Arteta can’t escape scrutiny for Arsenal’s slump much longer

Premier League managers can't escape the spotlight when their team is struggling to live up to expectations. Just ask Chelsea's Mauricio Pochettino or Manchester United's Erik ten Hag. Yet when it comes to failure this season, Arsenal's Mikel Arteta is flying under the radar compared to his rivals at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford.

When Arsenal face Crystal Palace at the Emirates on Saturday, they will do so with their title hopes resting on a victory against Roy Hodgson's side. It may only be mid-January, but the Gunners are already five points behind leaders Liverpool, while champions Manchester City are three points ahead of them in second place. Having made up ground after taking just four points from their last five league matches, anything but a win against Palace and Arsenal can forget about winning the title.

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But it's not just a recent dip in form that has Arsenal fighting to stay in the title race. After 20 matches this season, their situation is 10 points lower than last year at the corresponding stadium. It is a slump shared by Manchester United, which has suffered much more criticism of its results. Only Newcastle United, who are 11 points behind their tally at this stage last season, have a worse record than Arsenal. Chelsea, despite their struggles under Pochettino, are in a better position by a point, while Tottenham Hotspur have picked up four more points at this stage under Ange Postecoglou. City are two points worse off, while Liverpool are a remarkable 16 points ahead of where they were after the same number of games last season.

Arsenal have also scored fewer and conceded more goals (never a good combination.) A year ago they scored 45 and conceded 17, but they go into the game against Palace this weekend having scored 37 and conceded 20 conceded, so there are few positives for Artéta.

It's clear that Arteta has made Arsenal relevant again since replacing Unai Emery as manager in December 2019. He returned the club to the Champions League after a six-year absence and last season placed the team in pole position to win a first title in two decades, until a loss of form in the last two months allowed Pep Guardiola's City to overtake them on their way to a Premier League/FA Cup treble /Champions League.

There is a good case to suggest Arsenal overachieved last season, having finished fifth, 24 points behind the champions a year earlier. But, while that may be the case, they are now failing to live up to expectations this time around and the fault lies with Arteta.

It was he who decided to replace goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, an impressive performer last season, by signing David Raya on loan from Brentford. It was a stylistic decision, with Arteta wanting a goalkeeper more capable of playing out from the back, but Raya made a series of errors which caused uncertainty in the defence.

Arteta's claim that neither would be number 1 and that he would alternate between the two goalkeepers – he even said he would consider replacing them during matches – was found to be baseless ; Ramsdale has made one appearance in the Premier League since being dropped in September (against Brentford, due to Raya's ineligibility against his parent club.) Arteta made this key change in goal without giving his defenders time to adapt to a significant change in philosophy and approach, and there is little evidence to suggest that this decision made the team better.

And Arteta's decision to sign striker Kai Havertz from Chelsea for £65m, rather than bring in a proven goalscorer, looks more puzzling with each game as Arsenal continue to struggle for goals. Havertz is a good player, but his signing was an extravagance that Arsenal could not afford at this stage of his development. His best return for Chelsea during three seasons at Stamford Bridge was eight league goals in the 2021-22 season, and he has scored just four in 19 appearances for Arsenal. Bukayo Saka leads Arsenal's goalscoring charts with just six league goals, and senior striker Gabriel Jesus has contributed just three in 15 appearances.

So the decision to sign Havertz rather than resolve a goal-scoring problem that became evident last season was another poor choice from Arteta. After a summer in which the club spent so much money – £207m including Raya's £3m loan fee – they are in no position to strengthen the squad this month due to the risk of breaching the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules.

Like every other manager, Arteta will point out the mitigating factors. Some carry more weight than others. Jurriën Timber, a £34.2 million signing from Ajax, suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the opening game of the season and his absence deprived Arteta of a reliable figure on the left side of defense. Thomas Partey's prolonged spell on the sidelines due to injury also left the team short in midfield, although it's no secret that Arteta was willing to let him follow Granit Xhaka out last summer if a club had made a suitable offer for the former. Atletico Madrid player.

Without Partey and Xhaka, Arteta has struggled to find the right mix in midfield, where £105m summer signing Declan Rice has been an outstanding addition. Rice delivered on his promise, but Martin Ødegaard failed to replicate his form from last season. Saka has continued to play despite the discomfort of a lingering Achilles problem, while Gabriel Martinelli has only scored twice in 18 league appearances and Eddie Nketiah's only league goals since August have all been occurred in a single match – the 5-0 defeat of Sheffield United in October. 0.28, when he scored a hat trick.

Yet the problems in midfield and the lack of goals from the attackers can be attributed to decisions made by Arteta this summer, particularly in terms of the signing of Havertz.

Many of Arteta's problems have been self-created and, if results continue to decline, he will need to prepare for the kind of scrutiny that Pochettino and Ten Hag have endured all season.