It has been the elephant in the room all season. The one thing Arsenal didn’t want to talk about.
Ask any Arsenal fan and they will tell you that this season has been different. Whereas last season it seemed the Gunners were heading towards inevitable disaster at top speed, this season they haven’t really hit top gear yet.
Mikel Arteta has been able to turn this around. He claims that his team has the control of the game that he so badly wanted. With a year’s experience in the title race, they have mostly negotiated the chicanes and sharp corners with the kind of pace needed to last the game.
But there is a significant difference compared to last season. This is not a title based on attacking football at full throttle. Instead, it is the Gunners’ defence that has taken them to the top of the standings at Christmas. Only Liverpool have conceded fewer goals than their solid back line. However, Arsenal are not even in the top six in terms of goals scored.
The old wisdom says that defences win titles. But there is only so long you can get away with not taking your chances. The 2-0 defeat to West Ham finally proved to be the game where this wastefulness caught up with them.
“If you look at how much we created in the game, it’s a very disappointing result,” Arteta said of the match. “But they were better than us in both areas. They had two shots, – with three penalties. We had 30, I don’t know how many touches in the box, how many situations, how many chances to score, but we didn’t do it. In football you have to do it better if you want to win.”
It was a performance that seemed to have been in the making for some time. In recent games against Brighton and Wolves, Arsenal have had to suffer nervous finishes due to a lack of sharpness, but on Saturday at Anfield they could even have taken the three points they deserved if they had shown more ruthlessness in the final third of the game.
With Arsenal dominating the opening exchanges, it was a familiar story for much of this festive clash at the Emirates. However, against one of the best opponents in the Premier League, the Gunners were ultimately the victims of a knockout blow. The first was controversial, as Tomas Soucek was denied by Jarrod Bowen’s ball that appeared to be out of play. But VAR, much to Arteta’s chagrin, failed to find the decisive angle that would have changed the decision on the pitch. Equally familiar is the plight of those who believe it was Arsenal.
When Declan Rice hit the roof of the net just after the break, it seemed only a moment before Arsenal would eventually regain the lead. Moments later, however, Dinos Mavropanos got his old team back after a corner.
Even after that, Arsenal had enough chances to at least equalise. Gabriel Jesus had the best of the two, and it was the second of these chances in particular which, for all the Brazilian’s unparalleled ability in the run-up to the game, is the type of missed opportunity by which his play will continue to be judged.
It is difficult not to sympathise with Arteta. When a team has a record number of touches in the opposition box and 30 shots in the course of an evening, it is probably safe to say that the coach has fulfilled his side of the bargain.
For Arsenal, this seems to be something of a crossroads in the title race. They have limited funds to support their manager next month due to profit and sustainability regulations, but they would undoubtedly need more power in the final third. Outwardly at least, Arteta seems willing to work with what he has.
“All we have are the players we have, the players I love the most,” he said at the post-match press conference. “What we have to do is try to get better conditions, more training, raise our confidence and that’s it.”
His actions on the sidelines confirm this. After Jesus’ worst slip-up, the Spaniard turned to the crowd and raised his arms to the sky to orchestrate the Emirates crowd to encourage his team to another comeback. But this time there was no comeback. This can only be blamed on Arsenal’s lack of clinical edge in the final third.