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Arsenal’s dismal start to the Premier League season continued as they went blank in Sunday’s goalless draw with Leeds United.
It was a difficult Sunday night with the Gunners significantly outmatched by the hosts, even before the red card in the second half that Nicolas Pepe received for a header on Ezgjan Alioski.
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Pepe didn’t seem so upset after his dismissal against Leeds
Overall, they barely threatened Illan Meslier’s goal, with his inability to sustain an attacking threat over the course of 90 minutes now a very real problem.
Their top scorer is Alexandre Lacazette, who has hit the bottom of the net just three times, and they have managed a total of just nine in the Premier League this season – the same amount Tottenham striker Heung-Min Son has alone.
“The fact that we need to score more goals is a concern,” admitted coach Mikel Arteta. “We need goals and many goals to win football matches to be the best team we want to be. Without that it is impossible.
“It doesn’t matter how defensive we are.
“It is not the lack of attacking players that we have or the attacking players that we are putting on the field, but we need times when we have to make better decisions and be more ruthless.
“But it’s the hardest thing in football and sometimes we go through these patches and we have to overcome. I have to help the players to overcome and do it as quickly as possible ”.
However, is scoring goals the only problem at the Emirates right now?
It’s a bit more complex than that with various other narratives seemingly affecting the start of the campaign. And that it is going bad at Arsenal? talkSPORT.com has taken a look.
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A frustrated Kieran Tierney had to be held back by teammates and coaches at the final whistle
No threat of attack
Arsenal have managed just nine goals this season – the fifth lowest in the Premier League alongside Fulham – that’s how bad it looks right now.
Sure, they’ve had some tough games. Liverpool, Man City, Manchester United and Leicester have been played, but also four sides that you associate with the bottom half of the table.
And let’s not forget that three of the nine goals also came on Opening Day against the Cottagers.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, fresh off his extraordinary new contract, has only scored two goals in the Premier League and only managed one shot on goal against Leeds, while the team in total had only two.
It speaks volumes when his most creative players were Hector Bellerin and backup Bukayo Saka at Elland Road.
Even going to 4-2-3-1 for the match, away from Arteta’s previous 3-4-3, failed to unleash anything positive and this is becoming an urgent situation that needs to be rectified immediately.
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Aubameyang has only two goals in the Premier League this season
Lack of discipline
Pepe’s red card was a selfish act that showed no real consideration for the situation Arsenal find themselves in.
Caught in the heat of the moment, he couldn’t control himself and was perhaps lucky that his teammates managed to attack and get a 0-0 draw out of the game.
The Ivorian firing was the Gunners’ FIFTH since Arteta took over the club at the end of last December, two more than any other Premier League team during the same period.
If the Gunners are serious about getting back into the top six this season, then they really need to stop putting themselves at a disadvantage with stupid red cards.
They haven’t had too many yellow cards this season, suggesting that only reckless moments are costing them dearly.
There were also reports of a line in training ground between David Luiz and Dani Ceballos during the international break, which is not good for team morale.
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Referee Anthony Taylor waved a red at Pepe in the second half
£ 70 million transfer from Nicolas Pepe
Speaking of the winger, it’s been a year and a half at Arsenal and we have yet to witness why the club spent so much on him.
When buying Ligue 1 attackers, it is always wise to accept that they will not get as many goals and assists as they did in France. But even so, Pepe has now only managed six goals and six assists in 24 starts and 15 substitute appearances. It just isn’t good enough.
In North London, the benefits of giving a player time to settle down and a kick in the back have worked wonders for Tottenham’s Tanguy Ndombele, and now it’s dazzling for José Mourinho.
Arteta really needs to use all of her man-handling skills to get the best out of her attacker or risk a huge loss for the player.
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Pepe has shown flashes of talent, but not enough
Mesut Ozil goes rogue
When a player, who makes £ 350,000 a week, isn’t even on your squad for the Premier League this season, that’s pretty alarming.
When the player simply tweets about your games and gets into discussions with famous fans of the club, then there really is cause for concern.
This matter should have been resolved in the summer with Ozil, one way or another, leaving the Emirates.
Instead, we have a really strange situation, especially when creativity is the only thing Arsenal are crying out for on the football field.
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Ozil cannot play for Arsenal until at least January
Editions of the international week Willian
When the Brazilian was photographed in Dubai during the international break, he was expected to be sanctioned for the trip, especially in a pandemic that forced him to test negative for the coronavirus before he could return to training.
Instead, the matter was apparently overlooked by manager Arteta.
“I do not confirm anything, that it is only an issue that has been resolved, explained and let’s move on,” said the Spanish coach before the game with Leeds.
“Whatever happens internally with any problem, or things we do not expect, we will always try internally. That has been discussed and explained, and we move on. “
Arteta also hinted at ‘personal factors’ but still, many believed that Willian would be absent for the weekend.
He ended up kicking off the match, leaving many wondering why his ‘indiscretion’ had been treated differently from other players within the Arsenal squad.
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Willian visited steak legend ‘Salt Bae’ in Dubai during international break
William Saliba
Universally acclaimed for his performances with Saint-Etienne before and after his £ 27 million move to Arsenal, it looked like the young Frenchman would fast-track into the first team upon his return from the Ligue 1 squad, with whom he spent last season on loan.
It seems that personal problems may have affected the player, but even so, the Gunners were unable to arrange a beneficial loan return to Ligue 1.
Meanwhile, he was not even included in Arsenal’s Europa League squad, further limiting his ability to progress as a footballer.
Arteta believes that the player needs a ‘transition year’, but not reaching an agreement in the summer has created a bad situation that must be resolved in early January.
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Saliba played last week for Arsenal U23 against Everton
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