Mikel Arteta makes ‘world-class’ transfer request to Gunners board as his team misfire
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has lamented his team’s inexperience, claiming that if they had ‘world-class’ players, they could compete with the Premier League’s best.
Southampton upset the North Londoners at St. Mary’s, handing Arsenal their third straight defeat.
The Saints’ only goal came at the end of the first half, courtesy of Jan Bednarek.
The Pole then played a key role in keeping out an Arsenal side that had a whopping 23 shots and 76 percent possession.
After Alexandre Lacazette tested positive for COVID-19, Arteta was unable to call on him.
However, the attacker hasn’t scored from open play in over 20 hours of football, and his teammates haven’t had any better luck in front of goal in recent weeks.
Arsenal have only scored twice in their past five Premier League games, highlighting the need for some renewed offensive quality.
When asked if the Gunners’ inability to take risks separated them from clubs such as Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea, Arteta appeared to hint that he required ‘world-class’ players with greater experience to compete with such clubs.
He said: “It’s what we have. The players that we have haven’t done it in this league. When you have world class players who have done it in the league for ten years, I would probably say that. I am the first one to defend them, to support them, you see how they try. The only way to do it is to insist and what happened today might happen the next day or the next month.”
Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah’s contracts expire at the end of the season. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leaving in January, Arteta will almost certainly start next season with a whole different set of strikers.
Dusan Vlahovic chose to join Juventus from Fiorentina rather than move to the Emirates Stadium in the winter.
Lille’s Jonathan David, Benfica’s Darwin Nunez, and Napoli’s Victor Osimhen have all been mentioned as potential targets.
Arteta has the Premier League’s youngest average squad, because to a revamped transfer policy that focuses on players under the age of 24. However, the Spaniard could need a seasoned and clinical finisher up front.
Rivals Tottenham’s loss to Brighton earlier in the day offered Arsenal a golden opportunity to reclaim fourth position and revive their Champions League push.
They eventually fell short, however Arteta believes the game would have been won’very convincingly’ on another day.
“[It’s] difficult to explain because this is football, not basketball. Because any other sport you win the game very comfortably and you’re talking about different things. Difficult to explain but at the end of the day it’s decided in the boxes. They scored one goal, we didn’t,” the 40-year-old added.
“For the amount of time that we spent around the box it shows that we have a situation, we didn’t put them in the goal. Because they have an exceptional goalkeeper today and because we didn’t have enough quality and enough capacity to break them down when we had the numbers and the situations open to do so.”
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Mikel Arteta makes ‘world-class’ transfer request to Gunners board as his team misfire
