ARSENAL: The Elephant’s Bragging Moment as They Sit At the Summit of the Premier League while Threatened by Force of Gravity 

English soccer outfit, Arsenal FC last week worked itself back to the summit of the English Premier League on the back of two crucial wins earned at the expense of Brentford and Wolves, giving way to the usual rhetoric from its fans that the Elephant is home and dry. Germany International, Kai Havertz’s 89th-minute header secured for the London team all three maximum points during a date with Brentford.

Following Manchester City’s failure to beat Liverpool, Arsenal exploited the advantage of playing against a hard-fighting Wolves, collecting a 2-1 goal victory, toppling Josep Pep Guardiola’s club from the summit of the logo. Arsenal’s weekend win in the game against Wolves came courtesy of two goals scored by the team’s usual Mr goal poacher, Bukayo Saka, and the club’s indefatigable Norwegian Captain, Martin Odegaard. 

By the end of the Saturday proceedings, Arsenal was leading the Premier League logo with four points, relegating their currently egoistically wounded bitter arch-rival, Man City to the role of playing second fiddle to them. Such has been the form of Arsenal lately that the team would find no problem, dismissing the traveling dismal Lens FC with a total of six goals at the host’s own London Etihad turf. That happened without the hapless French soccer outfit themselves managing to pull back any goal of their own to cut back on the big day’s shame that they were subjected to by their ruthless and currently seemingly in-form opponents.

The Arteta Conundrum and Striker Woes

Before that, the Gunners had convincingly conquered Man City by 3 goals with the reigning English Premier League champions managing one consolation goal of their own, sparking early chants about how Arsenal was likely going to succeed this time round where they failed last season, donating the trophy to Man City in the very closing stages of the competition after leading the logo for long periods.

Even with that said, can Arsenal’s Spanish coach manage to outlast the enormous pressure that comes with leading the pack of the logo taking into consideration the hugely competitive and dogged nature of the English Premier League? The most realistic and safest answer to this all-important question would be both YES and No. While Arsenal beat Brentford, it took the club 89th minutes of normal playing time to do so and that was done by substitute Kai Hervtz, moreover, highlighting the club’s dilemma of lack of players capable of killing off the game well early enough.

Against Wolves, Arsenal credibly scored two goals in the first half of the normal playing time but then capitulated in the second half of the proceedings, conceding a goal and then spent the rest of the playing time desperately defending themselves against trouble after trouble from the slightly weaker opponents. Worryingly, during all those case study matches, Arsenal luckily had all its key strikers present on the pitch but failed to positively use their scoring chances, bringing to light the team’s lack of a first-rate and much more serious marksman in their midst.

Arsenal’s Double-Edged Sword

What conceding a goal against Wolves and scoring a lone winning goal in the second last minute of normal playing minutes of the game against Brentford means is that Mikel Arteta’s men would most likely find trouble defending themselves against the grim prospect of conceding goals against much more serious teams than Brentford and Wolves even after scoring two or even more goals.

Had Arsenal been a team serious enough than what they proved to be while playing against Wolves, they would have gone ahead and scored more goals than what they scored from the chances they created during the first half and killed off the game since as they say, the best way to defend a goal already scored is to score more and more goals. That is what Arsenal did exactly while playing against France’s Lens FC in the Champions League, crashing the fighting spirit of the opponents completely, demoralizing the traveling players for good, and rendering them completely unable to score in response to the 6-0 goals tally frenzy and shame.

That brings me to my second point which is Arsenal’s apparent lack of depth about the backup or follow-back position in case of the occurrence of injuries or sickness at the expense of key team players. Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard,  Declan Rice, Gabriel Jesus, Ben White, and Leassandro Trossard look currently to be some of the club’s key players currently. That said and supposing it’s agreed and appreciated, what would happen to the club’s fortunes should such players find themselves sick, down with injuries, or fatigued.? 

Bukayo Saka’s Heavy Load: The Mental Toll on Arsenal’s Rising Star

Let us use Bukayo Saka as one example. He being a young man, subjecting the Nigerian to playing non-stop football for Arsenal let alone subjecting him to added demands coupled with added pressures of scoring goals, not only is it likely going to ultimately take a toll on him mentally but also see him burning out and getting fatigued. That is likely going to be made worse by the fact that Bukayo is in between being called upon to play for his country, England in yet other grueling duels and situations and where he is likely going, to complicate matters, as well under the added pressure of scoring goals for his country.

Remember also that Arsenal is playing Champions League football this season to understand and appreciate the kind of pressure and demands that the club’s players are going through or experiencing currently and what they are going to go through going forward as they play both in the English Premier League and in Champions League while at the same time playing for their respective home countries for some of them.

