London (AFP)
Sad fifteenth in the English Championship, Arsenal disillusioned a year after the hopeful arrival of coach Mikel Arteta, but the League Cup quarter-final against Manchester City on Tuesday night is one of the last chances of enchanting an already compromised season.
It is a very sad birthday that the former player of Paris SG celebrated on Sunday, who left his post as deputy to Pep Guardiola in Manchester City on December 20, 2019 to take charge of the Gunners.
Relaunching the London club was an immense task, especially for a "newbie", and it seemed the bet was on the way to being won when Arsenal won the FA Cup on August 1, knocking out City in the process. semi-final, and starting the current season pretty well.
After the 7th day, the club was certainly only 9th, but with 4 wins and three defeats - against Liverpool, City and Leicester - and it remained on a promising victory at Old Trafford (1-0).
But since then, Arsenal took two points over the next seven days to sign their worst start to the season since 1974, so "back to square one" would still appear to be below the truth.
When Unaï Emery was sacked by the club in 2019 after 13 days, Arsenal had 18 points and scored as many goals, or 1.38 per game when Arteta's is currently running at 1 point and 0.86 goal per game.
- Offensive nothing -
Under Arteta, Arsenal shoot less, frame less, but the most worrying is the denial in which the coach seems to be as to the offensive nothingness of his team.
"We dominated the match. We created enough chances to draw at least in this meeting. I think that luck is not on our side," he assured after the defeat of this weekend (2-1) at Everton, when his team only scored two shots in the whole match and only scored from the penalty spot.
The whole Premier League has figured out that with compact defense you don't risk much, but Arteta gets stuck in a sterile possession game that makes Arsenal look like a low-end Manchester City, with a lot of possession and passes, but less explosiveness and danger.
"Leave the ball to Arsenal, what are they going to do with it? They do not create anything!", Was thus carried away the consultant of Sky and former of Liverpool, Jamie Carragher.
"Possession doesn't mean anything: what matters is what you create. It's not a competition to have the most ball."
All eyes are necessarily on the attack and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, injured at Everton, but become extremely discreet since he extended, or Nicolas Pépé who does not seem to progress at all compared to last year.
- "Win very quickly" -
This summer's recruiting has once again been disappointing, with a Willian just the ghost of the explosive player he was at Chelsea.
And behind the scenes, the presence of players with very high salaries but placarded, like Mesut Özil or defender Sokratis, also weighs down the atmosphere.
"We have to win matches very quickly before the situation becomes impossible," admitted Arteta, who is no doubt counting on the "Cup" spirit to revive the machine against the "Sky Blues" of his former mentor Guardiola.
"Maybe it's a game where you won't have the pressure like in the Premier League because of the standings," goalkeeper Bernd Leno also admitted.
By taking out Liverpool on penalties in the previous round and achieving for the moment a clear course in the group in the Europa League, Arsenal have proven that this format suits them better.
Against City, triple title holder, Arsenal will be in the position of the outsider but an opponent who will not close the game will necessarily suit him better.
Before the Arsenal match, Tottenham, losing ground in the league, will travel to Brentford (D2).
On Wednesday, the other 2nd division team still in the running, Stoke City, will host Newcastle, while Everton and Manchester United compete for the last ticket to the semi-finals which will be held at the very beginning of January.
© 2020 AFP