He wants Saka to be capable of playing more than 60 games a season but it would surely do no harm if someone of comparable gifts, maybe Bayer Leverkusen’s Moussa Diaby, were ready to start at least a third of them. That will mean more established players and, in order to attract them, a greater willingness from the manager to chop and change. To keep up the pace in 2023-24, Arteta will need better alternatives, individuals whose rotation into the side will not diminish the effectiveness. Saliba required a higher-grade deputy than Rob Holding or Jakub Kiwior, although the latter’s performances in recent weeks have shown genuine promise out wide there is no semblance of serious competition for Bukayo Saka, who has been muted of late Fábio Vieira is not ready to swap in regularly for Martin Ødegaard if required up front there appears a vacancy for a striker of real stature who can present an alternative to Jesus and at left-back Kieran Tierney, a fine player but incomparable to Oleksandr Zinchenko in Arteta’s preferred buildup, has seen the team evolve beyond him. Numbers have been less of a problem than quality. Yet the treatment room has never been overflowing and the squad must be better stocked if they are to see the job through in future. Gabriel Jesus and William Saliba have been missed at different points of the campaign, and Takehiro Tomiyasu’s versatility would have come in useful this spring. It will make frustrating reading for Arteta, who could bemoan injuries but knows they cannot account for everything. The difference is stark, although some degree of tail-off might have been expected from a young team in that position for the first time. Arsenal spent the first half of the campaign in the vein of runaway champions and the second in form befitting a side that would usually finish somewhere between third and sixth. During the first 19 games, up to and including the dramatic win against Manchester United in January, they won 50 points at an average of 2.63 per match the following 17 have brought 31 points at an average of 1.82. The manner of their drop-off is best observed by chopping their season in two. To an extent that is nothing new: Arsenal were always going to require a revamp this summer and there is little question they have overperformed according to their playing resources.
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