Despite their unbeaten start to the league season (6W, 2D), there have been suggestions that Arsenal are yet to ‘click’ as an attacking force.
The Gunners’ free-flowing attack led to 88 goals last season – surpassing their previous record from the 2004/05 season (87 goals) – with no other team able to better their 16 different scorers throughout the campaign.
They are currently ranked seventh for goals scored (16) this term, but Mikel Arteta insists there are no issues with his striking options and that he wants every player to contribute in the final third where possible.
“I think having players with different qualities gives you different options and it is always related to the opponent, what behaviours they have and what other players you have around that number nine,” he told reporters.
“If you have midfielders as wingers coming infield, a nine that wants to come infield and attacking midfielders that are more holding midfielders, you don’t have any threat.
“We have a nine that wants to come forward, attacking midfielders are constantly threatening the last line, proper wingers – then it becomes a different threat.”
Arsenal have scored nine goals from set pieces this season (includes penalties) – that's more than any other team in the Premier League.
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) October 16, 2023
“You have players in the last line that can progress the play, we have players in the last line that can link those pockets and make the runs that attract central defenders.
“It depends a lot on the qualities of all the players – you can’t just isolate the nine, you have to see the whole thing; how he connects and what kind of threats and things that you do.
“If you don’t have a big nine inside the box and you are playing for a big nine, you lose something. If you’re going to start to crossing with your full-backs, you’re going to have an issue.
“There are many ways to attack and depending on the opponent, we will find which option is better than another one.”
With Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli all nearing full fitness after various spells out injured this season – those concerns could be about to change.
Hopefully Havertz is close to ticking
I just think this narrative is more hypocrisy from the media.
We get criticised for fading at the end of the season. We get criticised for only having one way to play. We get criticised for being too passionate and going too hard in certain games.
So we slow it down, become more methodical and mature and we get criticised because we aren’t winning every game 6 nil.
We should and easily could have won 8 from 8 this season. Anyone criticising us needs to hush themselves. It’s embarrassing.
I mean, they have to print something, so unless and until we win the league the walkers will keep finding something to criticise.
But to be fair, they haven’t really been saying much that we haven’t been posting here ourselves. It’s just more annoying when they do it.
*wankers (not walkers)
Kyle is both.
I just couldn’t be happier with us right now. We’re a proper modern football team. Even us Arsenal fans have no idea how we are going to play tomorrow. That’s so cool. Even Klopp has only got one way of playing. You know exactly what Liverpool will do. Arteta has already created 3 or 4 systems that are all effective which means Poch and co will have no idea how they should be training or what they need to be wary of. A proper modern football team. Sometimes it’s not pretty. Sometimes it lacks explosion. But 6 wins and 2… Read more »
Yes, yes, agree with all that but even my fellow Gooners reading there thumbs to down vote me know, £65M on a decent out and out striker rather than Havertz would have seen us with a more rounded option up front.
When any of the Gabbys and Saka can’t play and Eddie is in we look less of a threat in general, same if Havertz is in the side, threat level goes down
I gotta say, I find this whole “we need a killer upfront” malarky to be absolute BS. Find me a striker that can do what Gabby Jesus does for us and score 25 goals a season. They simply don’t exist. GJ offers us so much more than a Vlahovic or an Osimhen or even a Haaland ever could. Our system only truly works when GJ is on the field. His technique and close control is utterly outstanding. He is an absolute must if we are going to challenge and his role is very specialist. Yes, in an ideal world he… Read more »
Agree with this 100%.. One of the most unnoticed aspects of GJs game is how good he is with his back to goal when the ball is hit long – he has an uncanny ability of plucking it out of the air or winning a free kick trying – a quality that is shared by Kai Havertz – so perhaps if you’re looking for a player who can do what GJ can do, we have one in the making..
It will be a very cold dark day in hell before Havertz can do what Jesus can do.
Not quite sure what’s going on here?
