choice of pass) or Aubameyang doing likewise when there were runners beyond, it happened constantly.

Seeking for answers, the obvious culprit is the manager. These are players held back by the structural origins imposed on them. Videos and training sessions can put the attacking bodies in the right areas of the pitch to force openings, just as what actions they’re encouraged to take can follow as a result.

It isn’t on Arteta’s head that Smith Rowe didn’t feed Pepe in on goal in the first half, for example, but it is on him to drill passing sequences into his team that don’t assert pressure on an opposition backline.

Stupid decisions in the final third have been plaguing this side for a while. But these are not stupid players. While any individual can make the wrong call once or twice, to see repetition of patterns that ease the foot off the attacking pedal and grant defences time to adjust and set up for turnovers has to fall on the coach.

The passing isn’t crisp and the players have to look at themselves, but at least correct their choices in possession where the end result is more a dangerous arrangement of players who can add personal flair when it’s most urgently needed.

It’s tiresome. And it isn’t getting fixed.