For the first time ever, English football is experiencing a mid-season break in January. Although it is staggered, with different teams enjoying a break at different times, it is still long overdue. Internationally, it is hoped that it will improve England’s chances of winning the Euros in Germany this summer. Domestically it might help struggling clubs to refresh themselves after a difficult first half of the season. And arguably, no Premier League club needs a break more than Arsenal.
Mid-Season Break for Arsenal
Could a Mid-Season Break Prevent Another End-Of-Season Collapse for Arsenal?
It is an old truism of football that a good team does not lose three games in a row, no matter the opposition. That is why Arsenal’s recent slump, losing three matches in succession in league and cup, has been so alarming. It has revived fears that Arsenal are not strong enough and that they will ultimately be unable to compete with Liverpool, the current league leaders, and Manchester City, who are trying to win a fourth league title in a row.
What has made this slump so surprising is that it seemed to come out of nowhere. Without ever matching the exhilarating form showed in the first half of last season, Arsenal had put themselves in a position over Christmas where they could go back to the top of the league with a win. Indeed, they were in that position twice, against both West Ham at home and against Fulham away, and on both occasions, they failed. Then, to complete an unwanted hat-trick, they spurned numerous chances against Liverpool in the FA Cup before finally succumbing to two sucker punches.
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Yet on closer analysis, perhaps this downturn in form is not so surprising; in fact, most surprising is its timing, coming in the middle of the season rather than at the end. Throughout his tenure at The Emirates, Mikel Arteta has often exhibited a worrying inability to arrest slumps in form, which may be down to his relative lack of managerial experience. That was most evident at the end of the last two seasons, when Arsenal effectively collapsed twice in succession, first to surrender a Champions League place to Tottenham and then to surrender the Premier League title to Manchester City.
The hope among Arsenal fans now is that Arteta can use the current mid-season break to “reset,” as he himself put it after the Liverpool defeat. But how can they do that, especially if, as Arteta also suggested after the Liverpool game, they are unlikely to bring in any new players in January?
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Three Things To Reset Arsenal: First, Get Partey Playing Again
In the absence of any new players arriving in January, there are three things that Arteta could do to restore confidence in both himself and his team. The first would be to get Thomas Partey fit and play alongside Declan Rice in central midfield.
Since coming to England in 2020, Partey has often got injured and then remained out of action for a long time, which shows the increased speed and intensity of the Premier League in comparison with La Liga, where he had played with such distinction (and relatively few injuries) for Atletico Madrid. The only extended period in which he has played regularly for the Gunners was last season when he was finally fit enough to form a regular midfield partnership with Granit Xhaka.
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When Declan Rice signed from West Ham for a club-record fee of £105 million, it seemed that the Gunners had strengthened their midfield. But it was unclear if they had only replaced the departing Granit Xhaka with Rice rather than increased their depth and quality.
These strength-in-depth doubts would have been strengthened by what has happened this season. Rather than pairing Rice with Partey in a central midfield that would compare favourably with any other in the Premier League, Arteta experimented with playing Partey as a right-back who advanced into midfield. Then, after that experiment had failed, he discarded Partey completely, at which point his injury problems started to flare up again.
The current break allows Arteta to get the Ghanaian fully fit and firing in central midfield. That one change alone would be the most important one he could make to the team without buying another player.
Secondly, Resolve The Goalkeeping Situation
Arteta must also resolve the goalkeeping situation at Arsenal, which has been a needless distraction for all concerned, not least the two goalkeepers, David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale. By now, it is obvious that, for whatever reason (and it may simply be that his goalkeeping coach, Iñaki Caña Pavón, worked with Raya at Brentford before going to The Emirates), Raya is Arteta’s first-choice goalkeeper, and he should say so publicly. That would end the questioning about who his first-choice goalkeeper is and allow Raya to focus on his job while preparing the way for Ramsdale to leave the club in the summer.
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Ramsdale was instrumental in Arsenal and Arteta’s success over the last two seasons, but the current situation cannot be allowed to continue for much longer. There is a reason why no other major team in English football history, if not European football history, has ever had two so-called first-choice goalkeepers before, and it is that goalkeeper is the one position that absolutely requires consistency of selection, as both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have proven over the years.
Thirdly, Get Arsenal’s Strikers Scoring Again
Finally, if Arsenal are unable to sign another striker in January, with the club seemingly no nearer to signing Ivan Toney or Dominic Solanke. Arteta must work with what he already has and get Arsenal’s existing strikers, especially Gabriel Jesus scoring again.
With Jesus, Arteta must first get the Brazilian fully fit. Then he must work with him to improve the two weaknesses in his game: a tendency to drift wide rather than remaining central and an apparent inability to head the ball. The latter weakness was again demonstrated against Liverpool when the match was still goal-less, as Jesus missed a simple header to give Arsenal the lead.
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Obviously, there are natural headers of the ball, and Jesus is not one, but nor is there any reason why he should not improve his heading dramatically. If he does so, Arsenal would finally have an aerial threat to go with their ground threat of intricate passing, which at least would give opposing defences another thing to defend against.
Summer Rebuild
Ultimately, even if Arteta can effect these changes, it may not be enough to challenge for the Premier League title. However, it would hopefully be enough to secure Arsenal Champions League football for the second season in succession, which would be a considerable achievement after the Gunners spent so long outside Europe’s top club competition.
Then, Arteta could really focus his and the club’s efforts on finally getting the reinforcements they obviously need, especially in central midfield and upfront, in the summer transfer market. That may not appease Arsenal fans who want success now, especially after 20 years without a top-flight title, which is the longest period in the club’s history without one since their first title win in 1931. However, it would pave the way for a sustained tilt at the Premier League next season if they cannot win it this season.
