The massive Arsenal conundrum facing Mikel Arteta

Don’t Play Emile Smith Rowe and Nicolas Pepe

The answer to whether it should be Aubameyang, Lacazette or both in the team to face Aston Villa is the former. Both can’t play but you don’t take out a goalscorer from the team who had put in one of the better shifts on the night. It’s a huge conundrum facing Arteta but one that has a solution elsewhere.

Trawling for reasons as to why the drop off occurred roughly 20 minutes in against Palace seems to stem from the way Emile Smith Rowe and Nicolas Pepe combined. The Ivorian would come deep and act almost as a right wing-back, which resulted in Smith Rowe being advanced, but crucially, out on the right.

Martin Odegaard never ventured too far forward from Thomas Partey and the result was a chasm in the No. 10 slot: no centralised passing option in that zone to both bring the wide players closer to goal or for Aubameyang to play off. Lacazette came on and found those spaces, as well as making additional runs into the box.

Smith Rowe is wasted out in the right pocket where he played on Monday and the role of Pepe beside him meant too often he was found wandering into areas of minimal threat. Without an overlapping option Pepe was too far from goal in the first half and when the personnel changed after the break he was too far from a teammate, let alone the goal.

After the break with Albert Sambi Lokonga’s introduction there was an effort to change this with Smith Rowe moving to the left, but by this point the momentum had firmly swung the Eagles’ way and belief was sapped along with composure in possession.

Forward movement was sluggish and always out wide, a systematic issue brought upon by the 4-3-3 shape. While Odegaard effectively played as a central midfielder for large spells, the role of Smith Rowe was not as a No. 10 and instead of a right-sided forward. The connective tissue binding all those elements together was lost. It meant nothing stuck and Palace could watch on at what unfolded in first gear.

There will be games where Lacazette should start. But what he brought to the team can arrive in other formats, such as keeping one of Odegaard or Smith Rowe high and within reach of the other forwards.

Go back to 4-2-3-1. Play players in their best positions. Starting with Aston Villa in the Premier League on Friday.