For the first time in 2024, Arsenal have gone three Premier League matches without a win. The shock defeat for Manchester City away to Bournemouth meant that things didn’t get too much worse, but 10 games in and the gap to the top is already seven points.
Once more falling to defeat at Newcastle – the second season in a row that a 1-0 scoreline has left Mikel Arteta frustrated at St James’ Park – things are just a little off for Arsenal. Be it via red cards or injuries, the Gunners have struggled to put together a full 90 minutes of imposing football, often falling well short of this mark.
Compare that to what had come before for much of this calendar year and it is quite the contrast. Arsenal had been unerringly relentless, pushing City all the way, seeking out every last sinew of energy and quality that the squad has.
Maybe things have been unfortunate, maybe there is no juice left for the majority after a mentally and physically draining title race. Whatever it is, Arteta is suffering.
Too many of the signings he has made in the past two years have struggled not on the pitch but in actually getting onto it. Jurrien Timber missed almost all of 2023/24 with a knee injury and has been sidelined since his return already this season. The 2022 summer recruits of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus have found themselves more readily unavailable than available for almost 18 months.
This causes a wave of problems for Arteta – a manager who already works with a small and select group of players in order to deliver togetherness and a tight-knit, tactically cohesive display. The trickle-down is not only that players cannot be rotated when opportunities arise due to a lack of backups, but also that he has nowhere to turn to when issues arise.
