Mikel Arteta in his views have asserted his stance with regards to why Arsenal FC are exhibiting no clear intents in securing the three maximum points in their quest to clutch the English Premier League (EPL).
Two consecutive English Premier League (EPL) seasons have been characterized by a second-placed finish Londoners, who seem poised at every start of Prem campaigns yet exhibit look-warm performances at the tale-end of their campaign.
In Arsenal’s scenario, the make-believe is that, the Emirate club deserves a chance to increase their EPL trophy cabinet after putting up splendid strides against other oppositions.
This season, statistics have indicated that, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have in abundance, quality materials in his ranks which provides him a glaring advantage against other league contending sides like Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Unai Emery’s Aston Villa.
However, an astonishing outcome of result was birthed in a clear disjoint fixture involving top of the table team scheduled to play against the worse club in this year’s Prem based on their league standings.
At the Molineux Stadium, a two-goals cushion by the league leaders was not enough to secure maximum points as Wolverhampton Wanderers fought back in the most incredible and jocular fashion to snap a value point, ending the game in a 2-2 result.
The aftermath of this game had cause a brawl in camp as Mikel Arteta and his lads have began displaying their indispensable killer-instinct in periods when it mattered the most.
“In the second half, we didn’t perform at any level in any aspect of the standards required to win a game in the Premier League,” then “now we pay the price. Too many things went wrong. We never got any dominance or control of the gam,” Mikel Arteta fumed.
On minute-five, Arsenal’s talisman, Bukayo Saka bagged an incredible goal to communicate an obvious intentions of his side’s interest to win the game, however, a poor second half display of performance deprived them of snatching all three points.
In his post-match presser, the English winger claimed, “Pressure? I don’t think about all of that. I just think we [Arsenal FC] need to just get back to our level,” then “Do the basics right, we’ve got more than enough quality in this team to win games, especially the games where we’ve been dropping points recently.”
This brings to the fore, Arsenal in their last five games have won three and shared points in two of the games which aggregates eleven points out of possible fifteen points.
On the flip side, Pep Guardiola’ Manchester City with one game deficit are second on the league table, having amassed fifty-three points, which brings to bear, should Manchester City pick up their three maximum points against Newcastle United on Saturday, the points gap closes to just two points.
Does Arsenal FC have a chance?
With the amount of financial investment sunk into recruiting some of the best players for Mikel Arteta, certainly, he has no options than to make it count by securing the Premier League title.
As pundits and fanatics of the game in previous seasons yearned for a proper center-forward for Arsenal, the services of former Sporting star, Victor Gyokeres has seemingly not had any significant impact the side.
Pondering over ARteta’s system of play with the deployment of the 4-2-3-1 formation, which affords his team an exceptional balance in defense and a creative fluidity in attack anchored by a double pivot.
Clearly, Arteta needs to vary his system, permitting the frontline to play with some form of flexibility, providing an avenue for his set-up to express themselves which further puts opposition defense into a dilemma hence, creating more goal creation opportunities for his side.