LONDON — Maybe Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and set-pieces are not enough to win the Premier League after all. Arsenal have more about them than that, of course, but much of the frustration over Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Everton will likely be channelled toward the club’s approach to the January transfer market.
The Gunners were not planning to spend big next month despite the sense of title possibility created by Manchester City‘s return to Earth. City are making it known they will back Pep Guardiola in the market as they seek to arrest their alarming decline, but Arsenal are presently of the view that only injuries or an exceptional, unexpected opportunity will push them to commit a considerable sum in January.
Mikel Arteta’s first stop in this conversation is usually to point to the options he has and the internal improvements they can make. The good news there at least is that there is plenty of room for it.
Odegaard, Saka and Arsenal’s set-piece prowess — marked by a mural of specialist coach Nicolas Jover the distance of a back-post corner away from Emirates Stadium — have proved a wonderfully potent combination of late. But they have perhaps masked the lack of game-changing options Arteta can turn to in moments like this, where a team sets up to defend and is deeply entrenched in a conservative shape.
Everton had 10 days without a game due to the postponement of last weekend’s Merseyside derby and were therefore well-rested and well-drilled compared to Arsenal, who played twice more in the same period. It is an unusual imbalance that no doubt contributed to the result, but while the final 20 minutes were frantic, this was the sort of controlled chaos Arsenal are able to create at their best when chasing a game.
Too often, misplaced passes or the wrong choice in the final third disrupted the sense of momentum that Arsenal usually create to overwhelm opponents in these circumstances.
Arsenal’s substitutes didn’t help, and that is on both Arteta and the individuals involved. Odegaard and Declan Rice were withdrawn after 62 minutes, a voluntary decision to break up the Odegaard-Saka-Jurriën Timber right-hand side that’s been their most consistent route to goal of late.
Arteta confirmed afterwards that Rice “felt something” related to an unspecified injury he has been carrying for a week, but Odegaard’s substitution was purely tactical.
“With Martin it was a tactical decision to try to change their rhythm on that side,” he said. “I understand. If Ethan comes in and he scores a goal, it’s a great goal. If he doesn’t, you have taken your captain out. That’s football.”
Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing, but asking a 17-year-old on his 11th Premier League appearances to replicate or improve upon the creativity of Arsenal’s playmaker felt like a big gamble at the time. Seven minutes later, Arteta switched Timber to left-back as part of a double change in which Gabriel Jesus and Thomas Partey were introduced, before Leandro Trossard replaced Gabriel Martinelli in the final move.
The end result was unusually disjointed. Kai Havertz had a quiet afternoon, while Jesus has now not scored in his last 23 league appearances, and just once in 34 matches across all competitions. Trossard was wholly ineffective, while Raheem Sterling did not even get on despite the desperate circumstances.
A physical team defending deep in numbers is not necessarily an obvious problem for someone with Sterling’s skillset to solve, but there is a troubling distance forming between the impact many hoped he would have after signing on loan from Chelsea and the ineffective fringe player he is quickly becoming. That is also perhaps a warning of how acting in the market does not always provide effective solutions. Arteta would also no doubt point to the fact Arsenal scored 91 goals last season, the highest number in their Premier League history.
“At the end, you need a spark and you need to be precise,” he said. “We had the chances and this could have been 2-0 or 3-0, and [then] nobody is talking about it. “The reality is 0-0 and they are not going to talk about all the incredible things the team did in the game.
“Honestly it’s difficult to ask something else from the team. OK, individually can we do things a bit better and with a little bit more quality and deliver that magic moment when it’s necessary? Yes. But that is not easy.”
Arsenal have delivered so many magic moments in recent months, but equally, Arsenal may soon get to the point where they feel compelled to find more stardust in the market if there are many more lacklustre days like this.