January 4th 2025.
Arsenal fans were left feeling frustrated as their team dropped two valuable points in a 1-1 draw against Brighton on Saturday. Mikel Arteta, the team's manager, was disappointed with the result and couldn't help but feel that they could have done better. Despite taking an early lead through Ethan Nwaneri, the Gunners failed to capitalize on their advantage and were eventually pegged back by Joao Pedro's controversial penalty in the second half.
This result also meant that Arsenal missed the opportunity to close the gap at the top of the Premier League table to just six points, ahead of Liverpool's game against Manchester United the following day. While Arteta was unhappy with the decision to award Brighton a penalty, he also acknowledged that his team was not at their best when it came to attacking. They only managed to register nine shots on goal throughout the entire game, which was their lowest this season. Arteta admitted that there is a lot of room for improvement in this area.
"You can't rely on just one player to do all the work for you. In the second half, we lacked certain things and that's normal because the fluidity we usually have in certain areas with certain players was missing," Arteta said. "But it's up to us to do better and we have to work on that."
Joao Pedro's equalizer from the penalty spot was a bitter pill to swallow for Arsenal, but the team's attacking options for their upcoming Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle are now even more limited. This is because Nwaneri, who scored the opening goal, was forced off at halftime due to a muscular injury. This adds to the already lengthy injury list for the Gunners, with Bukayo Saka out for at least another two months and Martin Odegaard only fit enough for a place on the bench. To make matters worse, Kai Havertz was also unable to play due to sickness.
There is some hope that loan signing Raheem Sterling could be available for the upcoming match, but it is clear that there is a pressing need for reinforcements in the January transfer window. When asked about potential new signings, Arteta said, "We can't make decisions based on just one performance and one day where there were a lot of circumstances involved, not just the players we were missing. But with the substitution of Nwaneri and the limited time Martin had on the pitch, we're hoping to be in a better position for Tuesday's game. We'll have to wait and see."
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