Arsenal have experienced their worst start to a Premier League season losing their opening three matches. The north London side has missed some key figures which manager Mikel Arteta has ensured supporters are aware of.
A 2-0 defeat to newly-promoted Brentford was followed up by the same scoreline in the London derby loss to Chelsea at the Emirates a week later. Mikel Arteta referenced the absence of several key players as the reason for the poor start.
“It’s really challenging at the moment,” Arteta said after the Chelsea defeat. “We are missing nine players - and the majority of them are big senior players. It’s what we have.”
Alexandre Lacazette, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White were notable absentees. However, the Spaniard described the side which started against the Blues rather strangely.
“We put out there a team that will probably be unprecedented in the history of this football club,” claimed Arteta.
For a side that contained Nicolas Pepe, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Kieran Tierney, Bernd Leno and Granit Xhaka, to describe it as ‘unprecedented’ is stretching into hyperbole.
Despite having Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang available from the start in addition to Lacazette from the bench, Manchester City cruised to a 5-0 win. Opting to bench standout performer Sambi Lokonga in favour of Martin Odegaard.
The Norwegian operated as an 8, alongside the soon-to-be sent off Xhaka and looked overwhelmed by the unfamiliar role against the Champions.
With the international break a much-needed respite for Arteta, it has allowed the likes of White, Partey, and Gabriel to return to match fitness and the official squad update has labelled them as ‘available for selection.’
Speaking ahead of the match against Norwich City, Mikel Arteta spoke contradictorily about how he wished not to reference ‘excuses’ before going on to name three in the same sentence.
“I am really looking forward to having everyone available and trying to start the season the way we want,” said Arteta.
“We don't want to use any excuses, we know how difficult the start was with injuries, a lot of covid issues we had and the extremely difficult games that we had.
Regardless of who has been missing, Arteta has a near full-strength squad available for the arrival of the Canaries. Only Mohamed Elneny is injured, suffering from a hamstring strain picked up in the 4-0 behind-closed-doors friendly against Brentford.
Xhaka is suspended but Lokonga is a worthy replacement. Some may even argue the Belgian is an upgrade on the Swiss international.
Takehiro Tomiyasu has a minor work permit issue but Arteta expects this to be sorted in the coming hours. The Japan international is already in the country and waiting on clearance.
As such, should Arsenal fail to achieve anything other than a win against a Norwich side who have also lost their first 3 games and conceded 9 in the process, there will be nowhere for Arteta to hide.
Should Arsenal fail to beat Norwich on Saturday, will Arteta remain in the job? Follow our new Arsenal Fan Brands Writer Tom Canton to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
