Marcus Rashford links and more

Saturday’s draw against Everton was incredibly frustratingespecially with this after the Champions League win against Monaco.

I really expected this midweek success to lift Arsenal at the weekend, but it didn’t happen. Everton came with a game plan and Arsenal never seemed to have an answer.

You can talk about fatigue and point out that Everton had ten days to rest and prepare for the game, but Mikel Arteta’s side should still have found a way to beat them.

They had a lot of the ball and a lot of territory, but to be honest they never looked like scoring and that was disappointing. They didn’t seem to have any idea how to break Everton down.

I actually liked the look of the starting XI when it was announced. It looked well balanced on both sides, with players all playing in their natural positions. But I think too many players had an off day.

It should be noted that Everton played well. They were very well coached and you could tell they had spent the last ten days working out exactly how they were going to frustrate Arsenal.

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They denied them space, especially down the right side and kept things so tight in central areas.

But it was as much Arsenal playing badly as Everton playing well. Martin Odegaard didn’t look good and hasn’t in recent games and we know the impact he has on this Arsenal team.

When Odegaard is involved, Arsenal are a completely different proposition. This is undeniable. But when he’s absent or struggling for form, they simply don’t have anyone else who can replicate what he does.

Mikel Merino played alongside him on Saturday and you can see he is still working in this Arsenal team. He didn’t do anything wrong against Everton, but he didn’t really add anything offensively.

He was never really a threat and you never felt he was going to be the person to open up Everton’s defence.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I would have preferred to see Mikel Arteta replace Merino with Ethan Nwaneri when the youngster came on early in the second half. Having Nwaneri and Odegaard operating side by side in those pockets in front of Everton’s back four would have given the visitors something a little different to think about.

Instead, everything was very predictable and they seemed very comfortable in the end. There was no late siege on their goal, indeed Jordan Pickford was barely tested in the final half hour. Arsenal have just run out of ideas.

Marcus Rashford’s name always seems to come up when it comes to Arsenal these days.

He always seems to be part of the conversation, certainly among the fans anyway, and that could be the case again as we head into January, given what’s going on at Manchester United at the moment.

Do I think it could be an opportunity for Arsenal? I don’t think so to be honest. I’m not sure that’s what they need.

If he was still the Rashford of a couple of years ago, my thoughts would be different. But if that was the case, I would now be playing week in week out at United.

But it isn’t and there’s a reason for that. So if Arsenal, or anyone else, were to move for him in January, they would be doing so in the hope that he could rediscover his best form again.

It would just be a bit of a gamble. Similar to what Arsenal did with Raheem Sterling in the summer and it certainly hasn’t been a gamble that has paid off. Rashford would also be much more expensive.

I think Arsenal will have to pull something out of the bag in January. It’s clear they need at least one more viable option in the final third, even if it’s a loan deal to see them through to the summer, when they can really push for their top targets.

This season has shown that they need more. In the summer it felt like they had been left at least one striker short and that factored into Sterling’s late loan move.

The fact that Sterling doesn’t even seem to be considered for a few minutes now, even when the team is in desperate need of a goal, really shows that the team is probably two attacking players short in terms of where to go. to be

So January feels crucial for Arsenal and their ambitions in the second half of the season. It will not be easy to find what is needed, but they should be tried.

Arsenal and Manchester City seem to have caught up a bit in the last two seasons.

The two seasons have been so demanding and both teams have pushed themselves so hard, that they may have taken their toll.

From Arsenal’s point of view, the effort they put in, both physically and mentally, to try and overcome City was enormous. And to do all that and not get over the line must have been incredibly hard to take.

It takes an eye to roll up their sleeves and get back into it, so perhaps that has been a bit of a problem for them, especially after a summer of international competition that meant so few could rest.

But it is what it is and they have to find a way to get back on track, otherwise this season could just slip away and that would be very disappointing.

There is still plenty of time to salvage things in the Premier League and Mikel Arteta’s side are well placed in the Champions League and have a Carabao Cup quarter-final this week.

So their season is far from over, even if they are currently behind Liverpool and Chelsea.

Chelsea have been impressive and should be considered as contenders. They have so much attacking talent considering the money they’ve spent and the midfield now looks very strong, which isn’t surprising when you have two players costing over £100m.

They have the momentum right now and that can be a powerful thing, so they need to be in the conversation when it comes to the title.

There is a lot of excitement at Arsenal for Myles Lewis-Skelly.

I think the rise of Ethan Nwaneri has taken some of the spotlight off Lewis-Skelly and that has allowed him to go under the radar, which could be a good thing for a young player.

But when you look at it, it is Lewis-Skelly who has now started in the Champions League and the Premier League, not Nwaneri.

That says a lot about how Arsenal and Mikel Arteta see him. It’s not just his skill that got him where he is, it’s also his brain. He is seen as someone who can take it all and can play with a maturity far beyond his years.

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This is something that has impressed the Arsenal staff. They appreciate how calm he is and how clearly he thinks things through. I think you can tell by the way he plays as well.

Obviously Arteta has seen something in him that makes him see him as a left-back invested in the system he plays. It’s still something relatively new for Lewis-Skelly, who has come through the academy as a midfielder.

But the way he’s taken it shows just how good a player he is and I think that’s definitely the position we’ll continue to see him perform in over the next few seasons.