After Arsenal suffered a second successive 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park, Ian Wright believes today could be a big day in determining the Gunners’ hopes of ending a 21-year Premier League title drought and that "drastic changes" are needed to turn things around.
Arsenal went down to a first-half header from Newcastle United forward Alexander Isak and registered only one shot on target in response. Wright, the Gunners legend, feels that the absence of attacking midfielder Martin Odegaard has been crucial in affecting their attacking threat after back-to-back away defeats, losing 2-0 at AFC Bournemouth a fortnight ago.
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“It was a very poor performance from the team that are supposedly title contenders,” Wright said. “But we pass the ball very slowly. There's no energy in the team.
“It's very predictable. Yes, we are missing Odegaard, our chief creator. But for us to not be able to find a solution to that. Again, you look at the Bournemouth game, one shot on target, this game, one shot on target.
“We know what we've got to do when we go to St James' Park, and one thing we have to do is create a lot more chances than we did today. It didn't happen. A poor performance from everybody.
"If I'm going to be totally honest, it's one of those that the manager's going to have to have a serious think about what's going on with this squad at the minute, with the boys and their output.”
'Really damaging to title hopes'
Arsenal have now dropped points in five of 10 opening Premier League matches after losing successive away matches for the first time since May 2022. They will end the day fourth, seven points off leaders Liverpool and five behind Manchester City, who were stunned by Bournemouth in the 15:00 match.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
11 | +15 | 28 |
| 2 |
Man City
MCI
|
11 | +9 | 23 |
| 3 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
11 | +8 | 19 |
| 4 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
11 | +6 | 19 |
| 5 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
11 | +5 | 19 |
| 6 |
Brighton
BHA
|
11 | +4 | 19 |
| 7 |
Fulham
FUL
|
11 | +3 | 18 |
Wright thinks had Arsenal gone eight points behind City, it could have been too much for them to recover.
“It can be really damaging,” said Wright when asked about the impact on Arsenal’s title hopes. “When you look at Manchester City in every season, they have that [winning] run, where no one can catch them if you're one point behind them, let alone eight.
"So some drastic changes are going to have to happen at Arsenal for us to get ourselves back in it. But at the moment, I think there's a lot more to be thinking about in respect of … creating chances."
Wright’s former Arsenal team-mate Martin Keown echoed the fear that it might be too much for Arsenal to win the title now.
“It is early in the season but it is a long way back now,” he told the BBC. “Arsenal didn't manage to impose themselves on the game. They didn't really get going and they have only themselves to blame for that.”
Arteta admitted that his team did not pose such an attacking threat.
"We weren’t good enough and didn’t have enough answers to get out of that, especially creating the threat that we needed," he told Arsenal's website. "So at the end, you are reliant on two or three big chances that we had with Mikel [Merino], two with Declan [Rice] and one with Gabi [Gabriel Martinelli].
"Not enough threat to change the game in any moment and win it. That’s the frustrating part, but credit to them [Newcastle] as well for what they did."
Numbers behind Arsenal's woes
Arsenal have fallen 1-0 behind in four of their last six Premier League games, as many as in their previous 31 beforehand.
In addition, they have conceded the opening goal in three successive away matches in the competition for the first time since December 2019 when they did so five times in a row, prior to Mikel Arteta’s arrival as manager.
Their attacking worries are demonstrated by the fact that in their five Premier League away games this season, Arsenal have had only 37 shots (7.4 per match). Only Brentford, with 30 shots at 7.5 per match, have managed fewer shots on the road in the division this season.
Their failure to register a shot on target in the second half was the first time since against Fulham away on New Year’s Eve last year.