Ian Mills What Arsenal need do regarding the problem about our lack of creativity
San Siro should be the setting for several changes after Arsenal lack of ruthlessness in attack cost us at Forest
Here's Ian Mills with his regular series Three Things We Learned ahead of Inter Milan vs Arsenal in the Champions League after a lack of a killer instinct saw us fail to take full advantage of Manchester City and Aston Villa’s defeats at the weekend
– Mikel Arteta was quick to sight what he felt were four clear cut chances to score in this game as well as what he described as a clear penalty.
Without doubt Gabi Martinelli should have put us ahead in the first half yet somehow contrived to scuff screw his shot wide of the goal when it appeared easier to score. Soon after, Martin Zubimedni opted to cross rather than shoot despite demonstrating his prowess in front of goal as recently as the midweek Carabao Cup semi- final victory at Stamford Bridge.
Viktor Gyokeres added to our frustrations when, despite having a free run into the Forest half, he was unable to hold off the advancing defenders and subsequently saw his shot blocked.
Having already swapped Leandro Trossard for Martinelli at half time, Arteta made another there substitutions early in the second half as Bukayo Saka, Mikel Merino and Gabriel Jesus replaced Noni Madueke, Gyokeres and Martin Odegaard.
Mat Sels, who enjoyed another good performance in a home game against us, made the save of the match with a brilliant effort to palm away Saka’s fine header.
However, we offered very little else in attack with Declan Rice having an effort blocked and Merino taking a great Rice delivery off the head of The King of Brazil when he had been better placed to score.
The harsh reality is that our top Premier League goalscorers are Gyokeres and Trossard – both on five goals.
Thankfully, our defence remains rock solid, and this was the fifth League game this season where we stopped an opponent having any shots on target.
With this game following the equally disappointing display versus Liverpool, we need to find the right balance in midfield and attack to eek out a winning goal in such tight matches.
Kai Havertz’s reputation has benefitted from revisionist thinking as in his absence Gyokeres has largely struggled whilst Jesus is never going to get the number of goals we need him too.
Once he is fully match fit, I would start with Havertz, in the meantime I would play Merino in attack as he looks the most threatening forward currently fully fit.
As for the penalty, had it been given us against us I would have been furious. I think it was 50/50 and we certainly need to create more to ensure that our old ‘friend’ VAR does not come back to haunt us in such moments.
2 - What do we do about a problem like our lack of creativity:
– our midfield is by no means the sole focus of this point, however with Odegaard again being taken off early in a game where he made very little impact, it is an area that requires some re-thinking.
Eberechi Eze has largely found himself on the sidelines recently, seemingly as punishment for not tracking back for Matt Cash’s goal in the 1-2 defeat at Villa Park.
When Odegaard was absent through injury, he had a run of games where he started to impose himself however I also think he and our Skipper could work well in tandem.
He can also play on the left on midfield of course which continues to be a position being job shared’ by Trossard and Martinelli. To be fair to the pair of them they are both contributing a fair amount to our attack this season.
Given the lack of goals further forward, we need goals from everywhere in the team.
3 - San Siro should be the setting for several changes:
– Inter await at the San Siro tomorrow evening, and with such a great start under our belts in Europe we can afford to make several changes to the starting line-up. Inter beat us last season courtesy of a rather generous penalty award and will be keen to gain a second straight win against ourselves
However, we are a team that has lost just twice in 33 games so far this campaign and is not one that purposely sets out to draw a game whatever the views on Arteta’s ‘handbrake’ approach to the bigger fixtures.
In defence, we are still light on numbers therefore we really do not have much chance for rotation however further forward we can make numerous changes. Ideally, one of Gabriel or Saliba and Timber can start this on the bench alongside Rice, Zubimendi and Saka.
While not needing necessarily to win in Italy we also must ensure that we do not get the balance wrong to end up on the end of a negative result before a sizeable task against Manchester United at the weekend.
