Delusional Mikel Arteta must wake up to save stale Arsenal's title bid: Open-play struggles and a search for defensive perfection costing Gunners the chance of Premier League glory

Prior to last Wednesday's 3-0 win at home to Monaco in the Champions League, Arteta was asked whether too much of Arsenal's style was dictated around their advantages on set plays. To disarm the press, he explained, using two small water bottles, how those from the outside like to view open play and set piece goals as two separate entities, whereas he sees the situation as one larger water bottle which contains both. You can't have one without the other was essentially his message.

To their credit, Arsenal looked at their scintillating best to see off Monaco, with Saka particularly shining. It's why it was so strange this game was sandwiched between two Premier League outings in which the north Londoners showed very little bite in the final third.

Saturday's stalemate with Everton was the third Premier League match in succession in which Arsenal failed to score from open play. This stat was put to Arteta post-match, and he did not take kindly to it. "We score three from open play three days ago, so?" was his response.

If you were to give Arteta the benefit of the doubt, you would say he's protecting his players amid this relative slump. Those with more cynicism, and perhaps more reality when it comes to talking about a title challenger, would see it as ignorance.

No Premier League side has created more expected goals (xG) from set pieces than Arsenal through 16 rounds of fixtures, yet they rank in the bottom half for that stat when only accounting for open play. Arsenal also lag way behind their rivals when it comes to live passes leading to goals, with their total of 34 way down from stat-leaders Chelsea (49), as well as six other sides, including relegation-battling Wolves.

It's not as if their total goal numbers are particularly impressive either. With 29 goals so far, they are on course to score roughly 69 across the 38-game campaign, which would be a marked decrease on their totals from the last two seasons - 88 in 2022-23 and 91 in 2023-24.

The added threat of set-piece dominance is a useful weapon in Arsenal's, well, arsenal. It shouldn't be their go-to strategy regardless of that proficiency.

What weakens Arteta's argument against Arsenal's detractors of late are that his side simply don't look the same as their previous iterations. The Gunners of the last two seasons could rip through deep blocks and were demons in transition, but those strengths have faded as time has gone on.

Part of that is perhaps related to their natural progression. When Arteta's Arsenal first announced themselves as genuine title challengers, it was a fun and exciting story of a sleeping giant waking. That novelty is gone both inside and outside the club.

Teams don't afford them the same freedom. Opponents show them far more respect, which is precisely why Everton sought to take the sting out of Saturday's affair from minute one. It couldn't be a back-and-forth contest otherwise they would lose. In contrast, the new threats of Arne Slot's Liverpool and Enzo Maresca's Chelsea have not yet been fully figured out by the rest of the Premier League, making Arsenal look outdated even by their young standards.

Fine, hindsight is 20/20, but Arsenal's summer transfer window is starting to look ominously like a missed opportunity. Their new additions have added little to the squad from last season, with returning 2023 signing Jurrien Timber following an ACL injury their most notable upgrade across the squad.

Bringing in Euro 2024 star and versatile defender Riccardo Calafiori made sense from a quality standpoint, though what Arsenal didn't need was another unreliable fitness bet at the back. Ability isn't quite the best availability (don't let recent social media trends fool you, it just isn't) but you need some level of reliance to actually play for extended stretches, which the Italian didn't at all prior to his one-year stint at Bologna.

In midfield, Arsenal thought they were bringing in the perfect partner for Declan Rice in Mikel Merino. He boasted previous Premier League experience and played a key role for Spain at the Euros, yet he has proven underwhelming when whoever taking on this role really needed to hit the ground running.

Gabriel Jesus' inability to rediscover the form of his debut season in north London led many to believe Arsenal would go big for a striker heading into 2024-25. Instead, they chose to keep their powder dry. Previously linked targets Ivan Toney and Victor Osimhen headed elsewhere. Alexander Isak remained at Newcastle, his compatriot Viktor Gyokeres at Sporting CP. Arteta hedged his bets on Kai Havertz to continue his hot-streak from the end of the previous season and Jesus to improve again, only for neither to live up to the required billing for a team in with a chance of the title.

The regression of Gabriel Martinelli, Arsenal's quickest and most-lively forward, has added to their woes. The Brazilian is lacking that wicked ingenuity he boasted when he broke out, that ruthless streak which saw him score 15 goals in a single Premier League season before. Now, he quickly draws the ire of an unforgiving Emirates Stadium crowd and has lost so much confidence he looks unrecognisable to the prospect who once terrorised defences.

It was bad enough when Saka was being run into the ground and kicked to smithereens on a bi-weekly basis. It was even worse when Odegaard wasn't there to help absorb some of that attention.

The Norwegian's injury spanning just over a month proved a spanner in the works for Arteta, who lost his chief creator and chose to funnel even further responsibility to his No. 7. Even though Saka's stats look better for it, he could have done without taking on 110% of his team's attacking workload. There's already several thousand miles on his young body as is.

Another problem arisen is Arsenal's injury crisis, their first since returning to title contention. The squad is thinning and their remaining charges, not only Saka, have been pushed to their physical limit. Their freshness has been replaced by fatigue, legs by legginess. Supreme physicality bordering on mental inevitability is only a superpower in dead-ball situations now.

Before the Pulis comparisons, Arteta was likened to prime Jose Mourinho. He had done a 180 on continuing Arsenal's reputation as England's prime entertainers, choosing to shut up shop in big games in search of points and progression.

It's an approach which has seldom paid off. Three times earlier this season Arsenal dropped points after being reduced to 10 players, and they failed to win in their two most high-profile fixtures down the stretch of 2023-24.

Supporters celebrating their 0-0 draw at Manchester City in March went down in infamy, but it was a performance a few weeks later which should have been the point of contention. Arsenal went to the Allianz Arena in their first Champions League quarter-final in 14 years on level terms with Bayern Munich and went about keeping the affair closely contested. When Joshua Kimmich scored what proved to be the winner midway through the second half of the second leg, the Gunners froze. They needed to attack but stood still in the spotlight against Thomas Tuchel's side, with the German giants at their lowest ebb in over a decade.

That malaise has carried into this season and right now shows few signs of perking up. Arsenal are already six points off Liverpool having played one game more, only three ahead of City despite the champions' crisis.

The saving grace is Arsenal flipped the switch and took the handbrake off in the final months of last term. It's easily conceivable they can kick into another gear. They just can't ignore their problems if they're to do so.