The tide has shifted yesterday. After a crucial victory on Etihad Arsenal were made the favourites for a Premier League title. That moment was monumental. I am pretty sure it wasn’t the case for at least fourteen last Septembers, maybe more. After the worst game of 2024, the odds have changed back to Man City. And rightfully so. The creativity issues that were apparent in games vs Leicester and Southampton were not addressed, and the squad at Bournemouth was even more conservative.
Liverpool again? Seriously?
Liverpool is now officially a concern for me. They have won relatively confidently against a first difficult opponent (we won’t seriously put Man United into this group, right?) and they already four points ahead of us. If they exit with a point from Emirates, I believe they will be in the title race until March at the very least (Not sure now that we will). And to be honest, I don’t see for now how we can cause them problems. Unless Saka and Martinelli are completely and utterly fit and can tear up their wings to pieces, I don’t see us threatening much. They can afford to be conservative (somewhere now Slot is waving hand to Arteta), they can double up on of the wings if needed and leave their quick forwards for speedy counterattacks. And with Saliba out, it can all play out even more dangerously.
Back to Shakhtar
Tomorrow we are probably having a second easiest game of the group stage. Shakhtar is a club from a war-torn Ukraine. And the club has logically degraded as well. Their budget is decreased, not every player wants to join. Their arena was destroyed several years ago already by Russian shelling. Their fans are scattered around the world. They are playing “home games” on European arenas without ever having a comfort of home crowd. The most interesting player is Ukrainian Sudakov, but as the previous international and CL games have shown, he can’t open up organised defences alone.
Did Arteta learn from Bournemouth?
Given the disposition of teams, the main important question is: did Arteta and the team learn the lesson from Bournemouth?
If the answer is yes, then we will see a much more creative side tomorrow. This effectively means that we need to try out all our creative options, when the main ones are out:
- Nwaneri starts and plays at least 60 minutes. He is our main hope for creativity in the current setup.
- Sterling starts and builds further connections with the other players. He has shown the ability to create threat, now he needs to connect with teammates for end product.
- Merino plays in the left 8 he was intended to play and we have finally a more aggressive midfield.
- Any defensive line-up would do against Shakhtar, including Zinchenko and Kiwior. Considering that Saliba is out for the weekend, it might make sense to see Saliba-Kiwior centre-back pairing to both give Gabriel rest and Kiwior much needed practice.
If the answer is no, then we are back to Arteta’s stubbornness that can only be broken the hard way. We were playing conservative football until we lost our Champions League spot in 21/22 season to Spurs. As a result, new tactical set-up in 22/23 season, and our first title chase on 20 years. Arteta was playing same players over and over until Saliba got broken in March and Arsenal have collapsed in the 22/23 title race.
The reaction on Bournemouth stadium to put on Nwaneri and Jesus was too late, the team was not functioning properly all the game, but Arteta learned it hard way, when Bournemouth already scored two.
I don’t want to see adjustments done too late to save our Premier League campaign. Come on Ethan!
