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Things are really not going to plan for Arsenal in 2025. Sure, it started quite nicely with a 3-1 win at Brentford, but since then they were meek in drawing with Brighton & Hove Albion, embarrassingly impotent in losing the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final 2-0 to Newcastle, and then there was the loss on penalties to Manchester United in the FA Cup third round on Sunday.
They can’t even blame referees for this one, having been on the good side of most contentious decisions. Maybe we should be praising Manchester United for their stout performance in holding out for an hour with 10 men after Diogo Dalot’s red card, but it’s hard to ignore that Arsenal seem to be in quite the funk at the moment.
Bukayo Saka is out for who knows how long, as is his replacement Ethan Nwaneri, Ben White is injured too and Gabriel Jesus — just after it looked like he was coming into some sort of goalscoring form — was taken off on a stretcher having injured his knee.
Maybe even more worrying than that is barely any of their fit players seem in form. Martin Odegaard is out of sorts, Gabriel Martinelli too, Mikel Merino hasn’t really got started and we won’t dwell too much on Kai Havertz’s afternoon against United, for fear of kicking a man while he’s down.
The positive spin is that they have created plenty of chances in the past couple of games: 49 shots over 210 minutes for an xG of around 6.44. The negative spin is that it’s no good creating chances if you can’t take any of them.
After the game, manager Mikel Arteta conceded that, while his team dominated the ball and created plenty of chances, “There is an element that is about putting the ball in the back of the net”. Quite so.
Maybe the gloom is too much. They haven’t lost in the league since the start of November. If they beat Tottenham on Wednesday, they could be three points off the top of the table — should leaders Liverpool lose to Nottingham Forest the night before. They’re looking good for automatic qualification in the Champions League. Maybe it’s better not to be in the FA Cup, given the fixture issues it could create.
But the signs aren’t great at the moment. It’s happening in probably the worst possible month, too: the inadequacies of their summer transfer window and not recruiting a proper goalscorer are being laid bare, so the clamour to fix that and spend some money in this window will grow and grow. Alternatively, maybe it could be the best possible month because they could actually buy someone to fix the problem. But don’t hold your breath.
At the moment, it’s a relatively brief poor run. The fear is that it could turn into something much worse than that.
Does the structure of the FA Cup need to change?
When the 90 minutes were up, the instinct was to be delighted for Tamworth that they had held Tottenham to a 0-0 draw. An amazing result that would now be rewarded with a lucrative replay at the Premier League side’s stadium.
And then you remember that replays are no longer a thing in the FA Cup, and a Tamworth team that featured builders and clothes shop workers would have to play another 30 minutes against a team of elite professional athletes, bringing their chances of avoiding defeat down to near zero.
Kyle Walker is one of the best right-backs the Premier League has ever seen, and you could make a decent argument that he’s the very best. None of the other candidates — Gary Neville, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Paulo Ferreira, Cesar Azpilicueta, Pablo Zabaleta, insert your own choice here — had/have quite the same all-round skills, able to defend as effectively as they can attack.
It will be interesting to see how City adapt if Walker leaves, with AC Milan a possible destination. Prospective new signing Abdukodir Khusanov has been a centre-back to this point, but then again so was Josko Gvardiol. Does this mean Rico Lewis becomes a certain starter? Maybe Stones will be asked to fill in there. Perhaps Guardiola has some other tactical innovation up his sleeve.
But City will be saying goodbye to one of their defining players of this era. He will be missed.
The lengthy FA Cup third-round weekend continues on Monday in Bermondsey, south London, with a prospective upset: Championship also-rans Millwall host National League also-rans Dagenham and Redbridge. It’s sort of a London derby — unless you’re a London purist and don’t think Dagenham counts.
Then there’s a bonus round of Premier League games, the highlight of which comes on Tuesday with what is, implausibly, a top-of-the-table clash between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. Brentford host Manchester City, it’s Chelsea vs Bournemouth and West Ham United vs Fulham.
There’s another lively affair on Wednesday: the north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham. Elsewhere, David Moyes takes charge of his second first game as Everton manager, as they face Aston Villa, while Leicester play Crystal Palace and it’s Newcastle vs Wolves.
And finally, on Thursday, Ipswich vs Brighton and Manchester United vs Southampton round off these midweek fixtures.
And throughout the week, the transfer window continues: will Manchester City sign Omar Marmoush and Khusanov? Will Manchester United find someone who’ll take Marcus Rashford? Will Walker get his move? Will Arsenal sign a forward? The Athletic’s transfer live blog will be up and running throughout the week with news and information from all of our club writers and, of course, David Ornstein.
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