A familiar and unsettling sense of deja vu is bedevilling Arsenal supporters right now. Barely a month ago, Mikel Arteta's side were in the driving seat for the top four, the Spaniard won March's manager of the month and guided Arsenal to six wins from seven before the international break.
Fleeting talk of a third-placed challenge also became prevalent among some of the fanbase amid Chelsea's minor blip, and even in their home defeat to Liverpool, Arsenal made a real game of it in the first half.
However, that home defeat to the Reds now represents one of Arsenal's four defeats from their last five games in the Premier League, with the North London outfit a shadow of their former selves since the international break.
Three successive defeats to sides they would have expected to beat in Crystal Palace, Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton have left Arsenal's top-four hopes hanging by a thread, with the Gunners now dropping to sixth ahead of a crucial period of fixtures.
Multiple factors have contributed to Arsenal's recent abysmal streak, and here Sports Mole explores the Gunners' recent failures in depth and determines whether Arteta can still lead Arsenal back into the top four and the promised land of the Champions League.
DEVASTATING INJURIES
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Arteta's system works to perfection when his entire first choice XI is available to do their jobs. Take two or three integral cogs out of the team, and the formula for success is just not there.
Takehiro Tomiyasu's lengthy layoff has not proved fatal with Cedric Soares stepping up to the plate rather well in recent weeks, while Ben White is also a competent deputy at right-back, but losing Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey has been nothing short of devastating.
Partey and Granit Xhaka complement each other in the midfield perfectly. Prior to the loss to Southampton, Arsenal had posted a 56% win rate in the games that Partey had started compared to 39% without him. Frustratingly, the former Atletico Madrid man had just started to show his best form before being sidelined for what looks like the remainder of the season again.
Tierney has not been tasked with the creator-in-chief role that has sometimes fallen upon him at Arsenal, but the Scot's leadership qualities and reliability cannot be replaced - certainly not by a confidence-depleted Nuno Tavares, whose shoulders could not be handling more pressure right now.
Moving Xhaka to left-back and isolating Albert Sambi Lokonga in the middle against Brighton was an indefensible call from Arteta, who reverted the Swiss to his usual role in the second half, but by that point it was too little too late. A season without European football has managed to keep Arsenal's absentee list lower than in previous seasons, but it only takes injuries to a couple of key players for Arteta's system to crumble.
ATTACKING FAILURES
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As talented as Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe are, relying on three up-and-coming starlets to provide the majority of the goal threat for an entire season will not lead to the desired results - especially while senior attacking players flatter to deceive.
Arsenal have only mustered 13 shots on target in their trio of defeats, while captain and number nine Alexandre Lacazette is still waiting for his first Premier League goal from open play in the calendar year and is now battling a bout of COVID-19.
The arrival of Martin Odegaard has sparked a breath of creativity in Arsenal's ranks, and the Norwegian is capable of combining with the likes of Saka and Martinelli beautifully, but more often than not, there appears to be a lack of urgency to get in behind or break the lines until the final 10 minutes of the match.
Arsenal could have very well come away from St Mary's with one point or three had Fraser Forster not played out of his skin, but a wave of tame efforts directed at a comfortable angle made it easy for the Saints keeper to steal the spotlight, and it is no surprise to see the Gunners rank behind both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in expected goals this season.
JANUARY BLUES
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Lacazette losing his shooting boots coupled with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's storming start to life at Barcelona have led to questions over whether cutting their losses on the Gabon international was the right decision - especially with the Gunners recouping nothing for their former star striker.
However, just because Aubameyang is finding the back of the net for Barcelona does not mean he would have suddenly rediscovered his best form for Arsenal. Letting him go was undeniably the right decision, but failure to adequately replace him and a whole host of other departed names seems like it is coming back to bite Edu and co.
Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Hector Bellerin, Matteo Guendouzi and William Saliba would all be useful squad players right now, and Arsenal are anticipating the latter returning to the club a much more mature and well-rounded defender for the 2022-23 campaign, but that will not help Arsenal's end-of-season prospects in the coming weeks.
Arsenal's distinct lack of squad depth saw no fewer than three uncapped academy graduates make the bench for the Southampton clash - as well as Miguel Azeez, who is still waiting for his Premier League debut. The Gunners took a huge risk in January, and by the looks of it, it is one that was not worth taking. Furthermore, no-one can predict where the next positive COVID-19 test is going to come from.
Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United are far from perfect themselves, so it would be folly to write off Arsenal's top-four chances just yet. However, failure to glean at least one win from their pivotal clashes with the Lilywhites and Red Devils will surely consign Arsenal to Europa League, Conference League or potentially even no European football next season - the latter of which must lead to serious questions over Arteta's tenure in the hotseat.
Ben Knapton
