For the first time in his tenure as Arsenal manager, rookie coach Mikel Arteta is coming under scrutiny from fans.
The reason? Arsenal aren’t scoring enough goals. Three successive Premier League defeats to Liverpool, Manchester City and Leicester have seen Arsenal fail to ‘go for it’ in an attacking sense.
In fairness, they are three tough teams to play against. However, ten months into the Mikel Arteta reign, it is clear that Arsenal are struggling for attacking fluidity.
Mikel Arteta is a coach who values positioning above all else. He demands his players to be positionally disciplined to serve the team. This has certainly paid dividends defensively, but the lack of offensive impetus has cost the team results and frustrated fans.
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Central to the debate is the position of captain and goalscoring talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Arsenal extended the strikers contract before the start of the season to the delight of fans. At the time, he had just won the F.A Cup for the gunners with two goals against Chelsea in the final. He followed up with another fantastic Wembley goal to beat Liverpool in the community shield.
Afterwards, he signed his new contract and scored a lovely goal against Fulham in the first game of the season. Since then, Aubameyang has only scored one goal in the Europa League against Rapid Vienna. He has gone five straight Premier League games without scoring.
Fans are clamouring for him to be played as a center forward rather than out on the left wing, where Arteta has always played him.
However, to focus on Arteta’s coaching style or Aubameyang’s position is to ignore the wider problem. Arsenal used to be a team who won games three and four nil on a regular basis. That was a long time ago now.
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Two nil is Arsenal’s new four nil. As the teams around the gunners have become more competitive, Arsenal have declined. As a result, they can no longer dominate teams like they used to and must focus on keeping clean sheets.
This issue dates back to Arsene Wenger’ss last years in charge, where blowout victories became a rarity. His replacement, Unai Emery, didn’t trust the players he had to play all-out attacking football either.
Arteta has been hailed as a saviour and is certainly one of the best young tactical minds in the game. He too does not feel comfortable allowing his players to go for it. He is the third successive Arsenal manager who hasn’t felt secure in sending his players to try and batter teams.
The solution? Arsenal need better players. The midfield and defence is not capable of playing the kind of two-way football required to both score goals and remain defensively secure.
Unfortunately for Arsenal this will take time, and a lot of luck. Gunners fans will have to be patient, and accept that their team will not be the attacking force that they have come to expect.
