The story of Arsenal is that of a club in distress. The London club seems to have gone from bad to worse under Unai Emery. Truly, the last season of Arsene Wenger in the club was crazy, to say the least, and Unai Emery was brought in to be the fixer.
The club is currently sixth in the Premier League table with eight points below Manchester City who occupies the fourth position. We’ve also played 12 matches this season and have only won four, conceding 17 goals, averaging 1.42 goals conceded per match. (Premier League stat)
The aim of the club is to have a top-four finish this season. This will see the club back in Europe’s top competition, Champions League. Arsenal have been away from the Champions League for some seasons now and it has affected both the club’s financial standing and overall image of the club in world football.
To remedy this, Unai Emery was brought in when Arsene Wenger resigned and he hasn’t shown much of an improvement for us to be satisfied with. Even though it doesn’t seem like the club would boot the 48-year-old manager out just yet, fans are starting to lose patience.
With everything the club is going through, there are things Arsenal need to be bothered about and deal with it as a matter of urgency.
Leak in defense
The Arsenal defense is a joke. We might be trying to sugarcoat things or looking the other way but deep down, we will agree that our backline is not something to write home about.
We have played 12 Premier League matches this season and have conceded 17 goals, only able to keep two clean sheets. In all of the 12 matches, we have seen two errors lead to goals, booked with 27 yellow cards, one red card and committed 74 fouls. (Premier League stat)
Even after the big-money signings that saw Tierney and Luiz join us, our defense still suffers and we can’t seem to keep things together.
There is only one way to deal with this which is to go all out when the transfer window resumes in January. We need defenders that can keep our back strong and be consistent with their performance.
Inability to maintain a lead
Although we haven’t been paying much attention to this, it has become a huge problem for the team. We are gradually becoming a team that can’t maintain a comfortable lead and that shows on how we play.
It played out in the Carabao Cup when we played against Liverpool in a match that would have seen us qualify into the Quarter Final but we lost on penalties after bottling a two-goal lead twice in the game.
The same thing played out against Crystal Palace and it is quickly becoming a matter of serious concern. If we can’t maintain a lead then how do we intend to perform against the best teams in the world when we finally get to play in the Champions League?
Key players leaving
Even though this is not sure yet but talks have been going around and the reasons are plausible. If we are going to see players leave in January, one player who is definitely leaving is Granit Xhaka. The Swiss international had been jeered at in Arsenal’s match against Crystal Palace and he had responded in a not-too good manner. Even though he had apologized, he had been stripped of his captaincy and some fans are even going as far as asking that he not be allowed to play again.
Another player we might be losing soon is Mesut Ozil. The German has been an integral part of Arsene Wenger’s squad but for some reason, Unai Emery has decided to alienate the 31-year-old at the club. He hasn’t been allowed to play as much as he should and when he gets to play and things go wrong for Arsenal, he gets the blame regardless of Arsenal’s poor form.
Nobody likes to be made a scapegoat and this might see Ozil seek for greener pasture sooner than we expect.
One player who might have started hinting on leaving is Aubameyang. As seen on Daily Star Uk, the Arsenal star had taken a dig at the club’s management after his friend and controversial Youtuber, Troopz was banned from the stadium.
Aubameyang had invited Troopz who he has personal relationships with and that has been an issue, one which saw him make a post on his Instagram later hinting that he might have to leave if the club won’t let him keep his personal relationships.
Conclusion
With all these problems brewing at Arsenal, we might be in a deeper mess than we think if we don’t deal with the issues sooner enough. As it is, we are already going through a tough time and shouldn’t be doing things to compound issues for ourselves.
