The signing of Declan Rice for £105m is high-end impression management. The additions of Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber for a combined £100m are further embellishments which, on paper at least, contribute to the idea that Arsenal are not only serious about arresting the ascent of Manchester City but are serious about being a serious club again.
American owner Stan Kroenke, for so long derided as a speculator unwilling to invest the mad money required to compete in the age of state-sponsored glorification, has cranked up the action here to make a title winner of manager Mikel Arteta. With that investment comes jeopardy since it takes the wudda, cudda, shudda out of the equation, demanding an immediate response.
There is an assumption among Arsenal fans that the team ran out of legs, that Arteta did not have the bench to chase City down the stretch. Only three wins in the final nine games of the season, ending with successive defeats at home to Brighton and away to Nottingham Forest, kind of supports that argument. Had they won both, Arteta would have been king for the first time since Arsène Wenger ruled the world two decades ago. Wudda, cudda, shudda.
There is another explanation. That Arsenal’s limbs tightened not out of fatigue but bottle, the lack thereof. They did not have the fortitude to cope at a point in the climb when the air got thinner. Like marathon runners crossing the 20-mile threshold, there is no training that will aid a human being in the end zone when exhaustion robs the mind of clarity and the legs of power.
City are practised at this stuff, coached by a manager who has done it all. Arteta is the disciple who has passed his theory but not the practical. He has not crossed that line as a coach. These signings give him what he needs with one hand and torch excuses with the other.
So the season ahead is as much a test of Arteta as the players. It is for him to create the conditions to allow players to flourish, to sprinkle about the Arsenal dressing room, perhaps, a little of the Bazball culture that has so transformed the performance of the England Test cricket team.
Rice is a move Arteta and Arsenal sort of had to take. The messaging is powerful, and he is a high-quality player. However, so is Thomas Partey. That said, Partey is 30 and notably brittle. Therefore the decision of how best to accommodate Rice takes care of itself when injury strikes the Ghanaian. When it doesn’t, finding a place for both might offset Arsenal’s balance early in the piece.
Arteta started them together against Monaco in midweek with Rice in a more advanced position. Rice was under-utilised by West Ham higher up the pitch, where his dynamism can be effective late in games when the action is stretched. The trick for Arteta is making that dynamic work when space is tight.
Rice is at least a consistent performer. The same cannot be said of Havertz, who at Chelsea barely left an imprint on matches. He will always have the Champions League, which is, prima facie, a powerful riposte to any naysayer, but in the Premier League Havertz is too easily supressed.
Clearly Arteta sees in the languid sylph the potential to be Mesut Özil 2.0, a gifted sort who glides into space almost unseen to create or score. That’s good Havertz. Bad Havertz is frustratingly absent, seemingly disengaged and ineffectual. He will test Arteta’s management skills a deal more than Rice, that’s for sure.
Timber looks a talent but is unproven in the enhanced environment of the Premier League. His strength is his versatility and fits that left-sided defensive/offensive dimension patented by Oleksandr Zinchenko. With Zinchenko working back to fitness, Timber’s adaptability means he can expect an early introduction to the fast lane.
The Community Shield is the perfect pre-season examination for Arsenal, an opportunity to test their mettle against a team that beat them convincingly three times last season. The first Premier League meeting was delayed until February, and, as has become their custom, City ransacked their most dangerous rivals in their own home, Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland leading the cull with imperious strikes.
The defeat was Arsenal’s second in the space of 11 days following a shock 1-0 defeat at survivalists Everton. In between Arsenal dropped points in a home draw with Brentford, signalling the fault lines that would be further exposed during the nine-game finale.
As they showed during that electric start when free of anxiety and inhibition, Arsenal can be irresistible. The front four of Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka behind Gabriel Jesus set the agenda with fast, fluid football. The addition of Leandro Trossard in January, an attempt to add protection against collapse, proved insufficient.
The key arrivals of Rice, Havertz and Timber, with more signings promised, is Arteta’s big play. City have lost Riyad Mahrez to Saudi Arabia and Ilkay Gündogan, who was central to City’s late thrust towards that fabulous Treble, to Barcelona. Bernardo Silva, another seismic performer, is looking elsewhere. Against that, City have dropped a quick £73m on the World Cup’s best defender, Josko Gvardiol, so we mustn’t feel sorry for them.
Besides, Pep Guardiola is arguably the most important figure in City’s squad, which makes it incumbent on Arteta to rise. He has little choice now. In the post since December 2019 and on the back of a muscular summer spend, Arteta simply has to demonstrate mastery commensurate with champions or face the consequences.
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