Arsenal might have won their match against Manchester United, however, they still couldn’t fix what has proved to be their Achilles heels under Arteta, creativity. Arsenal made a grand total of one big chance while their woeful opponents couldn’t muster up even that.
And this has been a trend under Arteta, especially since the banishment of Mesut Özil, who despite his obvious downfall is still the mightiest creative force Arsenal have in the armoury. However, with his exclusion from the squad, Arsenal have been left with bare-bone when it comes to creativity. It isn’t as if Arteta isn’t aware of the glaring issue or he hasn’t tried to rectify it, last season he mentioned in an interview that he wants the creativity to be supplied into the team not just from the midfield but also the wings.
The Partey-Elneny duo emphasize the fact why Arteta made such a comment, while the duo seems like an excellent partnership, however, creativity isn’t really their forte. Now to supply the creativity from the wings, Arteta only has one wing to his disposal as the other wing is occupied by Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, who inspite of his excellence, isn’t really a creative force. Last season, it was Nicolas Pepe who occupied the right-wing and there was some kind of creativity instilled by him. However, this season it’s predominantly been Willian who has been getting the nod ahead of the former Lille man. Willian was seen as a player who could or rather would fulfil Arsenal’s need for creativity as he was expected to play a more central role which can be absurdly defined as a fusion of No.10 and right-winger.
However, Willian has categorically failed at doing so. While he’s a key part to Arteta’s plan though his introduction hasn’t helped Arsenal in terms of creativity whatsoever. While Arteta has failed to solve Arsenal’s creativity jigsaw yet, a manager of his pedigree will find his way sooner rather than later.
Need of the Aouar.
