Mikel Arteta Addresses Criticism Over Arsenal Forwards’ Goal Drough

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has expressed his solidarity with the struggling forwards amid fan criticism over the team’s reduced goal output this season.

Despite scoring 88 goals in the previous Premier League campaign, second only to Manchester City’s 94, the Gunners have managed just 37 goals in 20 games this time, trailing six other teams.

While players like Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, and Martin Odegaard achieved double-figure goals last season, only Saka is on track to repeat that feat this year with six goals, as the other three have a combined total of nine.

Faced with fan frustration, Arteta emphasized the remarkable nature of the team’s accomplishments last season.

“I think what they did last year is exceptional, and we knew that to maintain those numbers was going to be extremely difficult, because it was a one-off – and not a one-off for us, a one-off in the league,” Arteta said.

“So we know that we need other resources and other kinds of goals to maintain the levels that we want.”

Behind Saka, the only other Arsenal player to reach five Premier League goals this season is backup striker Eddie Nketiah, with Odegaard and Kai Havertz both narrowly behind on four.

Arteta went on to admit that helping his side learn how to put the ball in the net is tricky but vowed to continue battling to find ways to maximise his side’s output in front of goal.

“I think overall the execution is in every part of the field, but when it comes to those spaces, the timing and the definition of an action, [it] becomes trickier to coach and certainly to replicate an action in the game,” he said.

“That’s probably the hardest thing to replicate in football – the timing, the behaviour of the opponent, the distance between the ball and the feet of the opponent, the exact location of that shot, the position of the keeper, the game state – so it’s very tricky. But it’s something that we have to improve, especially recently, in the way that we have transformed those chances into goals.

“We have to [put in work on the training ground]. It’s our job, and the thing that puts them in the most concrete, reliable scenarios is going to help them to do it better.”

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