It won’t be one of the games analysts, fans and even the team will look back on and circle as one of the matches that defined the 2023-2024 season once the campaign comes to an end.
However, Arsenal’s 4-3 win over Luton Town with Declan Rice scoring a last minute match winner might just end up being the watershed moment in the villainous role of Mikel Arteta in Arsenal’s miss on the EPL title.
By sticking with a goalkeeper who excels in other nuances of the position than the fundamental nuance of the position, Arteta put his team in danger of losing out on the chance to occupy the league’s top spot.
Starting the smaller and less comfortable individual in aerial and physical challenges in David Raya ahead of the bigger and stronger Aaron Ramsdale was a gamble that didn’t need to be made.
Raya ended up conceding two very preventable goals and the Gunners needed Rice to save the day and avoid a draw against bottom ranked Luton.
Arsenal has since lost the league’s top spot anyway after losing to Aston Villa but down the road in a very long season, the unnecessary need to spark a goalkeeping battle or goalkeeping controversy by Arteta will hurt Arsenal at a point.
Raya isn’t doing enough as a shot stopper and Ramsdale hasn’t shown enough development as a passer to aid in Arsenal’s attack buildups. Raya does well in passing and aiding positional play with his communication while Ramsdale is a fine shot stopper.
Giving the green light for a Ramsdale sale in January is the best way to handle this uncertainty even if doing so might just hurt Arsenal’s leverage in negotiating a sale price for the Englishman who is angling for a move from the Emirates Stadium to boost his chances of making the 2024 Euros squad.
Sticking with Raya means Arteta would have to play more defenders to limit opponents from attempting more shots and chances close to goal but that should mean dropping Oleksandr Zinchenko at least from the starting unit.
The Ukrainian has expressed his discomfort with his left full back role rather preferring to play centrally in midfield or his natural left wing position. Opponents often attack his end just as Aston Villa did in the lead up to its goal that knocked Arsenal off the league’s top spot.
On the other hand, playing Ramsdale in goal means Arteta would have to risk conceding more chances from opposing teams trusting Ramsdale to make a ton of saves. Letting one go (likely Ramsdale) sets the team’s course with the profile of goalkeeper to sign as a backup and the team’s staple playing style.
There are remote connections of Arsenal’s situation to the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) even if there is the Atlantic Ocean separating Arsenal’s base from the doorsteps of the Pacific Ocean where the 49ers are located.
In 1989, the 49ers got trapped in a Quarterback Controversy when Bill Walsh couldn’t stick with playing Joe Montana or Steve Young as the starter in the position.
On one hand, Montana was a right handed steady accurate passer with less mobility to scramble out of trouble while Young was a left handed mobile passer who was less accurate than Montana but very mobile and created a lot of plays while on the move.
Young was so mobile he became one of the pioneer mobile quarterbacks who set the tone for the likes of Michael Vick, Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson to thrive. Adjusting to a left hander from a right hander is difficult and every player on the offensive side has to move with the mobility of the ball thrower in mind.
This switching happened several times in the 1988-1989 season but picking Montana as the starting quarterback set the 49ers on course to win two straight NFL titles. Montana was eventually shipped off to Kansas City Chiefs and Young became the unquestioned starter who got San Francisco the 1995 title.
Arteta is from the Barcelona football front and worked under a Barcelona product in Pep Guardiola as Guardiola’s assistant. There are strong elements Arteta’s Arsenal side shares with Guardiola’s near all-conquering Man City side particularly when it comes to the passing game.
An Aside: There is an argument to be made for Arteta to show he is a Guardiola acolyte by using a full back who defends better than Zinchenko (Kyle Walker in this case) as his attacking outlet from the backline.
Sometimes Arteta leans into his Barcelona roots a bit too much where it’s so clear the man wants to mimic Barcelona’s historic treble winning season that had a goalkeeping swap game between Claudio Bravo and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen successfully pulled off by another Barca product, Luis Enrique.
The older Bravo with vast experience playing in the La Liga started games in the Spanish league over Ter Stegen who started in the UEFA Champions League games.
Arteta’s naivety as a manager on the brink of winning a title showed last season when he failed to manage the team’s tactics to deal with the enormous pressure that came with a first possible title win in almost two decades. This showed out in Arsenal’s loss to Man City that effectively sealed the title for the Cityzens.
This season, the challenge for Arteta was bound to be on that of man-management; man managing the egos of players to make them patient when playing time is scarce to keep them engaged so they are ready to step in and produce when the regulars aren’t available through injuries or suspensions.
Thus far, Arteta has failed at this just (just look at Emile Smith Rowe play deflated football when fit) as he did earlier in the campaign through his forceful inclusion of Kai Havertz in the starting unit.
Through Thomas Partey’s injury and Jorginho’s limitations, Havertz has lucked himself into some fine form operating from midfield but Arteta might not be so lucky with a sensitive position as the goalkeeping spot and end up wrecking what could easily be a title winning season.
In the latest episode of the Gunners EPL title saga, Arsenal players, the protagonist, would need to power up and overcome perhaps the biggest villain it has encountered and that villain is its manager Mikel Arteta.