Arsenal's FA Cup defeat shows where TWO new signings are needed
Stefan Bienkowski
- 10 Jan 2022 08:51 GMT
- 5 min read
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was in no mood to make excuses for his side after their 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round on Sunday night.
The Premier League giants were without a number of first team players but certainly had more than enough talent in their starting XI to force Arteta into questioning the performance of many of his players after the game
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"Really disappointed with the performance first of all," the Spaniard said. "Not with the attitude. How much purpose we have and what determination we showed to change the game when it’s difficult to play against.
"But more drive, more hunger to win at any cost in every single action. Much more, we were not at our level today"
Indeed, Sunday’s defeat not only angered the Arsenal manager but also illustrated exactly where his team are in desperate need of more reinforcements in the January transfer window.
Arsenal’s shortcomings
There were two clear issues in Arsenal’s team that were underlined perfectly by Forest’s ability to overcome the odds and beat their top-tier rivals on sunday.
The first was the very simple fact that Arteta’s side are in need of a new striker that the club can confidently rely upon. With Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang unavailable for the match, Arteta turned to Eddie Nketiah and it simply didn’t work.
Whether through the young player’s attention being drawn to where he may end up playing next month or a simple inability to perform on the night, Nketiah looked sluggish in Arsenal’s build-up play and far from composed in front of goal.
The other issue for the London club came in midfield. Arteta is currently without Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny due to the African Cup of Nations, as well as Granit Xhaka, following the player’s recent COVID infection.
As such, Arteta was forced to play 18-year-old Charlie Patino in midfield alongside the equally inexperienced Albert Sambi Lokonga. Which just goes to show how exhausted the Arsenal squad is at the moment and how much it needs some more midfield reinforcements.
