Injuries continue to mount as Arteta talks Lacazette, Partey, Xhaka and more…

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Morning all.

Most of the news prior to todays trip to Southampton surrounds injuries. And it is not too positive.

In his pre-match interview, Mikel Arteta pretty much admitted that Thomas Partey is out for the season. He then doubled down by reconfirming Kieran Tierney is also out for the foreseeable.

This means he needs a permanent solution to left-back and centre mid. None of this “playing X out of position to cover a game or two”.

We still think the best solution is the simple solution.

Ramsdale, Cedric, White, Gabriel, Tavares, Lokonga, Xhaka, Saka, Odergaard, ESR, Martinelli.

Tomiyasu is also still out. The delay for his return from his muscle injury is becoming concerning. It feels like every week is “one or two weeks from returning”. Reminds me of Tomas Rosicky’s never ending absence a few years ago.

Another out is Alexandre Lacazette.

The club captain has not trained for a few days due to a reported illness, but in the pre-match interview Arteta let slip he is out due to “private reasons that I cannot comment on”.

We hope that whatever is happening in Lacazette’s private life is resolved soon.

His absence will force Arteta to make the change up top many people have been calling out for.

Eddie Nketiah or Gabrielle Martinelli. Who do you think should start?

It is clear we have run out of steam in the last couple of weeks.

Injuries and a paper thin squad contributed hugely to the last two defeats. Fingers crossed we get the result today and stay in that race for top 4.

Arteta also commented on the recent Granit Xhaka short film.

It is clear that Arteta has always like Xhaka. I for one hope he stays.

Enjoy the bank holiday sunshine.

Keenos

Arteta needs to keep it simple against Southampton

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The simple solutions are often the best solutions.

Mikel Arteta’s issue is he is an overthinker. This can lead him to overcomplicate things for Arsenal tactically – and the result is the picture in his brain does not materialise on the pitch.

Overthinking how to resolve Kieran Tierney being out led to the Brighton defeat. He focused so much on how to protect our left hand side that it left us exposed in the middle.

Simplicity is best. Round pegs in round holes.

Against Southampton – and moving forward for the rest of the season – we need to put out a very simple XI.

Ramsdale, Cedric, White and Gabriel should be the first 4 names on the team sheet (until Tomiyasu is back fit).

I have seen some putting White at right back, Cedric at left back and Holding alongside Gabriel in the middle. This is a good example of overcomplicating a situation which leads to 2 players playing out of position and us breaking up our successful centre back partnership.

We need to stick with a solid middle. And that is White and Gabriel.

I would then still start Nuno Tavares at left back – and this is why this XI will not happen.

Tavares has had it tough in recent games – pulled off early in his last two starts. I feel sorry for him.

Out of form and no confidence, he probably is not up to the task. But he is the best full fit senior left back at the club.

By not playing him, and putting a square back in a round whole, we end up with not just a weaker left back but also weaker elsewhere on the pitch.

If we do not start Tavares, Arteta needs to look at the youth team and possibly play Joel Lopez or Lino Sousa. At 20 and 17 respectively, they might not be ready, but we could need one of them to step up – reminiscent to Gael Clichy as an 18-year-old in 2003/04.

I would stick with Tavares.

Our recent good form was due to playing a more attacking, progressive midfield.

Thomas Partey sat deep in an anchor role, whilst Granit Xhaka and Martin Odergaard played further ahead in wheat the kids call the “8” role.

The problem is Albert Sambi Lokonga is no Thomas Partey.

I would move Xhaka back deeper alongside Lokonga, moving us from the 4141 formation we are currently playing back to the 4231 we used to play.

This would resolve a couple of issues.

Firstly it would make us more defensively stable.

Against Brighton we lost the midfield battle as Lokonga was over run. Xhaka deeper – and with White and Gabriel behind, we have a solid square of 4 in the middle of the park.

We also struggled to transition the ball through the midfield against Brighton – Lokonga does not have the calmness on the ball, vision or range of passing of Partey.

