Arsenal demonstrated last week that they have what it takes to compete for the league crown. They are more determined than ever before to win the league.
They defeated Tottenham Hotspur despite missing their main midfielders, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard. They were able to neutralise and contain the quite physical and explosive Atalanta. Additionally, they effectively countered Manchester City’s threat by maintaining a strong defensive position, particularly after Leandro Trossard’s halftime dismissal.
If there is one thing that cannot be denied about Arsenal’s league title fight, it is their determination to fight and want to win. However, if there’s anything that could stop them, it’s their thin squad. Chris Sutton, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, says that Arsenal’s sole problem is a very thin squad.
Keown believes Arsenal’s squad depth is an issue, citing the substitutes’ bench against City, which included Raheem Sterling, Jorginho, Myles Lewis Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Maldini Kacurri, Gabriel Jesus, Jakub Kiwior, Neto, and Ben White.
“My concern with Arsenal is looking at their bench in the week and looking at their bench to some extent yesterday, whether they actually do have strength in depth within the squad which City do have,” Sutton told the BBC.
“They had a lot of young players on the bench against Atalanta, and that would be my concern. Of course, they are missing Odegaard, who is an enormous loss for them and their playmaker, and I wonder whether that sort of had an effect on them on Thursday night and certainly yesterday [Sunday].”
Though one could argue that injuries, with Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard out, are exposing Arsenal’s lineup. This should serve as a warning that the North Londoners still need to add more quality players to their team. Ideally, the Gunners should have two players competing for one position; once that happens, there will be less concern about the squad’s depth.
Darren N
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We really played well against City with Odegaard and Merino Out, if you consider the whole 45 mins in the first half.
I think Arsenal have enough team spirit to come together and make it work when they need to. There were some really clever adaptations in the midfield from Arteta in the first half. And it worked. It was a slightly more aggressive action by Calafiori that led to the goal, but he will learn, it’s his first EPL match, but apart from that City could do nothing in the first half except telegraphing shots from distance, which they continued to do in the second half as well lol.
So, I think Arsenal has a proper team, and with so many talented youngsters to support in the Cup games, and Merino and Odegaard, about a month away, I don’t see a cause for concern as of now.
Technically, you can still have two players per position,without actually having two players,when you have versatile players. Almost every player in our squad bar the goalkeepers can cover at least two positions.
I think Arteta,like Pep, has never liked working with big squads. City have been winning leagues with a group of about 18 quality senior players. You add Merino,Zinchenko,Odegaard,Tomiyasu and suddenly the bench looks very different.
That said, I think we are a player or two short in the attacking areas,especially with Jesus’ injury record.I think the club tried to sign forwards but the deals didn’t go through for whatever reasons. What we have now is probably enough until January. The issue of us lacking depth in attack will be more valid if we don’t get one in January.
First 2 paragraphs, spot on.
Not sure abot the need for a forward in january though. It’s a bad time to buy, so looking for top players in Jan is not likely.
A lot depends on unknowns: how Sterling turns out, if Martinelli recovers form etc.
I agree
We are indeed a bit short in a few areas mainly attack. It will be difficult to get a quality addition in January but we will certainly need to be on the lookout.
If Havertz gets injured, we don’t have another towering CF to replace him and Raya would have to use Merino’s head to receive his long goal kick
That’s right, I think. I hope the opportunity that the last, ten-week long, transfer window provided won’t turn out to be a missed one as far as a striker is concerned. Only time will tell.
Havertz has a good injury record, but so did Odegaard. Likewise, who’d though that Merino would suffer a freak accident in training before kicking a ball for Arsenal. Things happen unexpectedly and Arsenal will just have to cope now if they do to Havertz – there is no alternative (until January, anyway).
Unfortunately, Vlahovic and Sesko will only be available next summer
True. Always assuming that there aren’t other suitors (with deeper pockets) interested in either of them then, of course.
Not sure about Vlahovic as he seems only to have been linked to Arsenal recently (unless I’ve missed something). He’s in some contract difficulties with Juventus apparently so he may be (relatively) cheaper than some other options.
Again, you have said it all@Gai,
Arteta and Edu weren’t proactive last market on CF issue after lmissing Sesko. The good thing is that Havertz isn’t injury prone like Jesus. Jesus, Matinelli and even Saka are yet to gain form in front of goals so we better hope Havertz don’t get injured anytime soon. The squad is only thing in striker’s position.
Considering the injured players we have Tomiyasu, Zichenko, Odegard, Merino these are quality players. Jorginho, Kiwior etc all not playing at the moment Not a thin squad just upfront.
I think Arteta and Edu are waiting until a high-quality tall CF is available next summer
we are still thin in the Odegaard position too, or have we forgotten the panic over the last two weeks of muddling through
realistically Edu/Arteta can only do so many deals in a single window, not forgetting multiple exits too, several of which protracted but financially worth it in the end
so with limited capacity they made priority decisions like everyone has to when they can’t have everything – they prioritised Calafiori, Merino and goalkeeper situation (Sterling was last minute bargain too good to refuse, not planned for)
back-up Saka, Odegaard and Havertz were probably next on the list (probably in that order) but had to focus on those other priorities first
That’s true. However, there were only three arrivals: Calafiori, Merino and Sterling. One of those (Sterling) arrived literally at the last minute and wasn’t planned according to a quote from Edu that I read.
There were complications around Calafiori because of sell-on clauses with other clubs so that understandably took a while.
However, I don’t understand the need to stretch out negotiations for Merino. His club made it pretty clear what they wanted and that’s what Arsenal paid – but it took weeks and weeks to get it done. That compressed the rest of the window and led to a last-minute scramble to complete other deals (sales + Sterling). Not a very efficient use of the whole ten weeks. Hopefully, next summer will be different.
You could just as easily say that about Haaland. Even now with Rodri out, they don’t quite have a replacement for him. But they’ll find a way to cope.
I’m worried about our forward line. It looks short of bodies. And, with our top players not really hitting form yet, the team has had to rely on the defenders, not only keep the goals away from our net, but also to put it in the opponnents’ net.
I think Arsenal should look to shedding some of the back line (Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Kiwior) and bolster the front line. That’d give the team more quality depth.
i think we need to look at the context of the games – before Rice got sent off vs Brighton we had won all our games and scored 5 goals unanswered
as soon as Rice went off against Brighton we switched 10 men behind the ball shut out – so our forwards were about defending not scoring
Spurs without Rice and Odegaard we allowed Spurs to have the ball from the beginning hoping to nick one, which we did, but again forwards not deployed as true attackers like first 2.5 games scoring 5 goals and dominating before the Rice send off
and don’t need to tell you about Man C, the goal output of our forwards was about survival not being out of goal scoring form
people will come back and quote stats that Havertz did nothing in first five PL games with only 2 goals and 1 assist, but the reality he and Arsenal started on on fire and were well on top of Brighton until that red card and being deployed primarily to defend ever since has of course impacting his goals as Arteta was asking to do something else, i.e. defend for our lives