Mikel Arteta only has himself to blame if three major issues derail Arsenal title charge

Mikel Arteta will struggle to find any valid excuses if Arsenal don't end their 22-year Premier League title drought this season

There is a feeling among Arsenal players and fans that this season has to be their season in the Premier League.

Mikel Arteta has effectively built this team from scratch to become title contenders in his six years in charge. All there is left to do now is for the north Londoners to get over the line at the fourth time of asking, following three straight runners-up finishes.

The Gunners are on track to do so, given they lead the table by two points at Christmas. But Arteta will know better than anybody that they haven't been flawless.

So, without further ado, football.london takes a look at the three biggest threats to Arsenal fulfilling their potential and winning the league this season.

Martin Odegaard

Everyone by now is well aware of just how highly Arteta thinks of Martin Odegaard. The Norwegian was named captain after just one full season at the club, spearheading Arteta’s revolution with his creativity, maturity, tactical awareness and out of possession play, despite his tender age.

Thanks to the success he enjoyed in his early Arsenal career, having scored 15 goals in the 2022/23 season, the assumption was that Odegaard’s trajectory would continue to soar. His goals-scored halved in 2023/24 but he made up for it by being more productive in terms of assists, as Arsenal fell two points short of the title.

By the time he injured his ankle at the beginning of last season, which led him to miss six weeks of action between mid-September and early November, there was already a feeling among a section of fans that his levels had noticeably dropped from two years prior.

His less reliable final ball and a lack of efficiency in front of goal have since drawn even more criticism, dividing the fan-base into those who would rather see another player given the chance in the right attacking-midfield position and those who believe the 27-year-old will come good again.

Whichever side of the fence you're on, it’s hard to look past the fact Arsenal’s best performances this season came when he was absent or coming off the bench due to injury. Between the 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in September and the 3-1 win over Bayern Munich in late November, Arsenal won 13 and drew just two of their 15 matches in all competitions.

Eberechi Eze thrived in his absence in a more traditional No.10 role, having been shifted out to the wing previously to accommodate the Gunners skipper. Since his return to fitness, Arteta has mainly backed Odegaard as his main creative midfielder, while Eze has been utilised less frequently and Ethan Nwaneri has essentially been forgotten about. Arsenal, partly due to their defensive injuries, have endured a rocky patch since the Bayern win.

Arteta’s belief is that Odegaard is crucial to the side with his out of possession play further up the pitch, along with his ability to work effectively with Bukayo Saka and unlock low blocks. Yet, the issue is that his pressing has looked noticeably off since his return, with Wolves equalising as a direct consequence of his lapse in concentration and very nearly threatening to derail Arsenal’s title charge earlier this month.

At the other end of the pitch, the player, while at times able to dictate tempo, often takes too long on the ball, allowing opponents to return to their defensive shape, as well as wasting set-piece opportunities and regularly resorting to flat, lofted balls that don’t meet their target.

That’s not to say Odegaard doesn’t have an important role in this team. Arteta merely has to recognise that his team’s needs have changed since three years ago. He now has more weapons - so why only use one when you have several at your disposal?

Odegaard’s performances could actually improve by starting fewer games, helping raise his game after seeing the level of his competition, which would also prevent him from trying to play through a lack of form. Less reliance on the player would also display more faith in 18-year-old Nwaneri, who showed his unique ability in front of goal so often last season.

Refusing to adapt

Arteta’s biggest criticism in terms of how he sets up his Arsenal side has often been his reluctance, and sometimes a refusal, to make changes, both in terms of tactical tweaks and player selection. For all their brilliance, this has cost Arsenal the title in the last two seasons.

The Spaniard clearly has his favourites but that has sometimes been to the Gunners’ detriment as important players play too much football and invariably suffer issues like hamstring injuries, which dealt a decisive blow to their title ambitions last season.

At times, his reliance on the same midfield formula, which prioritises Odegaard and Saka on the right half of the pitch, has been too predictable despite both players’ obvious quality. Teams began to work out around two years ago that they could get a result against Arsenal if they stopped the threat from that side, as perfectly exemplified in the quarter-final Champions League exit to Bayern Munich in 2024.

In order to win the league, Arteta must recognise he now has a squad arguably blessed with more high quality depth than any other in Europe, something he has shown glimpses of, but not fully embraced yet. Entrusting dynamic players like Noni Madueke, Eze and Nwaneri offers more unpredictability and prevents teams from working out how to stop Arsenal through halting their right-side attacking bias.

A tactical adjustment he could make is using Odegaard on the left side of the midfield more often, where his line-breaking forward passes sometimes appear less forced. Sacrificing some out of possession dominance in midfield by playing Eze and Odegaard together as a dream creative combination is also something Arsenal fans are crying out for, especially against sides that park the bus.

Similarly, Madueke has been one of Arsenal’s most dangerous forwards this season but didn’t play two league games in a row against Wolves and Everton after scoring a brace against Club Brugge. Arteta could give opposition defences something to think about by forgoing his Saka-Odegaard partnership at times and allowing the former to play off the left, while Madueke starts on his favoured right flank.

Talisman Saka has now reached a level where his extraordinary skill makes him capable of offering a threat from anywhere on the pitch, and he has looked equally devastating when he has drifted to the left hand side this season.

The benefit of new roles and player combinations was clear to see in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup win over Crystal Palace, where Gabriel Jesus’ inclusion saw Arteta give his players license to attack more through the left flank, allowing Gabriel Martinelli to enjoy his best game in years.

Big-game mentality

Arteta’s Arsenal have been known for their remarkable record against the rest of the traditional ‘Big Six’ in recent years. There is a feeling, however, that in crunch situations, they fail to show up with the same confidence and dominance.

That was the case in early 2024 when, off the back of an unprecedented winning streak, Arteta played with noticeably conservative tactics during the away visit to title rivals Manchester City, which ended in a 0-0 draw. While at the time that seemed a perfectly acceptable point to come away from the Etihad Stadium with, City’s victory that season by two points raised the question, ‘What if the Gunners had played to win that fixture?’.

So far this campaign, Arsenal have failed to beat all four of their closest title rivals - City, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Liverpool - in the league. They will hope not picking up all three points in some of those games won’t come back to haunt them.

Just as devastating in the recent past has been Arsenal slipping up against their ‘bogey teams’, namely Newcastle, Villa and West Ham, at crucial points in the season.

Arteta has a curiously uninspiring record against certain managers like Unai Emery (two wins, two draws, four losses), Eddie Howe (six wins, two draws, five losses) and, formerly, Graham Potter (three wins, one draw, three losses).

One critique of Arsenal has been that they sometimes enter big games too cautiously and they don’t play their own game, instead playing the occasion along with all the emotions that come with it. That is down to Arteta, both tactically and in terms of mentality, to figure a way of dealing with.

His players are well-versed to deal with such expectations now after the experience of three failed title challenges, while clinching big victories against some of the Champions League’s elite clubs will give them confidence that they can beat anyone.

To make it very clear, the reason Arsenal are where they are now is down to Arteta. However, he has to address several potential stumbling blocks sooner rather than later to ensure the Premier League trophy returns to N5 come the summer.