Mikel Arteta wary of United threat to Arsenal’s weak defensi

New Arsenal, same old Arsenal. There were 87 minutes on the Emirates Stadium clock last Sunday, the score was 1-1 against Chelsea and Arsenal had five men inside the opposing penalty area as they pushed for the winner. The move broke down, Chelsea countered at pace, Tammy Abraham scored what would be the decisive goal and, for the umpteenth time, everybody questioned whether Arsenal had any defensive instinct https://www.w88thais.com/w88-entrance-latest-updates-for-mobile-pc/ .
Manchester United are the visitors to the Emirates on New Year’s Day and it will be the showpiece fixture at 8pm, even if the Premier League table shows it is a meeting between 12th and fifth. Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s team have kept their season alive by rinsing attack-minded opposition on the break and the United manager would have licked his lips as he pored over the Abraham goal. Do Arsenal have to be wary of United’s rapier-like threat. “Very,” replied Mikel Arteta, the club’s new manager.

What Arteta wanted to make clear was that Abraham’s stunning late counter was not the result of a structural breakdown in the team he is trying to reboot. When Abraham received the ball out of defence from Willian 10 yards inside his own half, he had two Arsenal players in front of him – David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi – and three in pursuit – Bukayo Saka, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira. Abraham could see Willian flicking on the after-burners to get forward on his right and Mason Mount doing the same on the left w88thais.com .
At that point Arsenal had the situation under control. They had five; Chelsea had three. It was not a case of them overstretching in search of the winner, of a peculiar naivety.
That said, what happened next within a reasonably solid framework was concerning. David Luiz and Mustafi chose not to engage Abraham high up the pitch, rather to retreat and retreat, all the way into their own box. After Abraham popped the ball wide to Willian, David Luiz could not prevent the low cross and Mustafi was then slow to react in the middle. Abraham outmanoeuvred him before shooting low past Bernd Leno. It was also notable that Saka seemed to be cramping up. Unable to move freely, he could not stay with Willian while Guendouzi did not get back at all.
So, even as Arteta tried to take the positives in terms of how his players had “moved the structure” from attack to defence, he could see glaring deficiencies in the one-on-one work and fitness levels. Arteta delivered the last line with a smile. Arsenal are a front-foot team, their mindset is to attack and they will remain that way under Arteta’s charge. What he wants is to put a structure in place which will provide numbers on offensive and defensive transitions, allow for options on the ball and spaces between the lines. The early signs in this regard have been encouraging. What he needs to learn is the capacity of the players to operate at his tempo, to make the right decisions and execute them w88 mobile .
“It wasn’t a transition where we had a bad structure or a bad organisation, when we are defending big spaces on equal numbers or are outnumbered – it wasn’t the case at all,” Arteta said. “We made one half-bad decision [to back off] and these teams, when in space, they punish you, for sure. But the other option is to defend all the time and be there [in defensive areas] and we don’t want that.”