LONDON — At some point this month, Arsenal will have to make the same judgement call they did in the summer: do we have enough in attack to win the Premier League?
Wednesday’s 3-1 win at Brentford on New Year’s Day was inconclusive. Manager Mikel Arteta has said the search for solutions without Bukayo Saka — sidelined until March following hamstring surgery — would begin internally and he sprang something of a surprise here by handing teenager Ethan Nwaneri his first league start in Saka’s usual right-sided position.
It was encouraging that Nwaneri looked composed beyond his years and had a hand in both of Arsenal’s second-half goals while Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli’s dual presence on the scoresheet will embolden those of the view that the Gunners possess sufficient firepower to hunt down Liverpool.
After all, they cut the gap at the top to six points without Saka and Kai Havertz, who was out due to a virus that Arteta admitted had affected multiple players in the build-up. Havertz was sent home to isolate and is expected to be available for Saturday’s trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.
And yet, a nagging feeling persists that Arsenal may need a little more if they are to achieve their publicly stated aim of adding major trophies to the five years of sustained progress under Arteta.
“We’ve broken so many records but the reality is this team don’t have the big titles we’re looking for,” he said before kick-off here and while the result eases some of the pressure on the club to act in the January market, that desire among supporters is bubbling underneath the surface and has been, in truth, ever since the summer.
Sources have told ESPN that senior figures at the club concluded following their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal exit to Bayern Munich that they needed either a winger or central striker to bolster their attacking options and later identified Benjamin Sesko at RB Leipzig as their preferred choice.
Leipzig moved quickly to sign Sesko to a new deal and Arsenal opted to keep their powder dry in the belief an ideal alternative was not available. Liverpool’s lead at the top places is under permanent scrutiny and the Gunners revisit the same conundrum this month, with some fans pushing for a winger and others suggesting a clinical finisher should be the priority acquisition.
It is, however, something the club has a little time to ponder after recovering from falling a goal down inside 13 minutes at Gtech Community Stadium.
Mikkel Damsgaard found Bryan Mbeumo in space and as Riccardo Calafiori backed off too willingly, Mbeumo had the time to line up a shot that beat goalkeeper David Raya at his near post. Mbeumo’s effort was expertly placed but bereft of a fearsome pace that would have absolved Raya of any responsibility.
Arsenal looked a little flat but roused themselves thereafter. Mark Flekken could only beat out Thomas Partey’s 29th-minute shot to Jesus, who headed in the rebound before Mikel Merino turned home Nwaneri’s corner that Brentford failed to clear five minutes into the second half.
Three minutes later, another Nwaneri delivery caused problems as Nathan Collins could only head the ball to Martinelli and he fired a fine shot past Flekken.
The signs of revival in both Martinelli and Jesus have come at an opportune moment. Jesus has scored six goals in four games after a deeply troubling run of one goal in 33 games. Martinelli now has three in his past four league away games after a run of one in his previous 26 on the road.
“Very good timing — both of them are really important,” said Arteta.
“It is a big quality of our team to share the goals. Today we have done it again, scoring in three very different ways. Great, that’s what we need. People up front have to be firing and have to be with that feeling and they are with that feeling right now.”
Asking Nwaneri — on the fourth senior start of his fledgling career — to replicate Saka’s remarkably consistent creative output would be both unfair and unrealistic, especially given wide right is not a position he specialised in at youth level.
But his performance here against a depleted Brentford side, still yet to keep a clean sheet at home in the league this season, offered enough to suggest it is an option worth further exploration.
“In that position it wasn’t because of the bug, it was a decision that I made [to start Nwaneri] because I thought he was the best player in the position to start the game,” said Arteta.
“And because there was a story there with his Premier League debut here and sometimes that feeling comes in and you feel it is the right one and then who knows?
“Part of that development is patience and managing frustration or managing expectation because you expect everything to going to go so fast as the previous things and that is not the case. So now we are building him. He has already plays a lot of minutes for us with his age and he fully deserves that.”
And with Leandro Trossard only required as a late substitute, Arteta may feel he has enough for the four competitions that are coming thick and fast.
Availability of preferred targets will inevitably be a factor in January, but Arsenal will soon need to decide whether they need to brave the market to find the push they need or back the current group to get themselves over the line after two years of near misses.
Asked whether Arsenal’s squad felt short of options in the circumstances, Arteta replied: “When I see the willingness of each individual to play through anything and the versatility that we can create within our idea, the answer is no.
“But we don’t know obviously if something else happens, we would have other issues, Hopefully not, hopefully people come back. We need everybody.”
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