Arteta’s first job is to fix Arsenal’s misfiring midfield as Gunners’ main weakness is trio of Ozil, Xhaka and Torreira
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ARSENAL made their move for one of the masterminds of Manchester City’s 3-0 dismantling of the Gunners on Sunday – Mikel Arteta.
Following the game managing director Vinai Venkatesham and chief negotiator Huss Fahmy left Arteta’s Manchester mansion after midnight.
But there’s a huge task ahead for Arteta if he takes the plunge and swaps his position as Pep Guardiola’s assistant for the Emirates hotseat.
As midfield maestro Kevin De Bruyne, scorer of two of the goals and provider of the other, said: "The attackers try to press up but when we pass them, they don't help the Arsenal defence.
"We always get spaces all over the pitch.
"I think it's really difficult for the defenders to control it because obviously you can come from everywhere on the pitch."
De Bruyne is right. Arsenal’s defence has copped a lot of stick, but it’s not getting the protection it needs from the men in front of it.
But it’s not just the forwards who aren’t helping out. A major part of any team’s defensive base is the midfield.
There are three basic ways an individual player can do this: tackles, interceptions and fouls. And these are not things Arsenal midfielders are very good at.
Comparing every Premier League midfield across the first 16 games this season, it’s clear Arsenal have been leaving things wide open.
DEFENSIVELY BEHIND
No wonder Leno has made more saves than any other Premier League keeper.
Things improved against City on Sunday – Matteo Guendouzi, Torreira and Ozil managed an average 4.93 tackles, interceptions and fouls between them per 90 minutes.
But that came at the expense of their attacking output.
Normally, the three-man Arsenal midfield create four and a half chances a game between them, which is pretty good. But against City that dropped to 2.
THEY'RE CREATING CHANCES
And it’s a big problem for Arsenal if the midfielders aren’t putting it on a plate for the forwards. Because they’re not doing much else.
They’re certainly not scoring many goals. Here are the overall goals scored from midfield per man.
When combining the three outputs – defensive contribution, chances created and midfield goals scored – it’s clear how Arsenal’s midfield is one of the worst performing in the entire Premier League, and far closer to the bottom than the top.
LACK OF GOALS FROM MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD NOT DOING ENOUGH
These numbers are in absolute terms, although when you adjust the tackles, interceptions, fouls and chances created for the amount of time the teams spend on the ball, the picture changes – and pushes Arsenal slightly higher up the midfield-output table.
Arsenal perform marginally better here, but they’re still a long way from the top four Arsenal fans had grown used to.
The midfield battle is where games are won and lost, particularly for possession teams like Arsenal – the top three for midfield output, Leicester, Man City and Chelsea, are all possession teams, and they’re all in the Premier League top four.
At least Arteta made 284 Premier League appearances as a midfielder, 119 of them in an Arsenal shirt.
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So he’ll be able to see what needs fixing.
But actually making things work from here is a massive task for anyone – even for Pep's apprentice.
Midfielders assessed in this piece:
ARSENAL (Torreira, Xhaka, Ozil)
BOURNEMOUTH (Billing, Lerma)
BRIGHTON (Mooy, Stephens, Propper)
BURNLEY (Cork, Westwood)
CHELSEA (Kanté, Jorginho, Kovacic)
CRYSTAL PALACE (Miliojevic, McArthur)
EVERTON (Schneiderlin, Gomes, Sigurdsson)
LEICESTER (Ndidi, Maddison, Tielemans)
LIVERPOOL (Fabinho, Henderson, Wijnaldum)
MAN CITY (Rodri, D Silva, De Bruyne)
MAN UTD (Fred, McTominay, Lingard)
NEWCASTLE (Longstaff, Hayden, Shelvey)
NORWICH (Trybull, McLean,. Buendia)
SHEFFIELD UNITED (Norwood, Lundstram, Fleck)
SOUTHAMPTON (Hojbjerg, Romeu, Ward-Prowse)
SPURS (Winks, Sissoko, Alli)
VILLA (Nakamba, McGinn, Hourihane)
WATFORD (Capoue, Hughes, Doucoure)
WEST HAM (Rice, Lanzini, Noble)
WOLVES (Moutinho, Neves)