There is not exactly a huge amount of Arsenal football news to get excited about this morning.
The international break has arrived at possibly the worst time, with Arsenal coming off the back of a 3-0 defeat at Brighton and now having to wait before they can put things right. Although some will argue that the break has come at a great time and given what happened at the Amex, perhaps a bit of time away from the training pitch is exactly what everyone needs.
The latest news is that Declan Rice has withdrawn from the England squad, with reports suggesting his workload is being managed. Rice played 55 games for Arsenal last season and then featured in seven of England’s eight World Cup matches, having dealt with hamstring nerve pain. He has started every Premier League game this season, as well as the Champions League trip to Napoli.
This feels less like something to panic about and more like sensible management. We have already seen what happens when players are asked to keep going indefinitely.
And Arsenal certainly do not need another injury problem.
The timing is also interesting because Rice was one of the players who struggled badly against Brighton.
That should not erase everything he has done for Arsenal, obviously, but it does highlight one of the problems with international football immediately following a poor club performance.
There is no opportunity to put it right.
You lose 3-0, everyone heads off in different directions and the manager gets three weeks to think about it.
And if Mikel Arteta is anything like the man we know him to be, I suspect he will be doing rather a lot of thinking.
Brighton didn’t just beat Arsenal. They exposed them.
Arsenal were second to too many balls, struggled against Brighton’s man-to-man press and made technical mistakes in dangerous areas. Arteta himself said his players had not competed at the required level and had failed to “respect the game”. That is probably the important bit.
This wasn’t one of those games where Arsenal dominated, missed six chances and somehow lost 1-0. Brighton deserved to win.
They were more aggressive, more comfortable and better at exploiting the weaknesses Arsenal presented to them. Arsenal’s perfect start ended with their heaviest defeat in three years. But context matters.
This is still the team that won its opening four league games, conceding just once, and currently sits on 12 points from five matches. One terrible afternoon doesn’t suddenly mean the whole project has fallen apart. It means Arsenal have been given something to work on.
And perhaps that is what this extended international break should be about.
Not panic.
Not overreaction.
Just learning.
Because the next time Arsenal face a team that presses them like Brighton did, they need to look rather more like the champions they are.
There is something rather enjoyable about Mikel Arteta having a new toy to play with.
For years, Arsenal supporters have watched the manager obsess over midfield combinations. Who plays as the six? Who gets forward? Who protects the full-backs? Who can carry the ball? Who can win it back? Who can actually receive it under pressure?
Now Arteta has another rather expensive answer to those questions – Bruno Guimaraes.
The Brazilian arrived from Newcastle for £75m, bringing with him the slightly ridiculous luxury of being able to play almost anywhere in midfield. He can sit, tackle, press, carry, pass through lines and arrive in the box. He can be the destroyer and the creator.
So, naturally, the question is: what on earth does Arteta do with him?
The obvious answer is that there shouldn’t be one answer.
That is probably the point of signing him.
Arsenal have reached the stage where the midfield shouldn’t simply be picked by putting the three best names on the teamsheet and hoping they work.
Different opponents require different solutions. A team sitting in a low block needs something different from a side trying to suffocate Arsenal’s build-up. A physical midfield requires different qualities from a technical one.
And Arteta now has the personnel to actually respond to those problems. He just needs to learn how to get the best out of them.
Take Declan Rice. He is the great all-rounder. He can cover huge amounts of ground, defend transitions, carry the ball and arrive in dangerous areas. He is at his best when he can use his athleticism to influence the game rather than constantly having to drop into the first phase of build-up.
Then there is Martin Zubimendi.
The Spaniard is the organiser. He gives Arsenal that calmness in front of the centre-backs and, perhaps most importantly, is comfortable receiving the ball when the opposition is pressing. He offers structure.
If Arsenal need someone to keep the midfield connected and make the first pass out of defence, Zubimendi makes an awful lot of sense.
Myles Lewis-Skelly brings something different again.
There is still an element of chaos to him, but the good kind. He is aggressive, technically assured and comfortable receiving the ball in tight areas and is probably our best press resistant midfielder.
His emergence has given Arsenal another player who can alter the shape without necessarily changing the personnel. Arteta has already trusted him in major matches, and his development as a midfielder gives Arsenal another option rather than simply another body.
And then there is Bruno.
This is where things get interesting.
Bruno doesn’t quite fit neatly into the boxes occupied by the others. He has Zubimendi’s willingness to receive the ball deep, Rice’s physicality and the ability to play further forward. But he also has that wonderfully irritating Brazilian quality of wanting to get involved in everything.
He wants the ball.
He wants to win the ball.
He wants to pass the ball forward.
And, occasionally, he wants to kick somebody into the next postcode.
That makes him incredibly useful, but it also creates a tactical question.
The first attempt at using Rice, Bruno and Martin Odegaard together came at Brighton, and it did not go particularly well. Arsenal’s midfield struggled badly against Brighton’s pressure, and the balance of the three wasn’t quite right.
