Arsenal: 3 reasons behind the team’s biggest weakness

Arsenal have come on leaps and bounds in a short space of time. Similarly, nobody truly thought Chelsea would win 13 matches on the spin after they lost 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium to leave them with six points from their opening ten matches.

Surprises come in all shapes and sizes and while Arsenal’s is not on the same scale, few could have predicted an unbeaten run of seven matches in the Premier League for a Gunners side dubbed one of the worst seen in the modern era.

But they have turned it around.

It hasn’t always been pretty. Three 1-0 wins over lowly Norwich, Burnley and Watford didn’t set the pulses racing, while it’s also been very ugly in the form of battling draws away at Brighton and at home to Crystal Palace. Nevertheless, it’s much improved.

Arsenal: 3 reasons behind the team’s biggest weakness of struggling to manage taking a lead in Premier League matches under Mikel Arteta

Still learning every week, Mikel Arteta has mentioned on a number of occasions the age of his fledgling squad. It’s not an excuse on his part since he was the one who went out and signed them, but he has sought to temper emotions as any group this young will have to deal with ups and downs.

Being the youngest team in the entire Premier League is demonstrated in the stats, with nine of the ten youngest starting lineups this season all being selected by Arteta. There are undoubted benefits to come of that, many of which will be more noticeable further down the line, just as there are drawbacks.

Consistency is the standout worry with this group. It’s on the older statesmen in the team to show leadership and help guide the players through some of the tough times just as it is on them to rally them for the occasion.

Yet, everyone in this team suffers from the same problem. It is a bump in the road they are yet to collectively overcome: the reaction when going ahead. Arsenal’s age shows when they take the lead, and they do not know how to react positively. Why so? Well, there are a few reasons as to why that may be.

1. It’s a Coaching Issue

Taking Watford as a most recent and fitting example, upon going in front after 55 minutes something clicked in the side. Starting the second half strongly, both with the counter-pressing and in the way Watford’s wide players were denied space in behind, Arsenal got the lead their performance deserved.

Now how the team reacts to that is, surely, almost entirely a coaching aspect. After all, it’s on the manager to set out how the team plays, whether that be 0-0 or 1-0 having gone ahead as well as behind.

So if the style differs it falls majorly on one man: Arteta.

Tweaks in shape and personnel indicate a shift towards a different approach. If the team begins drifting away from the principles that got them into that position in the first place then it falls on Arteta to restructure them accordingly.

He needs to be instilling methods into the players based on game state and game management. Everyone has seen the improvements made in the team with the fast starts and higher pressing approach, one that is set up well to control counter-attacks and transitions, with the results following suit.

Being the man capable of getting his team to operate in that way, the buck should also stop with him in how the team is set up to handle managing a lead. Watford was not the only example this season where Arsenal have shown fear or too much comfort in their slender advantage.

Coaching plays a massive role in that, tactically and mentally, but there is rarely one solitary reason for why something happens.

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2. The Players Have to Keep on Winning

Much of the blame falls on the manager to get his players acting and thinking in a certain way, but the obvious drawbacks of having a young and mostly inexperienced team playing together for the first time is that they haven’t won a lot of matches yet.

Had there been one or two youthful additions over the summer entering an already established group familiar with winning then the outlook may have been different. But this is six new arrivals banding together with other young players in what is a team unrecognisable from the one that started the season.

Perhaps they just need to keep winning? The importance of confidence in football, and sport in general, can never be understated, but it can be split into two categories: collective and individual.

Individually some of these young players should be bursting with self-belief: there are international regulars, trophy winners, captains and former captains.

However, as a group this team is still bonding and in looking for ways to explain their panicky, sometimes rash decision making when the game is theirs to be controlled could lead back to their relative inexperience as a collective unit and needing to build that confidence up further.

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3. Slowing the Play Down – Ramsdale Going Long

Aaron Ramsdale is near impossible to criticise. But there is something becoming noticeable in his game – only a minor trait, it needs adding – that isn’t solely responsible but is contributing to the frailties shown when taking the lead.

His distribution is otherworldly and unlike anything seen at the Emirates from a goalkeeper other than when Manchester City come to town, but he is also someone who has been playing for some pretty woeful teams of late. Sheffield United and Bournemouth rarely got their noses in front and when they did it was all backs to the wall.

So comfortable playing out from the back, Ramsdale can be guilty of going for the long kick to immediately spring Arsenal into an attack instead of calming things down and maintaining possession.

This is, of course, not all on his shoulders. He is a good example, though, of what Arsenal do wrong when in front. Passing sequences are cut dramatically and the desire to attack with speed only results in the ball coming back at them even quicker. Being patient on the ball will invite the opposition press and Arsenal’s entire style is best suited to when teams come to press them high.

Arsenal are built to play that way. They want teams to press them, so force them to.

Ramsdale can be guilty of rushing things, but others do as well. And who is to blame for that? It’s a combination of both the manager and the players, who need to find a balance in their approach both mentally and tactically to stop showing weakness when in front.