Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal cannot tolerate any more mistakes if they want to stay in the Premier League title race.
The Arsenal manager also admitted that it was a worrying situation during his tenure that the team had gone long games without a win, which had undermined their campaign.
“We want to stop this as quickly as possible,” Arteta said. “Every time you lose, the next most important thing to stop it is to win. “We failed to do that and that is a fact and we have to face it.”
Arsenal return to league action on Saturday with a lunchtime kick-off at home to Crystal Palace on a run of just one win from seven matches in all competitions, including elimination by Liverpool in the FA Cup and a Champions League draw against PSV Eindhoven . .
However, this ranking also includes a drop of 11 points from a possible 15 points in the league; Arsenal sit five points behind leaders Liverpool and now sit fourth, just ahead of Tottenham Hotspur on goal difference.
The concern is that this has happened before, and in the previous three seasons that Arteta has been in charge. Of course, this can happen to any team and, given the impact defeats clearly have on confidence and the factors behind them (the sheer number of injuries, for example), it often happens in droves.
But for Arsenal it happened too often and too consistently. There is a pattern to be addressed: there were only two winning streaks in eight last season, plus two winless runs in four (including one of three defeats). There have been three more long disruptions in 2021-22; four losses out of five, no wins in five (and three losses) and no wins in four (and three losses again). The season before that, Arsenal won three of 11 matches (losing six), a fifth and two out of eight (defeating four).
“We’ve done a lot of things during matches to try to produce as much as possible and get as little out of the opposition as possible. That hasn’t happened yet,” Arteta said when asked what he was doing to prevent this trend from happening. “At the end of the day you have to win games, but we didn’t.”
Given the narrow margins at the top, with Manchester City gathering strength in the second half of the season and Liverpool advancing, Arteta is clear that anything short of maximum points against Palace is unacceptable and will lead to more critical questions being asked.
“If we’re going to be there we definitely better start picking up points,” he said. “We will need to have three points on the board consistently and we know you can’t make any more mistakes at this level.”
Arteta’s disappointment, or so he claimed, was that the statistics showed Arsenal should have won many more games than they did this season.
“If you look at all the data, Arsenal, Arsenal; top, top, top,” he defended, adding: “The truth is we haven’t won enough games, so there’s something underlying that. It’s like an onion: first layer, two layers. Whether we win or not “We have to get to the bottom to understand what caused us not to win. There were small details, small margins… we have to change that. We have to find something else to win.”
Arsenal’s eight-day warm-weather training camp in Dubai has included work on this issue, including trying to simplify things in attacking positions, and players have been allowed to bring their families along to take advantage of the Premier League’s harsh winter window.
Arteta admitted his confidence had been affected. “Of course that’s a big factor,” he said, adding: “But… we create more chances than any other team in the league.” However, the data does not support Arteta’s claim; Arsenal are only sixth in the Premier League on the key measure of xG (expected goals), fourth for shots taken and only seventh for shots on target. They score higher in passing in the final third, being second only to Manchester City.
After 20 games, Arsenal are 10 points worse off than last season, having scored fewer goals (37 vs 45) and conceded more (17 vs 20) and have invested heavily in the transfer market – Chelsea striker Kai Havertz including. £65 million. The elephant in the room was, of course, the result of the decision not to sign a centre-forward last summer.
The £105m investment in Declan Rice has been a success and he is part of Arsenal’s strongest axis with Gabriel and William Saliba, although there is less commitment to Havertz.
To be fair, any criticism needs to be made in light of the fact that Arteta and Arsenal were undoubtedly overachievers last season – so comparisons on points and goals are difficult – but elite sport is all about continuing to improve and improve. “Marginal gains” Arteta called out and unfortunately for Arsenal this is not visible at the moment as the manager tries to identify the reasons for repeated runs without enough wins.
Arsenal also need to decide whether to send Emile Smith Rowe on loan to West Ham United after receiving information about the attacking midfielder. Indications show that neither Arsenal nor the player are willing. “I’m really pleased with Emile,” Arteta said, despite being an undeniably fringe player. “He’s on the right track and progressing steadily, he’s training really well and you know I don’t like to talk about individual situations.”