Arteta's lost the plot

 By 1970s Gooner 

There are four reasons why I believe Arteta has lost the plot.

The first one is his obsession to tinker with something that wasn't broke. In fact it was working smashingly well last season until injuries, squad depth and inexperience of a young team took its toll.

His tinkering has confused the Arsenal players as was so evident with choosing a midfield player to play as an inverted right back. Fulham's first goal came about from Partey ignoring or not being aware that Saka was under pressure and rushed to position himself in midfield leaving a huge gap behind.

Furthermore Arteta has removed White from right back which had the knock on effect of depriving Saka the excellent relationship he had with White. This was a major reason last season which unlocked the spaces behind the two defenders who are usually assigned to stop Saka.

Secondly amidst all this tinkering he insists on starting Havertz in every game when it is blatantly obvious that the boy is not delivering. He can not mark well, link with Martinelli nor score. WHAT CAN HE DO?

Start Trossard there, ESR, Vieira or better still DROP him and play Rice there. He can do the job for sure.

Thirdly why did he have to go with a false number nine? Especially with all the confusion created with all the tinkering in the rest of the team. Start Nketiah there for all of our sake. He has proved that he is up for it.

WAKE UP MIKEL

Dropping points like this and insisting on carrying on with this tinkering will mean that we are now out of the title race unless City hand it to us.

Your target now has to be to finish in the top 5.

This is what has to be done:

1. Reinstate Gabriel in defence and White at right back 

2. Drop Havertz and play Partey, Rice and Odegaard in midfield

3. Give Nketiah a run he will score goals for you

4. STOP TINKERING, you and this squad is not that experienced to copy Pep and his tinkering. 

No wonder Saka and Martinelli are below par

 By 1970s Gooner

Arteta's tactics of using an inverted full back into the midfield spaces has served us well last season. but that was because Zinchenko was so good at it AND Xhaka was playing that role of the box to box left sided midfielder who could attack, link up with Martinelli and come back and defend. 

This season Havertz cannot play that role as effectively as Xhaka did and this is the major reason that Matinelli has been less effective so far (as well as missing Jesus who would move away from the middle allowing Martinelli to move inwards).

This season so far Arteta has tried to go one further with inverting Timber from right back AND playing Partey as an additional inverted right back. In the absence of Timber against Palace he reverted to just inverting Partey from right back. 

But this has greatly affected Saka because now White, who has been moved from RB to the centre back position, cannot bomb up and down the flank to offer support to Saka and Odegaard and help distract the two pronged defence usually employed to stop the wonder boy. Partey is more occupied in central midfield and when he does offer support to Saka he is not that effective with it. Its not his game really.

I think these are the major reasons that in our two games so far we have enjoyed almost total domination of the ball (when playing with 11) but have not been creating enough chances to blow the opponents away. And this leaves you vulnerable to allowing the opponent to feel that they can come back at you as the score is still tight.

I hope that against Fulham Zinchenko could return and play that inverted role and that Arteta reinstates White at right back and brings in Gabriel at centre back. 

I would also be happy if Havertz is dropped and Partey, Rice and Odegaard are cemented as our three midfielders.

In this way the team will be more balanced both in defending but also in creating and scoring more freely.