Goings on at Arsenal will have disturbed Arteta, says Alan Smith

Having started the new season with a fine momentum,

Arsenal

were considered to be making slow but stable progress under

Mikel Arteta

as they headed into their 2020-21 campaign by winning the FA Cup and the Community shield. However, familiar problems have emerged once again at Emirates with

,

, and disappointing results. In a recent interview with Evening Standard,

Alan Smith

has spoken about the team’s situation as Arteta’s efforts to bring back consistency to the team seems more and more wasted.

“Firstly, they get well beaten by Aston Villa, then Willian shoots off to Dubai without permission. David Luiz and Dani Ceballos swap punches in an unusually fierce training ground scrap and [Nicolas] Pepe gets stupidly sent off in the goalless draw at Leeds.

“For a manager who insists on togetherness and discipline, this period will have disturbed Mikel Arteta. The Spaniard has enough on his plate without getting waylaid by avoidable distractions.

“His main challenge, after all, is finding a way to sharpen an attack that has not scored a goal from open play in five League games.

“Searching for an answer, Arteta switched to four at the back against Molde, a move that resulted in three successful strikes. Pepe got some of Leeds out of his system with a fine goal, before Reiss Nelson and Folarin Balogun spoke up for the kids.

“It will be interesting, then, to see if Arteta sticks with that shape against Wolves, a side usually very mean when it comes to defending.

“The Gunners, for sure, need much more in attack, or else the vast improvement elsewhere will get sadly lost amid the disappointment.”

Follow

for the