Mikel Arteta is a coward and Arsenal simply cannot win the Premier League if they aren’t prepared to take the handbrake off in big games.
That was the default position taken on Sunday evening after a game at the Emirates in which one title contender went full Jose Mourinho and parked the bus, focusing so completely on defensive football that they even took off their striker and went five at the back for the last 20 minutes.
That team was not Arsenal, yet they are the team under fire for failing to push hard enough. How we got into this situation is not exactly clear.
It was the same story at Anfield a few weeks ago when a 40-yard Dominic Szoboszlai free-kick was enough for most people to claim Arsenal hadn’t been attacking enough in their most difficult fixture of the Premier League season.
Perception is important to go that final step, and it’s true that if Arsenal only play conservatively the players will eventually internalise the feeling they are a team of runners-up.
But that simply isn’t what happened at the Emirates on Sunday.
For all the hand-wringing over Arteta’s starting line-up and a perceived inferiority complex, or at least counter-productive caution, those opinions boil down to one simple decision: starting Mikel Merino ahead of Eberechi Eze.
It’s a decision easy to justify. Eze joined Arsenal just four weeks ago and has never played as a number eight before. To throw him into that role for the visit of Manchester City, whom we all expected would be considerably more attacking than they were, would have been naïve in the extreme.
Arteta was right not to start Eze, and was right to adapt quickly to Man City’s defensive football by bringing Eze on at half-time.
Eze then set up the equaliser to give Arsenal a valuable and impressive point against Man City, which made Arteta the first manager ever to avoid defeat against Pep Guardiola for five consecutive games.
None of that signals a manager playing or thinking too negatively. In fact Arsenal are one outrageous Szoboszlai free-kick short of being unbeaten after five games, with three wins and two draws against their two title rivals.
So where has the criticism come from and why has it been so pervasive of late?
One reason is that the pundits leading this position tend to be ex-Manchester United players who look upon the Sir Alex Ferguson years with rose-tinted glasses, misremembering the era as constant “attack, attack, attack” despite the 2000s being defined by 0-0 draws in the biggest games – and despite Ferguson dropping points in 10-15 league games in many seasons.
On Sunday it felt as though onlookers had already formed their opinions, had written the headlines in their minds, prior to Gabriel Martinelli’s equaliser and were unable to pivot.
They should do. A draw against Man City is never a bad result and a narrow defeat at Anfield is far from a disaster.
"What a MAGICAL finish!" ✨
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 21, 2025
Gabriel Martinelli equalises for Arsenal in injury-time! pic.twitter.com/dFllxh3eFP
Title winners do not necessarily need to win these games. And they certainly don’t need to be ultra-expressive, not at a time when the biggest matches are becoming more like the cautious games of 20 years ago.
Liverpool were not criticised for failing to go all-in against Arsenal despite playing their part in a dull match broken open by one unplanned moment of magic. Man City were not criticised despite retreating like a relegation candidate.
Yet it’s Arsenal who are castigated, despite the fact that if they continue to sweep aside the majority of Premier League clubs – and then play cautiously against Liverpool and Man City – they will have the correct template to go the distance.
It’s Arteta’s job to make sure his players shut out the noise and hold true to what they believe in.
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