ARTETA’S BURNING ISSUES

Strikers who want out, a leaky defence and no clear playing style. New Arsenal boss has plenty on his plate

SORT OUT THE CLUB’S UNSETTLED STRIKERS

PERSUADING Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette that they can achieve their dreams at Arsenal will be one of Mikel Arteta’s most pertinent jobs.

The strike duo, who enter the final 12 months of their deals in the summer, are stalling on contract extensions.

Both want to play Champions League football. Aubameyang, in particular, wants to be part of a team challenging for top domestic and European honours.

Aubameyang and Lacazette are disillusioned at the Emirates. The malaise gripping the club is eating away at their competitive instincts.

Arteta must convince them that Arsenal can challenge for premium silverware under his guidance to have any chance of keeping them.

Proof of improvement between now and the end of the season will help, but even that may not be enough to prompt a change of heart.

If they continue to stall, the club will have no option but to consider selling so as not to risk losing them for nothing in 2021.

SORT OUT THE ATTACK

IF Arteta is to hit the ground running, the Spaniard needs to find a system that allows him to get the best out of his attacking triumvirate.

Aubameyang is undroppable, but Arteta must find a way to get France star Lacazette — who has spent too much time on the bench for a player who cost £46.5 million — into his team on a regular basis.

Similarly, securing £ 72m record signing Nicolas Pepe enough playing time so he can fully adapt to English football following his arrival from Lille should be a priority.

Pepe has provided enough flashes of skill to suggest he can make his big-money move a success, but he needs to start producing more often.

Unai Emery’s preference to play with a lone striker meant that only one of Aubameyang and Lacazette could be accommodated in their preferred role as central forward.

Playing both meant that one of them, usually Aubameyang, was shifted out wide. Surely the idea of playing the pair as an out-and-out strike combination will have crossed Arteta’s mind.

It is a pairing many fans have been crying out for. So finding a formation that allows Arteta to play Aubameyang, Lacazette and Pepe in the same team could be the key to unlocking this squad’s potential.

However, what such a change in formation would mean for Mesut Ozil provides an interesting subplot.

Interim manager Freddie Ljungberg has relied heavily on Ozil but his performances have hardly repaid the Swede’s faith. It will be interesting to see if Arteta is so accommodating.

PRIORITISE DEFENCE

ARTETA is likely to have a limited transfer budget during the next two windows.

Unfortunately for the Spaniard, that is the cost of the club’s exile from the Champions League.

But whatever money Arteta does have to spend should be assigned to capturing two central defenders.

It is a headache that has dogged Arsenal for the best part of a decade. Laurent Koscielny’s departure in the summer amplified the problem.

The arrival of David Luiz from Chelsea raised eyebrows. Some of his performances thus far have done nothing to disprove his doubters.

Sokratis gives everything but, at 31, he is hardly the long-term answer to Arsenal’s issues.

Calum Chambers’ confidence looks shot to pieces, though Rob Holding appears to have a future once he overcomes his injury problems.

Arsenal’s soft centre is a concern Arteta will need to address. But with a limited budget, recruiting two top centre backs is easier said than done.

REDISCOVER THE ARSENAL WAY

BY the end of Emery’s reign, the players were as confused as their manager. It wasn’t that the squad weren’t listening to the beleaguered Spaniard, rather they were unclear on what they were being asked to do.

Players felt Emery altered the team’s style on a weekly basis. The team went into games with no clear identity.

Implementing a definitive playing philosophy will be one of Arteta’s key targets during the opening weeks.

His three years working under Pep Guardiola will have been invaluable. So, too, his time under Arsene Wenger — his last manager as a player. In 2015, speaking to Arsenal

Magazine, Arteta gave a hint of how he would ask his teams to play.

‘My philosophy will be clear. I will have everyone 120 per cent committed, that’s the first thing,’ he said.

‘If not, you don’t play for me. Then I want the football to be expressive, entertaining. I cannot have a concept of football where everything is based on the opposition. We have to dictate the game, we have to be the ones taking the initiative, and we have to entertain the people coming to watch us.

‘I’m 100 per cent convinced of those things.’

IMPROVE ATMOSPHERE AT TRAINING GROUND

ARSENAL’S London Colney HQ has hardly been a bundle of laughs in recent weeks.

Poor results are an obvious factor behind the gloom. But the atmosphere has not been right for months.

Emery must shoulder the blame for that. His introverted manner did not help nurture a sociable atmosphere.

Sources claim the recent captaincy furore that saw Aubameyang replace Granit Xhaka after the midfielder reacted angrily to abuse from fans has also changed the dynamic of the dressing room.

Xhaka is attracting interest from Germany, with Hertha Berlin monitoring his situation. It remains to be seen whether

Xhaka remains at the club beyond the January transfer window, but nevertheless, Arteta walks into a club that could certainly do with a pick-up.

RECONNECT WITH FANS

EMPTY seats at the Emirates is what, effectively, did for Wenger. It was the same for Emery. Dissatisfaction from supporters with the team’s performances is plain to see.

There is one remedy for that disconnect: win more matches.

Arteta should be given more time to convince the fans, given his playing links to the club, but the Arsenal fanbase can be a fickle bunch. Who’s to say how long it is before they get on the new manager’s back?

But the educated supporter will realise that Arteta’s appointment is the start of a long-term project.

Arsenal are in disarray and there won’t be a quick fix. Fans would do well to remember that before Arteta arrives.