Difficult start to the season.
Mikel Arteta is in the middle of his third season with Arsenal. This season began with the usual hope Arsenal fans have; however after an extremely disappointing opening three games which saw a loss to newly promoted Brentford and heavy defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea, the fans predicted another disappointing season ahead of them.
Arteta's career and moving forward.
So far after 113 matches, according to SofaScore, Arteta has a 54% win percentage in his time as Arsenal manager. It is only the summer window that has just passed that the manager has been able to begin shaping the squad he would like to build. A busy transfer window saw the Gunners bring in six players spending £149million, and those signings have showed positive signs, especially Aaron Ramsdale and Martin Odegaard.
During his time at the helm, Arteta has already brought silverware to the red side of North London, winning the FA Cup and the Community Shield; however the fans are eager to see more progress in terms of climbing the league as well as competing in continental football, a bitter memory for the supporters will be last season's exit to former manager Unai Emery's Valencia.
The transfer market so far.
Arteta's signings so far have been impressive and breaking them down here will show the impact they have had on the team.
Aaron Ramsdale was a signing people were sceptical on, despite this he very quickly shocked the league, and Bernd Leno has struggled to reclaim his spot, who is now being linked with moves out of the club. In eighteen appearances for the club, Ramsdale has kept ten clean sheets and has conceded sixteen goals
Takehiro Tomiyasu joined from Bologna giving a much needed option at right back and he quickly went down as one of the signings of the window, he quickly received praise on his debut at Norwich where he won the most duels on the pitch (ten) despite not playing the full game.
Ben White joined for a high fee of £50million from Brighton & Hove Albion and he did not enjoy a bright start to life with the Gunners playing part in the heavy defeats at the start of the season, he soon settled into the set up though, playing his part in ten clean sheets this season in the league, and a man of the match performance at Anfield in the EFL Cup first leg, becoming the first team to stop Liverpool scoring at Anfield this season.
Samba Lokonga joined from Belgian side Anderlecht, while not being seen as a player to immediately trouble the first team, he very quickly stepped up, impressing in his appearance against Chelsea with even his manager saying he is getting better by the day.
Another signing who did not look to trouble the first team was Nuno Tavares, signed as a left back, he quickly impressed Arteta also, however, there was a low point to his season, being subbed off after just half an hour into the FA Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest.
The final signing was the permanent return of Martin Odegaard, the youngster joined from Real Madrid for a fee of £30million, following his impressive loan spell with the Gunners in the second half of last season, since joining he's netted four goals as well as assisting three.
The season so far.
Despite the poor start to the season, Arsenal quickly bounced back from these defeats, beginning a run of eight games without defeat in the league, the sweetest of those, the 3-1 victory in the North London derby, in this run they only conceded in two of these games. They tasted defeat on their visit to Anfield, another heavy defeat to a top six club, this is certainly an area which needs improvement.
Arteta likes his team to play a specific way moving the ball fast and maintaining possession, making the opposition work harder to regain possession of the ball, wearing themselves down, similar to Pep Guardiola's style of possession football, there are only some occasions that this seems to pay off for the team, such as Lacazette's goal of the month in December against Southampton.
January has proved to be a tough month, with injuries catching up and showing the lack of squad depth, the North London derby was postponed, as well as suspensions for Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey, at a time where the midfield is already stretched. Partey spent time away at AFCON, but a shock exit for Ghana saw him return early.
The big talking point of the season was Pierre Emerick Aubameyang's expulsion from the first team after returning late from a trip before the club's fixture with West Ham.
Their most recent draw with bottom of the table Burnley marked a significant slip for the team, with not long left in the window, it is absolutely vital now for the team to be added to, two strikers run out of contract in the summer and with an exit on the cards for Aubameyang this month, the forward option is most important for improvement, being linked with two high profile strikers in Dusan Vlahovic and Alexander Isak. There are other areas to be improved upon in the transfer window as can be read here.