How Arteta needs to change to break Arsenal April curse

Suraj Radia

• Updated: 18 Apr 2024 13:29 CDT
• 4 min read

Arsenal are finding themselves in familiar yet unwelcome territory, with the Gunners once again seeing their season collapse at the final hurdle after a blistering start.

Having seen their Premier League title challenge slip away in similar fashion last season, Arsenal truly felt this was the opportunity for them to brush away their demons and potentially even a first ever European trophy.

But the Gunners have been shellshocked by losing their grip on the title with a home loss to Aston Villa, leaving them two points behind leaders Manchester City, as well as a disappointing exit to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

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Arsenal had won ten of their previous 11 Premier League games before the loss to Villa and, as they rudely found out last season, even one slip up is enough to offer a ruthless City the route back into the title race.

However, while it would be easy to simply blame City’s quality as a reason why Arsenal may miss out on another title, Arteta’s side have seen a decline in their results during April in the last three years.

While Arteta is deservedly credited for a high-intensity, attacking playstyle, the Spaniard’s reluctance to rotate key players has once again seen Arsenal run out of steam at the most crucial moment.

Arsenal paying the price for over-reliance on Saka

Despite their impressive season so far, Arsenal have won just twice in their last six matches across all competitions, failing to score in three of those games.

Their win percentage in April so far has been 40% – a significant drop from their 69% win percentage across the season – and this has been a trend across the last three seasons.

Last season, Arsenal won just once in their five games in April, marking a win rate of 20% from their seasonal 68%, while it was a similar situation in the previous campaign with a drop to 40% from 58%.

Arsenal’s stars also see a drop in productivity as the season progresses, with Bukayo Saka, for example, having just four goal contributions in his last ten games compared to ten in his previous ten.

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The 22-year-old has often been seen hobbling off at the end of games and appears exhausted, which is unsurprising considering he has missed just three Premier League games since the start of the 2021/22 season.

Reiss Nelson – who signed a long-term extension last summer – has played just 257 minutes in the league this season, along with the likes of Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith Rowe, who have been used sparingly even in games that are less crucial to Arsenal.

Arteta has been reluctant to trust his entire squad of players and resistant to sign proven quality in areas lacking in depth, meaning the reliance on stars like Saka have left the England international running on empty at the most pivotal stage of the season.

The Arsenal manager’s approach perhaps mirrors the inexperience of his team in these situations and the club will need to ensure they address their depth issue in the summer to avoid another disappointing and inevitable repeat of the April curse next year.