The warm-weather break must bring improvement

Reset.

That’s the mot juste for where we are right now. Literally and figuratively. The team, along with families, are in Dubai for some warm weather training. A chance to get away, soak up some Vitamin D which is clearly the thing we’ve been missing in front of goal (although it doesn’t explain why Ben White doesn’t score 4 every game), and come back better than we have been in recent weeks.

In seriousness, it is a good time for this. Everyone knows we have a problem right now, there are lots of opinions on how to fix it which range from completely unrealistic to absolutely mental to ‘Oh, that could work, I suppose’, but the reality is that whatever happens or doesn’t happen in the transfer market, we still need the players we have to do better. There’s no escaping that.

Let’s lay bare some of our problems.

In their last 14 games combined in the Premier League, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka have just 3 goals between them, essentially 3 goals from 28 appearances. Overall Saka has 6 goals and 7 assists in the league, this time last season he had 6 and 6, so he’s delivering at more or less the same rate statistically. However, your eyes tell you there’s a weariness to him at the moment that I don’t recall worrying about previously.

As for Martinelli, at the same point in the last campaign, he had 7 goals and 2 assists to his name. This time around, it’s 2 goals and 2 assists, a significant drop-off in goalscoring. That’s a worry, and 3 of those 7 last time out were the first goal of the game, scored in the 20th, 1st, and 5th minute respectively. Those early goals that were such a feature of our play last time out, and which can have such an impact on game-state, have more or less deserted us this time out.

Eddie Nketiah has scored in just 4 of his 28 appearances in all competitions this season. 60% of his 5 Premier League goals came with that hat-trick he scored against Sheffield United. Which isn’t to take anything away from what he did that day, his finishing was excellent, but it was against the worst team in the league, and he’s found it difficult to replicate against other sides. His other goals came against Nottingham Forest and Fulham. For a ‘second striker’, his inability to deliver from the bench remains a considerable issue, in my opinion.

Kai Havertz has 3 goals in his last 7 Premier League appearances, added to his bonus penalty against Bournemouth, and 1 assist overall. 5 goal involvements from 19 games is, I’m sure, below what Mikel Arteta would have wanted from an expensive, experienced signing, and even though doubts about him persist, you can see how he might have delivered more. For example, when a corner is delivered perfectly for your 6’4 centre-forward, don’t head it wide from 6 yards out. Simple.

Leandro Trossard looks to me like a player is becoming more peripheral as the season goes on. He’s done ok, with 3 goals and 1 assist from 16 Premier League appearances, but he’s started just 6 times and on 3 occasions hasn’t even got off the bench. In total, since his arrival last season, he has scored 7 goals in 46 appearances, albeit with 12 assists. I don’t know that his goalscoring record suggests he’s going do a lot to deal with the issues we currently have though.

It’s 4 goals and 4 assists from 17 Premier League appearances for captain Martin Odegaard. At the same stage last season he had 7 and 5. Not too far off. The Odegaard issue, for me at least, is that those ahead of him aren’t capitalising on what he’s creating. As per fbref, his shot creating actions per 90 are up from 4.69 to 6.10 this season, but so too are the number of touches he takes in the opposition attacking third and penalty area. This could be a consequence of facing packed, deep-block defences, but maybe too suggests we need to move the ball a bit more quickly (although he’s hardly the worst offender in that regard).

As for Gabriel Jesus, even with the injury issues this season he has played in 21 of Arsenal’s 29 games. Just 4 goal involvements (3 goals, 1 assist) in 15 Premier League appearances has to be a consideration. He is such a talented player who brings a lot to our attacking play, but if you’re the de facto starting centre-forward for a team like Arsenal, you have to deliver more than that. To me that’s inarguable.

Reiss Nelson: 9 Premier League appearances, 0 goals, 0 assists. Emile Smith Rowe: 6 Premier League appearances, 1 assist. Between them they have played a grand total of 216 minutes. Aaron Ramsdale, who has been benched since the arrival of David Raya, has more than twice that. If these guys are so peripheral in the manager’s plans – and it’s what he does with them rather than what he says about them tells you where they stand – surely there are decisions to be made. It might hurt to let someone like Smith Rowe go, and I don’t fully understand why he is so frozen out, but that pain would be diminished considerably by another player who could contribute with goals and assists, whether from the bench or as a starter.

Anyway, if this all sounds a bit gloomy, it’s really an illustration of how a little uptick in form, finishing, creating, could have a big impact on this team and results. We’re not talking about the need for massive, seismic improvement, but a couple of goals here and there, and maybe we come away from Villa Park with at least a point, we beat West Ham comfortably enough at home, and we’re in the 4th round of the cup. Ifs and buts, of course, but still true.

The importance of that improvement is impossible to understate though. Maybe we could sell to buy in January, but beyond that happening I don’t expect any significant business this month. Therefore the onus is on squeezing more out of players who I firmly believe are capable of it, although some much more so than others.

Sometimes stepping back, taking stock, and having a little time to think is useful. Not just in football, but in many walks of life. There’s plenty of that for Mikel Arteta and his players to do during these next 10 days or so, and let’s hope that when we face Crystal Palace, we see the benefits of it.

Till tomorrow.

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