I agree with you completely about Jesus. I love him and all he brings. I have the shirt.
My point is that I’d rather have a £65M bit part player on the bench that is a striker and not Havertz.
Nobody is hushing. Historically we are the most hated team in England and that aint changing. We need to embrace it, wear it like a badge of honour.
COYG!!!
Although historically this is true, we have a very likeable bunch of lads. I would imagine it’s really quite hard to hate Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Jesus, Ramsdale, Rice…
Thankfully Ben White makes up for all the likability by being a stone cold mother fucker.
Well Jesus was way beyond nice and look what they did to him!
People all over the world get persecuted despite being the best human beings.
It’s the badge on the front not the name on the back!
As for Benny Blanco, how can anyone not love him?
I understand persecution more than most.
And if I ever find the one guy that always downvotes my posts….
Sorry mate but you are doomed to suffer that injustice for the rest of your forum days.
And now I know how Joan of Arc felt…
Today you feel gay, today you feel Qatari, today you feel disabled, today you feel… Jeanne d’Arc.
I think Jesus’ newfound insistence on throwing himself to the ground has very much taken him out of that group.
I’m glad he does it as he wins a lot of free kicks, but I’d hate him if I were an opposing fan.
“We get criticised for fading at the end of the season”, hmm, I will constructively accept this one as it is backed by concrete evidence.
Sorry. In future, I’ll attach citations and web-links to every comment I make.
I think Tim hit a nail on the head when he wrote this yesterday:
“As fans, these are the things we might have to consider more and more when we see the teamsheet 60 minutes before kickoff. It’s not just a case of who is playing but why they are playing and which purpose they are serving and what that might mean for the game plan against the opposition on any given day.”
Arteta is raising a complex system with the way we play and it augurs well for us.😀
At night, Mikel has dreams about being bored with 4-D chess and wondering what the next level might be.
If being a football manager was as simple as picking your best perceived 11 players every week, anyone could do it. The margins are fine and we really need to relax on team selection now we have a capable squad.
Indeed. My 14 yo son’s FIFA-licensed coach knows way more than me about the game and he is a nobody on the football map.
Excellent point. Again shout out to Tim Stillman. That Thursday brucey bonus always catches me unawares and I love it. Always so well written and bang on relevant subject matters I didn’t know I had to know! Thanks again Tim, you da man.
We have enough strikeforce to make us title contenders. Last season proves that. But I feel we are one more clinical body in the centre away from title favourites, City or no City.
So a thought experiment. Assume we get no long-term injuries the rest of the season, just the occasional player missing one or two matches. Assume Timber is getting back to fitness by February. And last, that we get Pedro Neto in the January window.
If those three things happen, I think we are realistically the deepest team in the league (even if De Bruyne returns eventually), and more important, the best. In that scenario (which is not certain, but not some crazy fantasy either), I cannot see anyone else winning the league.
Mate, “thought experiments” are what have crushed our hopes for years. The injury curse, the referee curse and some other un-named curse all coming knocking on our door every year like the 3 ghosts of Christmas past.
Even so, putting my optimistic hat on, don’t you think City and Liverpool will do some business in January too?
I can definitely see someone else winning the league even if I like our chances.
Timber by February seems highly unlikely. He was injured mid-August, 5 1/2 months would be just about the quickest ACL recovery of a footballer we’ve seen.
Don’t make an ass out if u and me, pal!
He is obviously not going to come out and criticise his strikers, is he?
But he will see that neither of them is offering much in the way of end product so you would have to say he is considering strengthening in that department.
Perhaps one of them – probably Jesus will find his shooting boots.
Arsenal are lucky as the goals are very evenly distributed throughout the team.
Arteta has a point. The real problem with the team isn’t scoring goals but conceding them. We lost the title last season because we let in too many soft goals, especially at home.
If he can fix the defence then we might just win the title, even if we don’t sign another striker.
Spot on. El Jefe knows what he’s doing.