It feels wrong to write a negative blog despite us being one of just 3 teams to win our first two games. But I know full well Mikel Arteta will not be happy with the performances in those matches and is seeing what I am.
Arteta threw everyone a curve ball on the opening day of the season, putting out an XI that had not played together in pre-season, in a formation that he had not used in any of our summer friendlies. The changes led to a bit of a chaotic performance.
Against Crystal Palace, Arteta doubled down.
It was the same formation, same tactics, with just Takehiro Tomiyasu coming in for Jurrien Timber. And whilst we might have got the 3-points, the performance was certainly not impressive.
The issue is Arsenal look unbalanced right now, and it feels like we have moved away from our strengths of last season.
Starting at right back, I think it is clear and obvious to all that playing Thomas Partey there does not get the best out of the Ghanaian.
He is sort of playing in that inverted role, often dropping into midfield, but I think we lose too much of his dominating presence when he plays outwide.
Against Crystal Palace, his best spell came in the last 10 or 15 minutes of the game when he moved more centrally.
One of our strengths last season was Ben White at right back.
White was solid defensively, which allowed Bukayo Saka to play more aggressively in attack. Saka very rarely had the ned to track back.
But White was also a factor in attack. He would get up and down that sidline like a prime Gary Neville, supporting Saka in attack.
This gave Saka more space to work his magic, as teams had to cover the marauding White, and also always gave him an easy outball to his England colleague if things got a little tight.
Partey does not (or is unable to) get up and down the pitch as much as White did. He does not do that lung bursting run which sees him get beyond Saka and hit the by-line. The result is Saka ends up isolated.
Moving inside, Arteta seemed to be obsessed with a right footed and left footed right back. This allowed defenders to play that dangerous out to in spinning ball over the opposing full back for our wingers to run onto.
Whilst White and William Saliba have looked solid in the middle, it does feel a little less balanced then having Gabriel and Saliba.
I am concerned by the Gabriel links away from the club, with interest reportedly from Italy, Spain and Saudi Arabia.
What I would say, if his head has been turned he should be sold. And if he is not in the right headspace to start games, he should also not be on the bench. Personally, I do not think his exclusion is due to an impending transfer.
The left back also looks worse off with Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Jurrien Timber was very good in the inverted role last weekend, and Tomiyasu had a decent game againts Palace. The Japanese man was unlucky to receive one, let alone two, yellow cards.
I think Arteta needs to be careful about shoehorning players into his system.
Yes, he wants to play with an inverted full back when Zinchenko is on the field, but if the Ukrainian is out injured, he should alter the tactics to fit the players he has available.
If Zinchenko is not fit to start against Fulham, and with Timber and Tomiyasu out injured, I would go for a flat back four of White Saliba Gabriel Kiwior (assuming that Kieran Tierney is likely to depart over the next 7 days).
Arteta has shown that Tierney is his 4th choice left back. There is no point him remaining at the club, even with Timber’s injury.
The centre of midfield is a work in progress.
Declan Rice has fitted in perfectly. His performance against Palace was world class. Martin Odegaard has also picked up where he left off last season.
The left side of the trio is not quite there yet.
I think Kai Havertz will become an excellent player for The Arsenal, but he is perhaps not yet at Granit Xhaka’s level from last season.
The German is basically learning a new position and new tactics in a new team. He was never going to hit the ground running. But he is getting used to the Arsenal way and I am confident will soon be back at that Leverkusen form.
Saka has had a quiet start to the season after an unbelievable pre-season. Although the fact he has 1 goal in 2 games (and would have been 2 from 2 if Odegaard had not taken over penalty duties) shows how high the expectation of him is. Incredible that he is still only 21-years-old!
Saka misses Ben White’s runs.
As above, with Partey behind him he is having to do more work on his own. Often faced with two defenders with no full back making a run to take one away.
The rest of the attack is also not yet working fluidly. The same happend last season when Gabriel Jesus went of injured.
Jesus’s USP is his ability to float around the front 3, creating space for others to run in to. He had Gabriel Martinelli do this exceptionally on the left hand side. Jesus drifts left, Martinelli has space to run into, goal.
Last season when Jesus was out injured, Martinelli had his worst spell of the season.
As much as I love Eddie, he does not have that movement Jesus does. He prefers to stay centrally, making runs down either side of the centre back. He does not look to drift too far wide.
We begun to play Leandro Trossard last season up top, and his movement was much closer to Jesus’s. I would say it would be a big call to drop Eddie after 2 games, and it is something the Englishman might never come back from.
Nketiah is supposed to be a brilliant trainer. Hopefully he is doing some one to one training and learning how to make those runs Jesus does.
I am not too concerned about things at the moment. The teams that are often there at the end of the season tend to have a slow, but winning, start to the campaign and then build into the season.
Last season, we started in 5th gear and then run out of the steam.
If we can get to that first international break with 4 wins from 4 games, without getting out of 3rd gear, then it is energy saved for later in the season.
And to finish on a positive, Arsenal’s performances can only get better from the last 2 games. 6 points from 6 is certainly not something to be disappointed about!
UTA
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 