Mikel Arteta Addresses Arsenal’s Profligacy: We Have What We Have

By The Editor
on 29th December 2023

Arteta not seeking a miracle to help forward line…

Mikel Arteta isn’t hoping for a miracle to fix Arsenal’s profligacy and accepts that he has to work with the squad he has following Thursday’s disappointing defeat against West Ham United.

Arsenal set a Premier League record of touches in the opposition’s box without scoring a goal, with Arteta’s men finding themselves in the visitor’s penalty box on 77 occasions.

Despite our favourable territory, we only created two clear chances that you’d expect our forwards to take – falling to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus respectively.

Other than that, it was a toothless offensive display which was further lamented by our inability to defend adequately as West Ham went 2-0 up with just two shots at goal.

With all our forward options currently fit and available, Arteta has accepted that he must make it work with the tools at his disposal, ignoring the imminent reopening of the transfer window.

“What we have is the players that we have, it’s the players that I love the most,” Arteta told the press.

“What we have to do is try to get better situations, and more training, put them there and raise their confidence and that’s it because they have done it.”

Unless the club receives a huge offer for a player in the upcoming window, the purse strings will be tight at the Emirates Stadium and we must find internal solutions.

Quite frankly, the only solution is for the forward players to take responsibility and reach last season’s numbers in the second half of the campaign.

In terms of Arteta’s tactics, he’s still coaching us to be a dominant team that spends most of the game in the opponent’s third and keeps them there, it’s up to the players to finish the actions.