Taking into account the fact that a player needs to be at his highest best possible mentally to be able to ably and competently concentrate, give, and deliver results on the pitch, even a person with an average IQ can figure out and tell how Arsenal’s fortunes are likely going to be impacted should Bukayo or any other Arsenal player for that matter, end up mentally negatively impacted or fatigued on account of playing non stop football and under the sheer pressure of scoring vital goals for Arsenal both in the Premier League and Champion League while also playing football for home countries during international matches.

Concerns Beyond the Starting XI

Given the physical nature of the English Premier League, Saka being the dribbler he is as well as other Arsenal players in his situation, is and or are sooner than later likely going to end up being subjected to hard tackles and fouls, developing injuries as a result, impacting the fortunes of Arsenal negatively and in the long run. Added fatigue arising from playing non-stop football at both the English Premier League level, Champion League, and for the respective country of each one of the players, is likely going to end up creating more harm than good to Arsenal’s campaign of hunting for the first trophy after long spells of drought.

Mikel Arteta, just like any other man in his position and situation would, would of course, retort that he would substitute the key missing players with others available at his disposal and carry on with the proceedings at hand as and when they come and occur. But then another soul would chip in, reminding Mikel Arteta of the big gulf of difference between the club manager being able to make the numbers of the required team players and assembling the right caliber of players able and capable of ably and competently pushing forward and pushing through the club successes itself.

We need right at this point to pause and remind ourselves about how during the previous English Premier League edition Arsenal came so close within touching distance of the ultimate trophy and how they then shockingly and unbelievably failed to snatch it from the sharp jaws of the Spanish journeyman, Joseph Pep Guardiola, putting into perspective the challenges that come with a given football club’s lack of depth in as far as the right numbers and quality of players is concerned.

The Edu Effect

Credit be given, to Arsenal’s sporting director, Brazilian Gasper Eduardo[read Edu] during the last term of the English Premier League edition brought to the club some good players such as Mr Declan Rice and Mr. Kai Hervtz. But then a critical question would sooner than later immediately arise: Were those the creme de creme of players Arsenal deserved to buy from the market and or all that Arsenal needed going forward? To answer that very crucial and very valid question one would need to look first at what those players have added to Arsenal in terms of quality and fortunes so far.

Striking Deficiency

Even though both Kai Havertz and Declan Rice were bought by Edu to arguably score goals and hence win matches for Arsenal, the two have ridiculously and scandalously less than ten goals between them so far, speaking to the notorious desert of goals present there in their legs at least for the current duration of the season. Without fear, favor, or ill will, Kai’s and Rice’s something like seven English Premier League goal tally is evidently and without doubt, a far cry concerning Man City’s Mr. Erling Braut Haaland who, as a single person, has scored and therefore boasts of more than thrice what the two Arsenal players have scored goals, and all those more than 20 goals, for emphasis sake, scored by Haaland alone and singlehandedly and as a single person.

Granted, Declan Rice has done a commendable job of defending and making assists that have resulted in goals for Arsenal, but that cannot be used as a justification and excuse to wish away the fact that the English international is primarily a striker who was bought to score goals and who has not, nonetheless, done enough job of scoring goals for Arsenal. As for Kai’s contribution to Arsenal’s value, quality, and fortunes, no prize for guessing since after all everyone’s guess is as good as mine.

In Goalkeeper Limbo:

The other area of concern for Arsenal has got to do with Arteta’s failure to emphatically and without much ado name and introduce the club’s number one goalkeeper between David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale. Such kind of irresponsible indecision on the part of Arteta not only has created more tension and uneasiness for Ramsdale but also affected and occasioned unnecessary divisions among the club’s fans and the rest of Arsenal players themselves.

The first bad sign of indecision came in the form of two stupid gaffes Ramsdale committed during the match Arsenal played against Brentford which nearly turned into a problem for Arsenal in the form of a total of two stupid goals. I will mention one howler in the interest of time. That came in the early stages of the game when Ramsdale was dispossessed by Brenford’s Yoane Wissa who then passed the ball to Bryan Mbeumo, shooting at an empty Arsenal goal only for Declan Rice to help matters, clearing the ball from off the line, stopping it from hitting the back of the net, sparing tinker man Arteta, Ramsdale himself and the Arsenal fans the headache of conceding a stupid goal.

Even if after Ramsdale had committed this howler, Arteta conducted himself in a way that tended to downplay the mess. Irrespective of that, the fans themselves were not amused, blaming the manager for betraying the goalkeeper who not only won back for them and the club Champions League football but also helped Arsenal FC to finish among the top four during the previous year. The fans’ ire was about Arteta’s decision to take up on loan Brentford’s David Raya, going ahead to turn the loanee into his number one preferred goal-stopper at Arsenal.

