Apart from the Arsenal fans who have been living under a rock this summer, everyone knows that the narrative has been dominated by Arsenal weighing up whether to sign Viktor Gyokeres of Sporting CP or Benjamin Sesko of RB Leipzig.
It’s the new sporting director Andrea Berta‘s first summer window in charge and he is having to deal with keeping both parties sweet as the Gunners vie for their best players.
It’s a tricky situation because Leipzig and Sporting know that Berta is speaking to both clubs, therefore they can use the situation to their advantage.
The attacking penetration from the North London club dispersed last season as we saw game after game where Arsenal would get to the final third and be bereft of ideas.
It was something many sides had figured out: sit deep and hit Arsenal on the break as they racked up the draws.
Many pointed to injuries and absences upsetting the chemistry and synergy of the team but the fact is, even when Arsenal had a spell of games with their best eleven fit, they looked like a sad far and away from the previous ones under Mikel Arteta that always looked like they were going to score or batter teams in the last dying embers of games.
It’s not just about signing Gyokeres or Sesko, it’s about making sure that with one of them in, they are rejuvenated in attack.
There was an over-reliance on set-pieces and an over-reliance on having the best centre-back pairing in the league, but there’s only so long where you can go through a season and rely on edging teams out.
Arsenal find it tough to break Manchester United down
This is taken from the game vs Man Utd, one of the worst teams in the league who found it pretty easy to quell Arsenal for most of the game.
The problem here is the lack of pinning the defence back and too many players receiving close to Arsenal’s own box.
It’s a 3-2 build-up that is ineffective because take a look at the distances of the front five. Two players on one side, three on the opposing.
Even if they go wide left and find a way through, there are three attackers on the other side of the pitch.
On top of that, the ball is moved so slowly, it’s easy for United to defend against. Laborious side to side passing that lacks penetration.
Arsenal players drop deep to link up
Declan Rice can drive forward with the ball but he isn’t going to do this when he is stuck out wide left.
Martin Odegaard is being followed by Christian Eriksen to drop deep and link-up. Thomas Partey is recieving the ball with two midfielders next to him.
None of these positions are threatening.
There were too many players in midfield last season dropping in to link up deep because there was a lack of space further up the pitch. What they had to do was push one or even two of these players right up against the defence because then at least this way, you could feed the ball into them and make runs in behind.
Granted, this game did not have Bukayo Saka, but do Arsenal really want to become so reliant on the English winger?
Arsenal need a midfielder who can receive on the half-turn and progress the ball, drive forward with it.
They already have Declan Rice who can do that, but he’s sometimes deployed deeper and it would be better if they had two midfielders who could do that.
It’s why the transfer of Martin Zubimendi makes more and more sense.
It’s not just a striker problem, it’s a chance creation and progression problem. Having a lot of the ball in the middle of the pitch is fine but think back to the game vs PSG in the Champions League when Arsenal needed to change it, did it ever look like they were going to?
Having Sesko or Gyokeres means a striker will pin a defence back and have more players to push a defence further back, so less of the players who drop in to link-up need to be further away from goal.
Having Zubimendi, Odegaard and Rice in midfield will let the Gunners play two wingers and a striker because as you can see from above and Arsenal’s games last season, they don’t have players who run in behind to take defenders on.
An innovative, creative midfield elevates Arsenal’s attack.
A striker is the cherry on top and whilst it doesn’t fix all of the attacking issues it will be the key cog that will make the entire system function smoother