Mikel Arteta’s overthinking is hurting Arsenal

Decisiveness and overthinking don’t normally go together, but Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is managing to exemplify both, to the detriment of his team. Arteta’s overthinking regarding personnel and tactics has muddled Arsenal’s structure and fluency.

To make matters worse, Arteta is making changes too quickly when things go wrong. All those things combined to hamstring Arsenal during the 2-2 draw with Fulham in the Premier League.

Two points were lost because Arteta’s riff on last season’s winning formula is too much too soon. Altering the formula has meant dropping centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes, one of the most consistent performers of the 2022/23 campaign.

Gabriel’s not the best defender in the squad, but he’s the most vocal. His leadership’s been missed so Arteta can shift Ben White inside, despite the latter performing admirably at right-back last season.

The White for Gabriel swap started a transition that’s doing more to confuse Arsenal than the opposition.

Inverted full-back obsession not helping

It’s not surprising there are already calls for Arteta to make a tactical change this early in the season. Not when doubling up on inverted full-backs isn’t working.

Tucking left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko into midfield worked wonders last season. It allowed Arteta’s team to overload the middle and dominate the ball. Holding midfielder Thomas Partey was protected, leaving Granit Xhaka free to push forward and support chief creator Martin Odegaard.

Stopping Zinchenko became the obvious first step toward stopping Arsenal, so Arteta rightly wanted his right-back to play the same role. Arsenal would then be able to keep opponents guessing about which side of the pitch would be overloaded.

It’s why Arteta signed Jurrien Timber, but the former Ajax defender’s ACL injury scuppered the plan. Or at least it should have, but Arteta has persisted by playing Thomas Partey at right-back.

Partey can play right-back, but it’s not his stock in trade. Playing Partey out of position not only dilutes his effectiveness, it also wastes a natural right-back like Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Partey’s looked lost in his new hybrid role, and his confusion has spread across the back line. Like when Andreas Pereira opened the scoring for Fulham.

Just look at the positioning of White (#4), who has been dragged out to right-back, while Partey (#5) is hopelessly trailing from midfield. Nobody appears quite sure of where they should be, leaving Arsenal’s undermanned defence fatally exposed.

Gary Neville pinpointed the problem on his podcast for Sky Sports (h/t Metro’s Liam Grace):

"Thomas Partey is playing half-and-half in a game. Sometimes you need to go back to basics…Move Partey into midfield with Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard. Get back to something which resembles what a team should look like."

Arteta’s overdoing trying to replicate his old boss Pep Guardiola’s blueprint at Manchester City. It’s not working at the back and nor is it making sense up front.

Arteta needs patience in attack

Eddie Nketiah earning a deserved first call-up to the senior England squad only makes Arteta’s decision to leave the striker on the bench for the visit of Fulham look worse. Nketiah opened the scoring in the 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest and won the penalty to help beat Crystal Palace, but he also missed key chances at Selhurst Park.

Yet, the bigger picture wasn’t Nketiah failing to put away his chances, but the fact he was consistently in positions to score, something highlighted by Squawka Live.

Nketiah’s activity in the box was something for Arsenal to build on by creating better chances. Instead, the manager ditched an in-form striker to start winger Leandro Trossard as a false nine. Predictably, the results were underwhelming, leaving Arteta to call on Nketiah, who promptly gave Arsenal an ill-fated lead against the Cottagers.

You get the feeling Arteta writes the words “in case of emergencies only” next to Nketiah’s name on the squad list. He should be working out ways to keep the goalscorer involved, even though Gabriel Jesus is back from injury.

Not ducking a decision is one of Arteta’s best qualities. He didn’t hide from resolving the futures of big-name, mega-earners like Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Unfortunately, Arteta’s hair-trigger can also work against Arsenal when he has a knee-jerk reaction to every slightly below-par performance.

Arsenal did enough last season to merit continuity, tactically and in the starting XI. A slight tweak would’ve helped, but Arteta is changing too much.