Weak Arsenal bench leaves room for imagination

Prior to the 4-0 thumping at Liverpool it was a fairly straightforward choice on who would make the Arsenal team. A starting lineup that had brought success in recent fixtures was unlikely to see wholesale changes.

The only area of discussion was at left-back, where Mikel Arteta opted to reward Nuno Tavares for his fine displays in place of the injured Kieran Tierney with another start.

Competitive up until the killer second goal, such was the gulf in class that there was little on the Arsenal bench that could have turned the tie. Calls were made, as per usual, for Gabriel Martinelli to come on and make an impact, a change that would have arguably been unfair on the Brazilian who would have been thrust into a game state where his impact would be minimal at best.

And the bench as a whole, while similar to what has been on show all season, left plenty to be desired.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1462718664122290179

Weak Arsenal bench leaves room for imagination as depth of quality in squad laid bare in 4-0 Premier League defeat to Liverpool

In a match where the unavoidable differences in quality and stages of development between the two sides was laid bare, seeing Rob Holding, Mohamed Elneny and Cedric Soares as options left something to the imagination.

It’s very clear that these are players who won’t be having large says in the future of the club, and so while they offered nothing to that particular game, those who will eventually take up those spots will.

This squad building is far from complete even if there have been major strides taken in the past few windows. Everyone is acutely aware that there is still deadwood lurking in the shadows, and Nicolas Pepe, Bernd Leno and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, while not deadwood, are additional players on the bench who may not be here beyond the season.

So while the starting lineup needs more work and has to become more competitive for Arsenal to progress this Premier League season, what can come in future campaigns is more exciting. There are spots on that bench that are there to be filled with players ready to compete for a starting berth, which the many of the current group are not.

While no revelation, using the parallel of seeing where Liverpool are in comparison to Arsenal, it nevertheless acts as an eye-opener and a timely reminder of how much further there is to go on the road to recovery. After all, this was a fully fit squad barring the injury to Granit Xhaka and, of course, Sead Kolasinac, who is firmly in the aforementioned bracket, which can also be said of Xhaka in many ways.

So while dissection takes place on how far away this Arsenal team is from the Liverpool’s of this world, the same can be said of this squad. The bones of a new-look team bursting with youth and developing qualities are there, but everything else holding it together is still in the rebuilding process.

Few sides will ever have a squad brimming where every player is constantly challenging for a first team spot as there will always be different levels of quality, but the drop down at Arsenal remains stark and offers some encouragement moving forward if the right pieces are acquired.

The starting lineup is edging closer to being a regularly reliable group. The squad, however, is still some way off; something everyone knew, but was really hammered home at Anfield.