Arsenal came into their FA Cup third-round clash with old rivals Manchester United knowing not everything was in their favour.
This term has been one of bad luck. From those red cards against Brighton, Bournemouth and Manchester City to Martin Odegaard’s ankle injury in September and Bukayo Saka’s heartbreaking hamstring injury.
Mikel Arteta has coached some brilliant games this term but due to a number of circumstances haven’t been able to get over the line in several instances.
Well, in football, you can also make your own luck and the Gunners haven’t taken it across their two cup matches in recent days. Against Newcastle United, the Londoners created a succession of chances with Kai Havertz most notably missing a header from a matter of yards out.
Against United as the Red Devils won on penalties on Sunday, it was the same old story; Arsenal couldn’t score some gilt-edged chances.
It was Bruno Fernandes who opened the scoring against the run of play but following Diogo Dalot’s red card, Gabriel got the hosts back into the tie. Arteta’s side couldn’t find the net from that moment onwards and were made to pay for their wasteful finishing, losing 5-3 on penalties.
The aforementioned Havertz was perhaps the biggest culprit at the Emirates Stadium.
Kai Havertz's performance in numbers vs Man United
Arsenal came into last January needing a striker. Havertz ultimately went on to score eight goals and supply seven assists as a centre forward in the back end of 2023/24.
Yet, the Gunners came into the summer window needing a centre forward again. They did not get one and instead put their faith in the German again.
Scoring four times in his opening seven matches of the league campaign, that decision looked vindicated.
However, a year on from when their woes in front of goal really looked bad, Arsenal are no better off. In fact, this time, they look even worse.
Make no mistake, the board simply have to strengthen the squad this month or this crop of players could be in for a particularly bumpy end to the season.
The 7 best FA Cup clashes between Arsenal and Man Utd
The Gunners and the Red Devils are set to do battle once again in the world’s oldest cup competition.
Well, this time out it’s been a bit different. In fact, it’s been very different. Odegaard is yet to score from open play in 2024/25 and has been some way off his best since returning from that 12-game lay-off courtesy of an ankle injury.
His poor fun of form showed no sign of slowing down against United on Sunday and it was his missed penalty that prevented Arsenal from running away with things in normal time.
After Harry Maguire was adjudged to have tripped Havertz, the Norwegian stepped up but was denied by a tremendous stop by stand-in goalkeeper Altay Bayindir. It was the first penalty Odegaard has missed in his career to date.
Those things can happen but he as The Athletic’s Aaron Catterson-Reid noted during the game, his set-pieces were largely “woeful”. Now, living up to Saka’s corner taking from the right-hand side will take some doing but from his several deliveries into the box, not many came off.
While the captain played a remarkable ten key passes, eight more than any other player on the field, not many of them really amounted to much but for Declan Rice’s header in the second half that he should have scored from.
Minutes played
120
Touches
116
Accurate passes
74/87 (85%)
Key passes
10
Accurate crosses
6/13
Shots
3
Duels won
2/5
Dribbles completed
1/1
Possession lost
27x
Tackles
0
Interceptions
0
To make matters worse, Odegaard gave away the ball 27 times, more than any outfield player, and his inability to take a shot really left the Emirates Stadium crowd feeling frustrated.
He had three shots in the game with only one on target but on multiple occasions, the 26-year-old received the ball on the edge of the area and chose to lay it off to a teammate rather than take a shot. It was hardly a surprise to see him handed a low post-match player rating by GOAL who dished out a 5/10 to the former Madrid man.
It’s evident the Norway international, like many of his teammates, is suffering from a lack of confidence.
Two cup defeats in the space of a few days won’t help but some new signings certainly will do. If Arsenal are to rescue anything from this season then the squad needs bolstering and it needs bolstering quickly. Over to you Stan Kroenke.
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