Arsenal have struggled so far this season and currently lie in 10th place with a disappointing 34 points from 24 games. After a positive end to last season with the FA cup final victory and then the Community Shield win a couple weeks later, many people had high hopes for Mikel Arteta’s first full season in charge but by Christmas Arsenal found themselves down in 15th and just four points above the relegation zone with fans beginning to turn against the Spaniard.
After an impressive 1-0 victory over Manchester United on the first of November, Arsenal went on an abysmal run of seven games without a win which included home losses against Aston Villa, Wolves and Burnley. It was relegation form and quite frankly they were playing like a team who deserved to go down. The team looked short of ideas and things were looking very worrying. Arsenal were missing a creative spark and the side looked short of ideas and things were looking very worrying. The awful run was ended by an impressive 3-1 victory over Lampard’s Chelsea on boxing day and Arsenal’s form changed for the better from then, whilst that game signalled the beginning of the end for Lampard at Chelsea.
Arsenal’s upturn in form was a result of Arteta putting faith in the youth who had to step up as the more experienced players looked uninterested and simply not good enough. Emile Smith-Rowe, who has started in the #10 position since the game against Chelsea, has taken the premier league by storm and no player has more assists than the 20-year-old Englishman since boxing day. One of the main issues Arsenal had faced in the first half of the season was a lack of creativity leading to large sections of the fanbase calling for Mesut Ozil to be recalled back into the first team. However, the emergence of Smith-Rowe hugely boosted the amount of chances Arsenal were creating and showed that they could move on from Ozil. Admittedly I was one of the fans calling for Ozil’s return to the squad, yet I was proven wrong by the impact of Smith-Rowe, but it just left me questioning why it took Arteta so long to start the man now dubbed as ‘The Croydon De Bruyne’. Bukayo Saka was one of the few players who could hold his head high during the Gunners’ bad run of form and since his move to right wing his performances have been influential to Arsenal’s positive post-Christmas run. Other standout players for Arsenal this season include Rob Holding who has been very solid at the back throughout the season and Kieran Tierney, who’s attitude and performances on the pitch has seen him establish himself as a fan favourite.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored 22 goals last season for Arsenal which saw him rewarded with a lucrative new contract before the start of this season but with only 5 goals in 18 matches before his hat trick against Leeds, it has been a very poor season for the gunners’ captain. The question of ‘Where would Arsenal be without Aubameyang’s goals?’ was asked a lot last season and this season has showed that the answer is bottom half of the table. He has been a victim of Arsenal’s creative crisis but has not helped himself much at all and has not even looked half the player he was last season most of the time. Arsenal fans will be hoping that his hat trick against Leeds will be a sign of things to come for the rest of the season.
Another factor contributing to Arsenal’s dire league position this season has been a lack of discipline that has been ever-present since Mikel Arteta took charge. The gunners have received a league high five red cards this season, 2 more than any other team and dropped points in every game they were reduced to 10 (or 9) men. Hector Bellerin recently said in an interview that the opposition weren’t beating Arsenal, but they were just shooting themselves in the foot and the evidence in favour of that view is clear to see.
One major positive to Arsenal’s season is the improvements in the defence. Mikel Arteta has done an amazing job at improving the Gunners’ historically fragile defence, with their improved defensive structure being clearly visible in their games and their results. Only three teams have a better defensive record than Arsenal who have conceded just 25 goals in 24 games. Arsenal are actually four points better off than they were at this stage last season, so despite the poor position in the table, slow progress is being made.
Whilst there is no doubt Arsenal have had a terrible season, the upturn in form since Christmas should give them the boost, they need to hopefully climb the table into the esteemed European spots. It’s been a weird old season and even though Arsenal are currently eight points off the top four, you cannot write anything off. I predict that they will finish 7th.
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