The big Arsenal lesson learned by Mikel Arteta in Man City turnaround | OneFootball

Sunday taught Arteta something that could be key for Arsenal in their title bid

Your matchday briefing on Arsenal, featuring team news and expert analysis from Simon Collings

Sign up

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Mikel Arteta was left with mixed emotions after Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Manchester City, but the overriding feeling was disappointment.

It is still early days in the title race, and that is also the case with Arteta and this impressive squad Arsenal have assembled after eight new signings over the summer.

Gabriel Martinelli scored a 93rd-minute equaliser for Arsenal

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

The Gunners have been rightly lauded for their aggressive recruitment drive, but Arteta is now in an unprecedented situation.

Never before has he had so many options, particularly in attack, and the challenge is finding the right combinations each week.

Arteta may argue he did not get his team wrong against City, yet a rare double change at half-time suggested otherwise.

Indeed, this was only the third time Arteta has brought on two players at the break during a Premier League match.

One of those substitutions was forced, with Noni Madueke being replaced by Bukayo Saka due to a fitness issue.

But the decision to take off Mikel Merino for Eberechi Eze was tactical. It proved justified, too.

Arsenal dominated the ball in the first half, enjoying 67.5 per cent possession, but managed just one shot on target.

The midfield of Declan Rice and Merino, who played just ahead of Martin Zubimendi, were too passive and safe with their passing.

They played in front of City’s deep defence, who were happy to let Arsenal have the ball and hit them on the counter, with Erling Haaland’s early goal fitting into their game plan.

Mikel Merino and Declan Rice started in midfield against Manchester City

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Arsenal struggled to create and open City up after that, and it is hard not to look at the midfield as the reason why.

Merino and Rice are both great players, but as a pair of No8s playing together they are yet to click.

On six occasions they have lined up in those roles, with Arsenal winning just one of those games (in Bilbao last Tuesday).

They have also twice started together in midfield when the Gunners played in a 4-4-2 formation, and Arteta’s side failed to win either of those matches.

Stylistically, it feels like they make Arsenal’s midfield unbalanced.

Both Merino and Rice are excellent defensively, and they can help a side dominate possession, but would they have played the ball that Eze did for Gabriel Martinelli’s late equaliser?

Arsenal were certainly a better side when Eze came on and joined the midfield trio. He gave them the spark they had been lacking in the absence of captain Martin Odegaard, who was out with a shoulder injury.

In the past, when Odegaard has been absent, there may have been argument for Arteta to get creative - and he did so to good effect last season.

Arsenal occasionally shifted formation, usually into a 4-4-2, or went more direct with their passing.

Eberechi Eze make an impact when he came on at half-time

Getty Images

Now, though, the solution feels more simple with Eze in the squad. When Odegaard is out, the new £60million playmaker can slot straight into the side.

There is also Ethan Nwaneri to call upon, who now has a year of first-team football under his belt.

Arteta quipped after the City draw that nobody asked him about the midfield in Bilbao after Arsenal won 2-0 in the Champions League.

But watching this game with City, it was impossible not to press him on his selection when the Gunners looked like two different teams before and after half-time.

Arsenal’s midfield needs a creator, especially with a striker like Viktor Gyokeres ahead of it.

Gyokeres, unlike someone such as Kai Havertz who drops in to link the play, lives off chances and on Sunday he had none.

Arteta will have surely learned from this second half against City, and it is understandable that he is still working out how to use this new-look squad.

Sunday’s trip to Newcastle will tell us how quickly he has learned because, if Odegaard is not fit, then Arteta will once again have a decision to make.

Does he start Merino and Rice, or does he turn to Eze at St James’ Park?

Sunday could show whether Arsenal’s midfield puzzle is any closer to being solved.