Arsenal vs. Manchester United: Mikel Arteta says Gunners don’t have luxury of ‘five world-class players’

Mikel Arteta would not be drawn out. No matter how the question was phrased the Arsenal manager just about managed to dodge around each curveball and cutter that was thrown in his direction. He was studiously saying very little on Saturday’s opponents Manchester United.

He was not the man to advise newly named United manager Erik ten Hag. Some platitudes were thrown in Liverpool’s direction after their dominant victory in midweek. This would not be the game to knock any team out of top four contention. And on it went. You could hardly blame him in an era when even the most innocuous of pre-match statements has the potential to be mocked up on a social media graphic, context free, in the event of a bad result.

There was a momentary nibble, however. It was the sort that Arteta might even be able to argue was not aimed at United, a point he is making about his side in general rather than in comparison with their upcoming opponents. “We don’t have, at the moment, five world-class players that all the issues we have at the club are going to hide them every week because they are going to score hat tricks here,” he said. He might have plausible deniability but give the Arsenal manager truth serum and he would probably admit that he was referring to United’s cadre of superstars who stand ready to bail them out.

After all, United are a team that can rock up to face the Premier League’s bottom side Norwich with no visible sign of any underlying principles, let alone a plan to win the 90 minutes, and get bailed out because they have Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch. Interim manager Ralf Rangnick arrived with his employers hoping he would at least be able to set down some building blocks. Five months later he has the look of an exasperated parent drafted in to chaperone a gaggle of rowdy fourth graders on a school trip. He is at his wit’s end, forced to throw Phil Jones into the Anfield mixer just to get a reaction. Get this man a drink.

And yet, in spite of the travesty his player’s served up away to their great rivals Liverpool, United remain theoretically in the mix for a top four finish, even if the predictors and odds do not favor them. All that has kept this team clinging on is one simple truth, they get points when they are bad. The entire group stage of their Champions League campaign was a masterclass in escapology, one that would have been dramatically improved with adverts in the 75th minute. “How will Ole Gunnar Solskjaer get out of this situation? Stay tuned to find out!” West Ham somehow accrued zero points from their meetings with the Red Devils when six might have been a fairer reflection.

Then there was the last meeting between these two sides. Arsenal had all the possession, took plenty of and built up some smart expected goals (xG) returns. Then they got Ronaldo-ed. Twice. Arteta might reflect ruefully on that, asking himself how often his side have gotten away with one in the way United seem to do on a serial basis.

At their best, Arsenal’s good moments have been rewarded with impressive results, not least Wednesday’s revitalizing win at Chelsea. Yet when they are off form they tend to be punished quite emphatically, as Crystal Palace and Brighton did in recent weeks. Perhaps that is the nature of a team with a clearly defined tactical approach and questionable depth. When things run aground, sometimes it appears all Arsenal can do is their system but more. Alexandre Lacazette drops deeper, play is funneled ever more into their inside forwards, with not a ball thrown into the mixer in sight. Where United seem to live utterly in their moment, Arsenal can at times fall prisoner to their own principles.

It might also be the case that for all the work Arteta has done to address the mentality and attitude of the club as a whole, they do not have the same depth of battle-hardened professionals who have made a career out of big moments that their top four rivals do. Nowhere is that difference more pronounced than in attack. Ronaldo, expected to return to the side following the tragic death of his baby son last week, is one of the most clutch performers the sport has ever seen. At the start of this week Eddie Nketiah’s most notable contribution to the Arsenal cause might have been two goals in the EFL Cup against Norwich.

There are precious few comparisons one can make between those two that do not seem a bit silly but there is one trait that they both share. In the same way that Ronaldo seems to be a force of sheer narrative power in decisive moments so Nketiah has a way of finding himself in positions to make a telling contribution to games even if he does not do so with the regularity of United’s No.7.

“He has this special ability that the ball lands where he is,” Arteta said of Nketiah. “He is able to read the situation or modify his position very quickly in relation to what he expects to happen and the ball gets to him and when that happens most of the time he puts the ball in the net.” Both his goals against Chelsea were typical of a player who always seems to position himself in the right spots, first pouncing on an Andreas Christensen miskick before following the chaos to scrabble home Arsenal’s third early in the second half. At 16 and 10 yards out they were also the most long range goals struck by this pure poacher.

Beyond the fact that he is likely not a starting center forward for a top Premier League club, it is hard to know exactly what level Nketiah can reach. He has 1453 Premier League minutes to his name over five seasons, but, as he noted in an interview with the Beautiful Game podcast, he has not been getting consistent runs in the team. He tends to serve as the break glass in case of goal-scoring emergency option on the bench, but from that position he does at least get chances. His 0.42 non-penalty xG per 90 minutes is the highest of any regular under Arteta.

“You play 10, 15, 20 minutes and then the assessment is never going to be fair because that moment is conditioned by the game, the result, what the opponent is doing,” acknowledged Arteta. “At Chelsea he had the second chance (after starting at Southampton) and did really well.”

He is likely to get a third chance off the back of his second goals. It may just suit Arsenal to have his more chaotic presence, a player just as likely to score off three deflections and a trip as to put the finishing touches on a flowing move. After all, it would surely be more satisfying to beat United at their own game.