With Xhaka deeper, he becomes the “first receiver” and is the one to dictate play. They should see us take the ball from defence into attack much more efficiently.

Thirdly, With Lokonga and Xhaka both deep, it will allow them to cover the left and right hand sides of the pitch. This means that Tavares will have extra help in defence from Xhaka.

Rather than Xhaka being 20 meters up the pitch as he is when he plays with Partey, his starting point will be deeper. This will allow him to get across to the left flank quicker providing Taveras some much needed protection.

Moving forward, the switch in midfield will see us return to 3 behind the striker. Saka and Odergaard are the first two.

Joining them on the left wing should be Emile Smith Rowe.

Rowe tends to drift inside more in comparison to Gabriel Martinelli. He will then more naturally fill some of the space left by Xhaka playing deeper.

Smith on the inside left will then create the space around the outside for Tavares to bomb forward.

Defence could be the best form of attack on our left hand side, so having Tavares bombing forward, Smith Rowe tucked inside, Xhaka covering the left back when he is up the pitch should create a nice balance.

Up top I would make a big change.

Alexandre Lacazette is not doing it. He is looking exhausted. We should give Martinelli a run through the middle for a bit.

The little change in midfield will see us playing deeper. As a result we need someone up top who can work the defenders and run in behind. Lacazette can not do that. Martinelli can.

If Arteta keeps it simple, we still might challenge for the top 4. If he overcomplicates things, plays players out of position and weakens more areas of the pitch beyond where we are already weak, then we might as well go to the beach and Europa Conference now.

Enjoy the game tomorrow. I am now in relax mode for the Easter break.

Keenos

Arsenal are better without Emery, Aubameyang, Guendouzi and Ozil – Time to move on!

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Arsenal have hit a little rough patch.

The defeats to Crystal Palace and Brighton were hard to swallow. Throw in the loss to Liverpool and it is 3 defeats in the last 4 games.

And looking outwards, Unai Emery has just lead Villareal through against Bayern Munich to the next round of the Champions League, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has re-found his scoring boots in Barcelona and Matteo Guendouzi is performing week in week out in France for Marseille.

This has led some of Mikel Arteta’s critics to read their ugly heads once again. Calling for the manager to be sacked, highlighting the form of those that have left and making statements such as “we were wrong to let Emery go”. But lets break it down.

With Guenoduzi and Aubameyang in the team alongside their other hero Mesut Ozil, Arsenal’s form in Emery’s last 20 league games read:

P 20 W 6 D 6 L 7 F 26 A 31 P 24

Now lets compare that to Arteta last 20 games in charge for Arsenal:

P 20 W 12 D 1 L 7 F 33 A 23 P 37

Arsenal are winning more, scoring more, conceding less and have gained 54% more points over the period.

So lets stop pretending Arsenal were brilliant under Emery, with Guendouzi, Ozil and Aubameyang in the team. And stop pretending that Arsenal are awful now.

Yes, I would have expected better results in the last 2 games – and defeats in both have likely cost us top 4. But we need to look forwards. Not backwards.

We have the youngest team in the Premier League with a manager who has a vision on what he needs to do.

Finally we also seem to have a plan in the transfer market, with all those in a senior position from Edu to Arteta moving in the same direction.

There is no infighting. It is joined up thinking.

We still have a way to go. Arteta himself admits we need 7 new faces next summer to continue moving forward.

But we are going forward, and that is something we were clearly not doing under Emery.

I am frankly bored of the conversation over Arteta every time we have a poor result. Likewise bored every time Guendouzi has a good game or Aubameyang scores a goal.

Back the players on the pitch. Back the man in the dug out. Stop pinning after those that let us down badly.

I would like to think this will be the last time I blog on this subject. But it probably won’t as those little obsessed weirdos that “support Arsenal” but want us to lose games do not seem to be going away anytime soon.

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend.

Keenos