Gabriel Jesus concern, Fulham reaction

Sunday’s draw at Fulham looked like a huge missed opportunity for Arsenal after Liverpool’s game at Everton was postponed earlier at the weekend.

It was a real opportunity for Mikel Arteta’s men to close the gap on the league leaders and they failed to make the most of it, which was a real blow. You might feel the disappointment afterwards.

I actually didn’t think they played too badly. Fulham are a decent side who have had a good season so far and Arsenal completely dominated them in terms of territory and possession but again the problem was that they didn’t do enough with the ball in and around the last third

It’s a constant problem with this Arsenal team, especially when they come up against teams that settle into a low block. They only it’s hard for them to break teams.

It was no surprise that the goal they scored came from a set piece, we all know how dangerous they are from set pieces. But given the amount of possession they enjoyed in Fulham’s half, they really should have done more with it.

Arsenal generally have no problems scoring goals. They point a lot. They did it last season and only Chelsea and Brentford have scored more than them in the current campaign.

The problem is in these very close games, when teams are heavily against them, they can struggle to unlock them. They really lack that mercurial X-Factor type player who can make something out of nothing and win a game on his own.

That’s why I really wanted them to go to Michael Olise in the summer. I think he would have been perfect for this Arsenal team and he was exactly the type of player they were missing. Nothing he has done since moving to Germany has changed my mind.

Gabriel Jesus’ form is also a real concern. His second-half cameo at Craven Cottage summed up where he is as a player now.

He doesn’t seem to have any confidence. When you throw on a striker at 1-1 midway through the second half, you really want to see him influence a game. To get on the pitch and show why he should be a starter.

But Jesus did the opposite. He barely found his man when on the ball and when a half-chance presented itself from Declan Rice’s clever pass, he didn’t even turn his foot.

He was very poor and his ongoing struggle for form and confidence means that Mikel Arteta has no choice but to continue to play Kai Havertz week in and week out and, unsurprisingly, he is now starting to look like he needs rest due to the sheer amount of minutes he is asked to play.

So there are clearly attacking concerns at Arsenal at the moment which will again raise why nothing was done to really strengthen the forward options in the summer, apart from the late appeal of sign Raheem Sterling on loan.

They are justifiable questions too and do you think something needs to be done to bolster Arteta’s options in the final third of January if they are to have any chance of keeping pace with Chelsea and chasing Liverpool.

I’m not as worried as others seem to be about Gabriel Martinelli at this point.

yes, it was a mistake for him to be caught offside in the preparation of the overruled end goal. He should have done more to hold his line given he was looking across the pitch.

But Fulham’s defenders also deserve credit. They stepped up at the right time and that also took Martinelli offside.

I actually thought he was brilliant when he came on and Arsenal looked much more of a threat. They had a balance to their attack that was missing before it was introduced.

I think Martinelli is just getting some unfair criticism right now. Could you offer more times? Yes, without a doubt. Could your final product be better? Again, yes. But it’s not Arsenal’s biggest problem right now.

That said, I think the left wing is an area where Arsenal could improve and the fact that the club have pursued Nico Williams and Mykhailo Mudryk in recent transfer windows suggests they agree.

I’m not saying Arsenal should move Martinelli. I still think he has a big role to play in this squad going forward, but it’s clear that another option in that side would be very beneficial in terms of attack.

I watched the Arsenal players come off the coach at Craven Cottage on Sunday and as soon as I saw that Oleksandr Zinchenko wasn’t in the squad I was worried we’d be seeing Jurrien Timber at left-back again.

That’s what happened, obviously, with Timber being asked to cover for the injured Ukrainian and Thomas Partey returning to the right side of the back four.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought Timber and Party played perfectly in those positions, but I still don’t think it was the right call by Arteta to play them.

The big issue is how much he affects the team offensively. Timber can do a job at left back, but he doesn’t play to his natural side and isn’t as threatening on the left.

When playing on the right, he gets forward all the time, supports Bukayo Saka and overlaps, which often gives him more space to work with as defenders are forced to track Timber’s runs.

This does not happen when Partey plays as a right back. He rarely gets to the overlap and operates much more as an inverted full-back, leading him into what is already a congested central area.

I don’t actually think it works and neither is the disruption that comes with moving Timber to the opposite flank and taking Partey out of midfield, especially when you have Kieran Tierney and Myles Lewis-Skelly sitting on the bench.

Now, Lewis-Skelly had only just returned from injury on Sunday, so he may not have been fit enough to start, but Tierney has been training for several weeks and has been on the bench for the last four games.

I know he has his injury problems and is probably being managed carefully. But why is he on the bench if he’s not going to be used when you have multiple left backs unavailable? what’s the point

Again, I don’t think that’s why Arsenal dropped points at Fulham. With the players they used and the system they played, so he still did enough to win. They just didn’t take the opportunities that were presented to them.

But I still felt there were things that could have been done differently to cover the absence of all the injured defenders.

It’s good to see Fabio Vieira getting more playing time at Porto after the early injury he picked up there following his loan move.

He is clearly a talented player and I hope he has a good second half of the season and shows everyone why Arsenal invested so much money to bring him to England in the first place.

I don’t think it’s an absolute certainty that his Arsenal career is over. The fact that the club have not inserted any sort of purchase option into their loan move suggests they haven’t completely washed their hands of him.

But I’d be surprised at this point if he comes back and makes the grade in North London. I still think the most likely option is that he stays on permanently at the end of the season.

More stories / Latest news

Mikel Arteta admitted that Vieira could leave so Ethan Nwaneri could get more minutes this season and Nwaneri has already shown how good he can be even though he is still only 17 years old.

So Vieira would find himself being Nwaneri in the pecking order next season if he was still around and I can’t imagine he would be too happy about that given his need for playing time.

An exit seems inevitable and Arsenal will have to take a pretty big financial hit on a player they spent £34m on in 2022.