Mikel Arteta has admitted Arsenal are far from operating at their best so far this season despite earning two wins from two.
The Gunners enjoyed a 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest on the opening day, before adding a second win to their tally following Monday night’s hard-fought victory away at Crystal Palace. In both games, Arsenal hardly created a plethora of chances, but have arguably swapped swashbuckling attacking for a stronger defensive steel.
Palace certainly found their visitors hard to break down at Selhurst Park, even when the Eagles boasted a numerical advantage after Takehiro Tomiyasu was shown two yellow cards. However, Arsenal need to find a greater balance between the two and return to the kind of swashbuckling forward play that helped them to a second-placed finish last term.
Arteta is under no illusions and is well aware his side have lacked something in front of goal over the course of the last two games. He said as much after the win over Palace, with comments that could be perceived as a warning to his attackers.
Pressed for comment on whether his side have come close to the kind of level he wants to see from them this season, Arteta replied: “No, because we have to put the ball in the net more often, especially with the dominance we are having in games. But that’s the most difficult thing in football, so if you don’t do that, you have to do the other part, which is be extremely solid.
“We were last week [vs Forest] and we were again today [vs Palace] with the chances we conceded. Let’s keep playing better and evolving.”
Eddie Nketiah did waste two opportunties in the first-half and while he did win the decisive penalty, the Gunners are feeling the absence of first-choice forward Gabriel Jesus, who remains sidelined with a knee injury.
After two games last season, Arsenal had netted six goals, this time around that number has been halved. However, they have conceded two less goals. That is made all the more impressive when factoring in Arteta has opted against naming regular Gabriel Magalhaes in the starting line-up for both games.
Up next for last season’s runners-up is a home tie against Fulham, where the Gunners have the chance to build up real momentum. Three wins from three would send quite the message to those aiming to derail Arsenal’s hopes of a title charge.
The clash against the Cottagers marks the first of two successive home games, the second against big-six rivals Manchester United.
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