Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a blend of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know stories from up and down the Premier League. This week:
🔴 Arsenal: Well-coached but underpowered?
👀 Leicester’s young star with a big future
🔎 A player to watch this weekend
Arteta needs more firepower
Mikel Arteta is under scrutiny as Arsenal face up to a fifth consecutive season without silverware following their Champions League semi-final loss to Paris Saint-Germain. He did not help himself with some of his comments to the media after the game.
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His claim that Arsenal had been the best side in the competition prompted ridicule but having watched them spurn so many chances over the two legs, scoring only once from opportunities worth 4.77 expected goals, his frustration was understandable – even if he might have been better served by keeping a lid on it.
Arteta can reflect that he did his part, setting up his side to create more chances than any other against PSG all season, only for a familiar lack of cutting edge to cost them.
Arsenal’s profligacy was not the only issue but it was a key one, as it was in their FA Cup exit to Manchester United in January, when they lost on penalties despite having 26 shots to their opponent’s seven, and in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Newcastle, when they lost 2-0 with 23 shots to the Magpies’ seven.
The need for attacking reinforcements is clear.
It is important to mention the context of Arsenal’s injuries, of course. They have been using a midfielder up front for three months now. But their front line looks underpowered even at full strength. Arsenal need killers capable of settling marginal games.
Their issues are unsurprising given how heavily recent recruitment has been weighted towards their defence and midfield. Kai Havertz, signed as a midfielder, and the on-loan Raheem Sterling are their only attacking signings across the last four transfer windows.
It is largely thanks to Arteta that, despite the failure to add enough firepower, which has left a clear overreliance on Bukayo Saka, Arsenal are still managing to compete at the very highest level.
Indeed, it is worth noting that many of their biggest strengths – their defensive organisation, their collective work-rate, their set-piece prowess – come down, in significant part, to good coaching.
As they prepare to face champions Liverpool at Anfield on Super Sunday, there is further evidence of that good coaching in Arsenal’s recent record against their traditional rivals domestically.
Arsenal fell painfully short of Manchester City in the title race last season and lag well behind Arne Slot’s side this term, but is more than two years since they last lost a Premier League game to one of the ‘big six’. Tactically, Arteta is rarely bested in those contests having heeded the lessons of previous defeats.
Speaking to Andoni Iraola last week offered a window into how his team are seen by other Premier League sides.
“I think Arsenal is one of the best clubs in the world, not just in England,” the Bournemouth head coach told Sky Sports.
“It is a team that is very reliable. You don’t find very bad Arsenal performances. Even when they are not very good, they are still very competitive. It is one of the hardest teams to face.”
Arsenal’s Champions League campaign offered further proof that they can compete with any side, even in an injury-hit season.
Ultimately, though, they are finding out that good coaching will only get them so far. Arteta is not the problem. Far from it. But he is not the solution either. The club, and new sporting director Andrea Berta, must look to this summer’s transfer window for that.
Guardiola among El Khannouss admirers
Leicester are going down but in Bilal El Khannouss they have a player who looks destined to stay in the top flight. The 20-year-old Morocco international, signed from Genk last summer, has shone in difficult circumstances in his first season in England.
Highlights include a winning goal against Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in January, passed into the corner of the net from the edge of the box, and a stunning, outside-of-the-boot strike against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup in October.
In truth, though, El Khannouss has been serving up eye-catching moments on a near weekly basis all season, such is the speed of his footwork and the level of his technical skill.
Michel Ribeiro, his former coach at Genk, where he became known as the best young player in Belgium, described him as an “unbelievable” talent with “eyes in his back” to Sky Sports earlier this season.
He has another admirer in Pep Guardiola, who made a beeline for him after a starring display against Manchester City at the King Power Stadium in December. “He said he was impressed by my play today,” El Khannouss later revealed to a Belgian media outlet.
There have been reports of interest from numerous Premier League clubs subsequently. Last weekend, he set up Leicester’s opener in a player-of-the-match display against Southampton. He can turn more heads against Nottingham Forest on Super Sunday.
Player Radar: Who else to keep an eye on
Ryan Sessegnon is showing what a big miss he has been for Fulham this season. The 24-year-old has endured another injury-hit campaign but has racked up four goals and two assists in 471 Premier League minutes since his return in March, starting Fulham’s last five games consecutively in a variety of positions.
Live Radar: What’s on Sky this weekend?
Saturday Night Football pits Bournemouth against Aston Villa, live on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event from 5pm before the 5.30pm kick-off time.
Super Sunday sees Nottingham Forest host Leicester in the early game, kicking off at 2.15pm, and champions Liverpool host second-placed Arsenal at 4.30pm, with both games live on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event.
Read last week’s Radar column
Enzo Fernandez’s transformation into an attacking force for Chelsea was the focus of last week’s column. He then went and showed why by scoring the opening goal against Liverpool. There was also some Danny Welbeck appreciation and praise for Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola.
