[Thread] Key areas for Mikel Arteta to improve upon.

Now, this surely isn't a thread most people would be expecting after Arsenal have just beaten Manchester United at their own den for the first time in 14 years. However, it's a thread I have been wanting to do for a long time and I prefer to..

criticise the team when the chips are up rather than when they're low, although constructively.

In this thread, I mark out a few key areas where Mikel Arteta needs to improve upon in order to take Arsenal back to its glory days.

Creativity

Yes Arsenal 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 1 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-bones….

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 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.

Squad Management

Runarsson; Mustafi, Xhaka, Ceballos, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nketiah, Pepe.

Runarsson; Mustafi, Willock, Elneny, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nketiah, Pepe.

Runarsson; Mustafi, Partey, Elneny, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nketiah, Lacazette.

This is how Arsenal's bench looked in the last three PL matches. And the first question which arises is where are we getting the goals if we go a goal or two down? On average, you have two attacking players on the bench, one of whom's a young man still finding his feet.

Between Emile Smith-Rowe, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson and Mesut Özil, there's a grand total of 0 Premier League minutes amongst them, and this is the core of creativity within this squad. No wonder Arsenal is struggling to create.

Mesut Özil's saga has been rumbling on for a long time now, however, under Arteta, it has gone from bad to worse with the German having failed to make both the Europa League and the Premier League squad. Now I'm not blaming Arteta for this, none of us know what's going...

….behind the scenes and hence it's better not to speculate. However, it's his responsibility to fulfil the gap that Özil's absence created, which could have been done to a certain extent if the likes of Willock and Smith-Rowe were involved more.

Reiss Nelson, otoh, was once tipped as the best 15-year-old Arsène Wenger has ever seen. When Mikel Arteta joined Arsenal, he was expected to be the catalyst for Nelson's career considering the fantastic work he had done with the likes of Sane and Sterling at Manchester City.

However, Nelson, who had clocked 631 minutes in the 2019-20 edition of the Premier League with 17 appearances and 7 starts had not even made the squad once this season.

While this is Mikel Arteta's team and he has the final say regarding who plays and who doesn't, however, fans would like to see the young talent getting more opportunities, especially when we're struggling in a specific department where they're good at.

Make no doubt, we have a special man at the helm of this gigantic club of ours who’s destined to take us back to the days of greatness that has defined us, however, the sooner we iron out these few creases, the swifter and smoother our journey would be.

Cc: @ltarsenal @cdsahildani @SeaaaaMannnn @SemperFiArsenal @3cbPerformance @RjArsenalBlog @arsenalrising