LONDON – The last thing that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta would want is for his Gunners to be misfiring.
Following a disappointing 2022-23 English Premier League season, in which his team led for 248 days before collapsing and being overtaken by serial champions Manchester City, the Spaniard has been hoping to make amends.
However, this campaign has not gone the way he had wanted.
Arsenal, who were again leading the way at Christmas, have dropped to fourth in the standings on 40 points after 20 games, behind leaders Liverpool (45), City and Aston Villa, who both have 43.
Their next match is at home against 14th-placed Crystal Palace on Jan 20 but, crucially, the Gunners are finding it tough to score at the moment.
They have managed to find the net just five times in their last seven games in all competitions and won only one of their previous five league matches.
Their last fixture was a 2-0 loss to Liverpool in the FA Cup third round, and Arteta’s men have scored only one goal from 61 shots across their past three matches – all defeats.
Is it specifically a striker problem? Former Gunner William Gallas believes it is more of an overall mentality issue.
“Arsenal always have the same problem. When you are in that position and you are top of the Premier League at Christmas, you simply have to keep that position,” he said.
“That means every game you have to win and that’s why for me, it was unacceptable that they lost to Fulham away (2-1 in their last league game).
“It’s a problem of the players because they didn’t do their job, they weren’t good enough and it was unacceptable.
“With Arsenal, it’s always the same problem and it seems to be happening over again.
“The players have to understand it and they have to do more and fight to win even if they don’t play well. They don’t have that mentality at the moment.”
The former centre-back, now 46, played for Arsenal from 2006 to 2010 and captained his side from 2007 to 2008.
The Frenchman also believes that current skipper Martin Odegaard can do better in terms of motivating and inspiring his teammates when the chips are down.
“I was speaking about Odegaard, who is so talented and his technique is unbelievable. But, if he’s not on the level we expect him to be, it looks like the team doesn’t play well,” he added.
“It’s not only Odegaard though, he’s not the only one, but I don’t think he’s been at the level he needs to be at.”
Arsenal have been undergoing warm weather training in Dubai ahead of the Palace clash, while things are quiet in the January transfer window for the Gunners.
The club were linked to attackers like Brentford’s Ivan Toney, Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, Getafe’s Borja Mayoral, Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic and even veteran striker Karim Benzema, who captains Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad.
For now, though, regardless of whether his team have the right mentality, it seems that Arteta will have to stick with his misfiring forwards – who have not reached double digits in league goals this season.
Bukayo Saka leads the pack with six, ahead of Eddie Nketiah (five). Odegaard and Kai Havertz have four each, while Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard and the injury-prone Gabriel Jesus have three apiece.
Asked about signing a new attacker, Arteta said after the loss to Liverpool that “it doesn’t look realistic at the moment”.
“My job is to improve our players and get better results with the players we have,” he added.
“So, stick by them. If we have 18 shots, then next time we need to have 35. If we continuously do that, the ball will go in the net and we’ll generate momentum and we’ll win the games. That’s for sure.”
