Mikel Arteta sends message to Arsenal team after Martinelli anger at Nketiah
Nationspy examines the key moments from Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to Everton at Goodison Park in the Premier League.
After a string of near-perfect performances this season, Arsenal was perhaps due for an off day. Possibly only in their game against Leeds have the Gunners earned points they did not merit, but on Saturday against Everton they were thoroughly defeated.
Everton, in typical Sean Dyche fashion, circumnavigated Arsenal, did not allow them a moment’s breathing room, and was direct at every opportunity. According to Mikel Arteta, it was a strategy that threw his team off balance.
“From our side disappointment because we didn’t get the result that we wanted,” he said when describing the display in his post-match press conference. “The performance doesn’t reflect what we’ve been doing especially in two phases – one, when they were really direct and we struggled to control that type of game and get back to the game that we wanted to play.”
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It was evident early on that Arsenal’s feathers were ruffled, but it’s hard not to ask if Arteta might have done more to calm the situation.
The successful January transfer window has provided the Spaniard with choices that simply did not exist in the first half of the season. Despite the absences of Reiss Nelson and Emilia Smith Rowe due to injuries, Arteta still had new additions. Jakub Kiwior, Jorginho, and Leandro Trossard sat on what appeared to be a formidable bench. The new faces provide Arsenal’s manager with a wide variety of tactical options, but when the opportunity to change things occurred, Arteta chose to stick with the status quo.
In credit to the Spaniard, his plan A has been relatively effective this season. It is understandable why Arteta was reluctant to break from Arsenal’s game plan at Goodison Park, given that the Gunners have amassed a five-point deficit by playing the same style of football that they attempted to play for the whole of the match.
The substitutions of Jorginho for Thomas Partey, Trossard for Gabriel Martinelli, Fabio Vieira for Martin Odegaard, and Takehiro Tomiyasu for Ben White posed few issues to Everton that had not previously been answered. Perhaps he could have used the overlapping runs of Kieran Tierney to exploit the Dyche had left in the wide areas on a day when the inverted full back tactic wasn’t working, or he could have sacrificed the more defensive-minded Xhaka for the season’s most creative Arsenal player, Vieira, instead of Odegaard. Instead, despite having an abundance of possibilities, Arteta chose to match like for like.
Obviously, it is much simpler to write this some hours after the final whistle has blown. With the benefit of hindsight, each armchair observer is a special manager. But for possibly the first time in his tenure as Arsenal manager, Arteta now has a roster capable of finding diverse solutions to the Gunners’ inevitable plethora of problems. Maybe he’ll be more motivated to utilize it when they undoubtedly get trapped again for the rest of the season.
Before beginning this section, it is important to note that Eddie Nketiah is responsible for Arsenal’s current position in the title battle. In the past month, the 23-year-old has performed in a manner that few anticipated, and his goals against West Ham, Brighton, and Manchester United have put Arsenal in the greatest position to win the Premier League title in two decades.
However, a narrative has begun to grow that Gabriel Jesus will not be able to regain his starting position when he returns from injury. The Brazilian had not scored in eleven consecutive matches, and with Nketiah in such prolific scoring form, it has been suggested that he should be the starting center striker for the balance of the season.
In football, however, sometimes you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. Saturday, Arsenal felt this sense intensely.
The Gunners desperately needed movement to force Conor Coady and James Tarkowski into parts of the field they did not want to go. Unfortunately, it was severely deficient. Nketiah has typically been adept at moving around the front line in a way similar to Jesus, but against Everton he spent the majority of the match rooted to the center of the field. On the one occasion he did go away from his center position, he was able to disrupt the Toffees’ defense sufficiently to generate a golden opportunity that Martin Odegaard missed by a mile.
This may have been excusable if Nketiah had been as lethal as he has been in recent weeks. However, having created a golden opportunity for himself in the first half, he missed it, much to the frustration of Gabriel Martinelli, who was waiting in the corner for a cutback with his arms extended.
It was an off day for the entire team, so it is probably unfair to pick out Nketiah for criticism. Saturday’s match at Goodison Park was, nevertheless, a timely reminder of what Jesus has to offer for those who have forgotten his value in his absence.
Mikel Arteta is not a man who accepts defeat well. When Arsenal lose, the Spaniard typically wears his disappointment on his sleeve at his post-match press conferences. Saturday though was a different story. Arteta was eager to put the loss behind him and maintain high morale among his teammates.
Arteta stated, “I want the squad to know how much I adore them.” “I love them significantly more now than I did three hours, one week, one month, and three months ago. It is quite simple to be around the players when they are winning and playing well. These are the times when I love my players and staff the most, and we will stick together. This voyage will be difficult and challenging, and there will be large rocks in the midst that we must overcome.”
As we approach Valentine’s Day, it’s reasonable to say that love operates in mysterious ways, but even those unfamiliar with romantic matters can see that Arteta is playing mind tricks here. During the previous season, Arsenal’s losses tended to snowball from one to two or three. When they were competing for the top four, it was almost recoverable, but now that the Premier League championship is on the line, they have no time to feel sorry for themselves.
As the league leaders, it is likely that Arsenal will endure more days like today until the end of the season. Instead of letting the odor of loss to linger in his locker room, it would be prudent for Arteta to attempt to divert attention to his slightly odd statements. Arsenal is eager to move on, and next week’s performance against Brentford will undoubtedly be indicative of their title hopes.
