Arsenal attacking issues laid bare by key absence

What were the expectations before these previous two fixtures? Arsenal supporters had six points in their sights against two poor sides. Four would have been acceptable, even three wouldn’t have gone amiss, and instead Manchester United and Everton left them penniless.

Losing at Goodison Park in the manner that the team did hurt badly. It was a lifeless and abject performance. Near enough every aspect of the display was turgid.

As a result, the knives are out for Mikel Arteta. Nobody can blame someone for at least sharpening theirs. He sets the team out and it was like drawing blood from a stone trying to find positives across those 98 minutes.

For a manager who appears to need every fine detail of the team fulfilling their tasks to the absolute detail in order to create a chance, let alone score a goal, when certain pieces of the puzzle are missing they stick out like a sore thumb.

Arsenal attacking issues laid bare by Emile Smith Rowe’s absence who faces fitness race ahead of Southampton in the Premier League

No one player should be able to salvage the team. A lot of emphasis is on how desperately Arsenal require a striker and what impact that could have in the Premier League, but it’s still only December and unlikely one will even arrive in January.

Watching that dreadful display unfold, one unavoidable aspect that needed help on the day was progression through the thirds. Arsenal passed it around their half fairly well, bypassing one or two half-hearted Everton forwards, and then in phase two onwards there was nothing. No invention, no excitement. No clue.

It’s as if all instruction ends at the halfway line and then the players were turning to Arteta to ask ‘what now?’ like puzzled children only knowing how to complete the first knot on their shoelaces.

There is no one magic spell to rescue this team’s stale attacking formula as it is a mess tactically, but Arsenal were crying out for Emile Smith Rowe at Goodison Park. Everything about his skillset was what was missing on Merseyside.

Thomas Partey’s confidence is shattered and being someone who can receive on the half-turn and burst beyond a man, all of that is now either absent from his game or the trigger to lose possession. One of Smith Rowe’s superpowers is his ability to receive the ball in those situations and move either side. He can jink his man left or right, breaking through lines and then carrying the ball into threatening zones.

It was confidence-stricken simple passes against Everton and meaningless recycling of possession, with nobody able to receive and force the issue: Gabriel Martinelli wanted the ball higher up and Bukayo Saka was always isolated with two or three men to beat.

Still only 21 years old, when other components in the team aren’t functioning properly, his absence is more pertinent than usual. There was nobody to run at Everton with deep out to in runs and few people looking to support central areas to allow a man running into the box.

The deeply concerning part is that he may not be available for the Southampton fixture either. Suffering a tight groin, he was going to be assessed ahead of the Goodison disaster but didn’t make the squad: either it was extra recovery time or the issue is worse than anticipated.

Hope rests keenly on the former, as in a team that struggles for central progression and chance creation even with Smith Rowe in the side, take him out and the problem is amplified ten-fold.