Nether Bruno or Rice are at their best when picking up the ball with their back to the pitch. They are much better facing forward.
Brighton’s press meant both often found themselves deeper than they would have liked, and requiring to turn on the ball to face forward. Too often when they received the ball it went straight back to the defenders, putting more pressure on us.
In hindsight, Saturday’s game would have been more suited to a Zubimendi or MLS in the team. Someone who can play on the quarter turn, drop a shoulder to get out of the press and then progress the ball forward.
But that shouldn’t mean the Bruno, Rice and Odegaard gets thrown in the bin.
It means Arteta has learned something.
Perhaps against certain teams, Bruno and Rice rotating as the deepest midfielder is exactly what Arsenal need. Against others, it may leave the build-up lacking a natural organiser.
That is where Zubimendi becomes important.
And that is where Lewis-Skelly becomes important.
Arsenal don’t have to play the same midfield every week.
Against a team that wants to attack Arsenal and leave space behind, imagine Bruno and Rice together. There is enormous energy, ball-winning ability and carrying power there. Bruno can step forward while Rice covers. Or Rice can push on and Bruno can hold.
Against a deep block, perhaps Bruno’s passing and ability to arrive in the box becomes more valuable, while Zubimendi provides the platform behind him.
Against an aggressive pressing side, Zubimendi or Lewis-Skelly might make more sense because Arsenal need someone comfortable taking the ball from the centre-backs and turning under pressure.
That is the beauty of this squad.
Arteta’s job now is not finding the midfield.
It is finding the right midfield.
And that may take a little experimentation.
Bruno Guimaraes is the new toy, but the temptation will be to play with him every time simply because he’s shiny and expensive. The better solution is to work out what each opponent demands and then decide which combination gives Arsenal the best answer.
Rice, Zubimendi, Bruno and Lewis-Skelly are not competing for one identical job. They overlap, certainly, but their strengths are different enough to give Arteta genuine tactical choices.
The Brighton game was a reminder that having excellent midfielders doesn’t automatically create an excellent midfield.
Brighton was never going to be an easy game. It was probably our hardest game of last season and we were lucky to escape with a 1-nil win. This time we were not so lucky.
3-nil is a crushing defeat. Brighton played brilliantly, pressing us aggressively and we’re fully deserved of their win.-
Another day and we might have seen a different result. The opening goal was a perfectly placed shot by Pascal Gross. In off the post, and inch to the right and it would have hit the post and gone out, an inch to the left and David Raya would have saved it.
Had we got to half time at 1-nil, we would have been in with a shot. The 2nd goal killed our hopes and after that we played like a team just wanting to keep the score down.
This was our 4th away game in 10 days. That is a big work load for any team – even the Champions with the squad depth we have. It is a lot of travel, and not much time to prepare or rest between games.
The biggest concern for me is how poor the midfield was. Arguably our best area in the pitch, we have one of the best midfields in the world. But Declan Rice, Bruno and Martin Odegaard crumbled under the pressure Brighton midfielders put them under. The result was attackers starved of the ball, and our defence struggling to ply the ball out.
This was the first time Rice, Bruno and Odegaard had started together. The tactic seemed to be to have Rice and Bruno rotating as the deepest midfielder. It did not really work and we certainly missed having Martin Zubimendi or Myles Lewis Skelly as the deepest midfielder, picking that ball up off the defence.
Rice is always better suited to plying a bit more advanced. His only real weakness is picking up the ball off the defence with his back to play. He does not really have that hip swivel to give himself the space to get his head up and ply a forward pass.
And likewise I always feel Bruno needs to before advanced, getting around the pitch and influencing play.
It is too early to say Arteta’s new midfield did not work. It was, remember, their first game together. But this is something Arteta will need to work on and resolve.
Does he commit to this rotating midfield, dos he tell Bruno he has stay back, or does he revert to either Zubimendi or Lewis Skelly and start jut one of Rice or Bruno?
With plenty of games, there can be more than enough rotating to keep everyone fresh and happy. Arteta just needs to find a formula that works and stick with it.
We should not take anything away from Brighton today. It was as much them making our midfield look poor as it was the poor performances.
They are 3rd in the league and deserve to be there. Their only defeat was the 4-3 against Chelsea. They’ve already beaten Aston Villa 4-nil at home, thrashed Coventry 5-nil away, and had that brilliant League Cup comeback win against Man U mid week. They look a very well put together side.
As we all know, winning the league is not easy. Some will be bandwagon jumping today, saying this shows Arsenal are a poor team. But Brighton will take more points off “top” teams at the Amex. And if it is not Brighton, other teams will snatch victories against Man City and Liverpool.
It will be a tough season again, and a team that beat City we may steamroll. And likewise a team that does us may lay down and be tickled by City.
What won us the league last season is how we bounced back from disappointing results.
We now go into an international break. The next game is not until Leeds on 10 October. That is a nice game to come back to. 3 points will get us back on track and likely put us top of the league again.
