If Arteta Doesn’t Make Changes To The Team And Tactics Against Villa, Arsenal Are In Trouble

This is what our manager said moments after Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat to man City on Wednesday, ‘I have more belief because I just saw them go head to head with them.

“Apart from the errors I can’t ask for anymore’

‘We battled, at times we had them.’

‘We had them in the big moments.’

Of course we all can view a football match differently, and I’m not as qualified as Mikel Arteta to analyse a game. I assumed maybe it was the emotion of the night?

Yet 2 days later in his latest press conference asked if Arsenal can compete with Man City he said: ‘I have seen it with my eyes.

“When I saw us against a team I know quite well, It gave me belief we can match them.

“Looking at what we did the other day it gives me lots of encouragement that they are ready’.

When watching the game back with his squad on Thursday apparently they are more ‘motivated ‘ and have ‘clarity’.

He equally viewed our 1-1 draw with Brentford as a ‘really strong performance.’

The Spaniard could be saying all this as a tactic to keep moral high. With a quick turnaround to the next fixture he might see it as counterproductive to be critical when confidence is already low. Every word might be a ploy to lift spirits?

If that’s the case then fine, but the danger is that he actually believes what he’s saying? If he does we can forget any hope of the Championship.

Because this is how I saw the second half the other evening …….

The moment passed us by, Gabriel and Saliba were bullied, Zinchenko kept giving the ball away, Martinelli was invisible, Odegaard went missing, we lacked imagination, Ederson didn’t really have to make a save, the subs were predictable, and the away team cruised to victory with no late push from us.

I need to know Arteta saw that. Yet since Goodison Park there’s zero evidence to suggest that.

His response to Everton where we struggled to make chances was to name the same starting line-up.

Below par then, he still made zero changes for the visit of the Champions.

Pep Guardiola on the other hand experimented with Bernado Silva at left back and you could see was tactically tweaking things throughout.

4 fixtures in a row the Gunners have lacked creativity in the final third, scoring once in open play, yet the tactics have been the same.

If you use Martinelli as an example (a player I love) he’s been off the boil for a while, yet still Trossard doesn’t start.

Vieira isn’t trusted to start, a talent we paid 34 million for. Too many players in Arteta’s reign he just gives up on if he decides they don’t suit his ethos.

As a coach, his job is to train talent and make them better.

That could have led to a Pepe at least being an option off the bench.

Most Gooners have seen when Zinchenko steps into midfield, our left side suffers offensively.

We haven’t seen the Ukrainian tried as a DM (where he plays for his nation) and Tierney given a run at LB, we just seen the same thing.

If you try the same thing and expect different results what’s the word for that.

The starting line up at Villa Park will tell us everything.

I’m hoping to see changes which will tell me our manager deep down notices there have been issues recently.

If there are zero changes then it tells me Arteta believes what he says.

If he believes what he says, we are in trouble