Aston Villa’s Performance Shows Arsenal Exactly What Their Game Lacks
By: Absalom Mulama
Posted on Monday, November 9, 2020
Arsenal fans and football pundits are reacting to the loss the Gunners suffered at The Emirates stadium in the hands of Aston Villa. The most common talking point in their reactions is that Aston villa’s outstanding attacking game reflected what the current Arsenal squad lacks: direct and creative attacking.
This is the Gunners fourth loss eight games into the 20/21 season. It was probably Mikel Arteta’s worst night so far since taking up the coaching role from Unai Emery about a year ago.
The Gunners’ game of passing sideways and backwards in order to hold possession and draw their opponents in, is getting increasingly predictable. Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta has mostly been the one subjected to the criticism by fans and pundits, since he’s the one who sets up the squad. The criticism however, needs to be shared, by the players as well.
Arsenal’s front three, their captain, Aubameyang, goal starving Lacazette and out-of-form ex Chelsea star, Willian under performed in this game. Aubameyang has been looking isolated out in the left wing in recent matches. He has been on and off again given that his last goal was a penalty on the first day of November, in their win against Manchester United.
Their main striker Alex Lacazette has been struggling to get goals recently. He last scored their only goal on September 28th when they lost (1-3) to Liverpool. He has since featured in almost all Premier League games from Arsenal despite his poor form.
Willian on the right wing has also been underperforming in the Premier League since he made two assists on his debut against Fulham back in September 12th. The gunners went on to comfortably win that game (0-3) and just like Willian’s performance, they have faded off since.
On the other hand, Aston Villa forwards had a fast paced attack in this game and they managed to repeatedly split Arsenal’s defense and get 3 goals. Jack Grealish, John McGinn, Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins posed a direct threat, with Grealish creating six chances during the 90 minutes.
This creative style of attack is what the Arsenal forwards lacked in their game. It was glaringly obvious that they need a natural creative attacking midfielder. Ghanaian new boy, Thomas Partey showed glimpses of direct attacking by distributing the ball to the forwards but he was subbed off at half time.
Mikel Arteta decided to go with Danny Ceballos who’s a more attacking player, in the second half but they ended up conceding two more goals. The Spanish coach needs to address his creative midfielder woes in order to win back the fans’ trust, and keep the top four finish possible. No one knows about the status of their midfield star Mesut Ozil, but his absence in the team shows.