Arteta’s Player Puzzle

Putting that aside, Mikel Arteta’s competence as a manager has further come under question especially how he selects which player to play and where on the turf during the competitive matches. Arsenal’s legend, Emmanuel Petit, for one example, has gone on record and registered his displeasure with regards to how  Arteta does his things, singling out as one case in point Arsenal’s £105m acquisition from West Ham, Declan Rice. According to Petit, the petit Arsenal’s manager blunders when he uses Declan Rice as a holding midfielder as he seeks to compensate for the void created by Granit Xaka’s departure to Germany’s Bundesliga Premium League. 

Positional Predicaments

Petit guides that Declan Rice plays the best of his best football so long as he is deployed as a defensive midfielder, assisting notably and credibly to maintain the balance of the team and winning back the ball for the team. “Declan Rice is a different player from Grant Rice,” Petit observed as he shared his thoughts on how the English international should be positioned on the turf. Paul Merson, another Arsenal legend, attacks Arteta’s wisdom in trying to use his £65m acquisition from Chelsea, Kai Havertz as a holding midfielder. He guides that Kai’s suitable number on the pitch is that of a center forward, using the goal he scored against Brentford as his live and vivid evidence to back up his case.

” That was a center-forward movement in my opinion. He goes in and then drifts in behind defenders and it’s a good header. I think he should play up front,” Merson argues. Using his 6ft 4in horizontal frame as a backup for his argument, Merson makes the case that maybe Kai should play much better and assist Arsenal much better as a number 10 player. Chelsea’s icon, Frank Leabouf contends that Arteta shouldn’t have signed Kai at all since doing so ended up, as per Leabouf, destabilizing and disturbing Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard who are Arsenal’s best midfielders, as per Leabouf.

Legends Unimpressed, Fans Frustrated

“Maybe his best position of deployment is on the bench,” is how Leabouf cheapened Arteta’s fond player and made also a mockery of Arsenal’s manager’s abilities and competencies when it comes to the job of scouting for the best players for his club. Leabouf recalls that before Kai was brought on board as an Arsenal player, Odegaard used to roam the midfield while being assisted by other players, creating scoring chances for his fellow players. But now that Arteta forces Kai to play number 8 which is why he, in the first instance, basically shopped him for from Chelsea, Odegaard and Trossard have been destabilized by him, leading Trossard to be benched sometimes and Odegaard deployed under different roles.

Critiques Amidst Rivalry Challenges

Those being former players of repute I won’t tamper with their opinions since after all every man is entitled to his opinion and views. But I only wish to point out that complaints have been raised about how Arteta makes his player substitution decisions, taking sometimes longer minutes to remove from the pitch players who aren’t for the purpose while leaving those who are better than them seated on the bench. In the same vein, complaints have been raised from some quarters about how Arteta leaves out players who are better and then uses those who are lukewarm, leading to bad performance of the club.

Quite importantly, other rival clubs’ managers are not seated merely waiting for Arteta to go ahead and clinch the trophy, they are working 24/7 to make sure their respective clubs end up grabbing the trophy from the jaws of Arsenal as they have been doing for over several seasons now. Paramount to note, Arsenal is not separated from the rest of its arch-rivals by a wide gulf and so must take great care and caution not to rest on its laurels but apply more gear to be able to last the duration of the competition without capitulation. Yet Arteta has always defended his decisions, saying he knows best what he does and what is in the best interests of the club, its owners, the players, and the fans at large.

Striking for Success or Struck by Limitations

As I wind up, I beg to suggest that Arsenal must use the upcoming January transfer market to buy at least two strikers capable of scoring a good number of goals and as a backup to those currently available since there is a possibility of them getting injured, sick or even burning, depleting the numbers of them at the manager’s disposal. I have already given the reasons why I think players of Arsenal are likely going to incur injuries and fatigue, rendering repeating those reasons unnecessary and therefore a waste of precious time and ink.

One of the strikers being suggested for Arsenal to procure during the upcoming transfer window is Ivan Toney. Fortunately enough the last time I checked, Brentford’s manager, Thomas Mark was ready to listen to bids of those desirous of prising away Toney from Brentford. Whether Arsenal is going to be able to match the asking price of Brentford said to be in the region of £100m and also to stave off stiff competition from much more monied rivals than them such as Chelsea remains a matter for conjecture in the meantime.

Striking Dilemmas

What we know is that not only is Arsenal still grappling with tying down a number of its key players to long contracts at the club but aware also that that process comes with big spending by the club owners. Arsenal’s appetite to buy new players during the transfer window is thought also to be impeded by the game’s regulations that prohibit football clubs from spending beyond a certain amount of money to prevent depletion of its financial bases and which financial thresholds Arsenal is believed to have hit or nearly about to hit. This is perhaps why Arsenal is looking seriously at the option of selling off some of its players such as Ghananian, and Thomas Partey to mobilize and realize the funds required to make the buys they badly need to make. 

All in all, will Arsenal clinch the trophy after a decade and so of waiting, only time will tell.