Ed Aarons 

FA Cup run may have to ignite Arsenal’s season in absence of big-money signings

Mikel Arteta, whose side face Manchester United on Sunday, is unlikely to be given funds to improve his attack this month
  
  

Mikel Arteta on the touchline.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal take on Manchester United in the FA Cup on Sunday. Photograph: Javier García/Shutterstock

“Gentlemen whose sole ability to build up a good side depends on the payment of heavy and exhorbitant [sic] transfer fees need not apply.”

This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the legendary Herbert Chapman’s appointment by Arsenal after the chairman, Sir Henry Norris, posted an advertisement in the Athletic News as they searched for a new manager. Times may have changed but the message must sound very familiar to Mikel Arteta.

Deprived of his attacking talisman, Bukayo Saka, and facing a week that could go a long way to defining Arsenal’s season, how the Arsenal manager would love to be able to go out and break the world transfer record on a new striker like Chapman did when he signed David Jack from Bolton in October 1928.

Despite Arsenal’s claims of frugality, at £10,890, the 29-year-old became the first five-digit transfer in history – helping to earn Arsenal their Bank of England nickname – after Chapman was said to have haggled the price down by getting the Bolton directors drunk on gin and tonics while he stayed sober.

Jack was a part of the Arsenal side that won the FA Cup in 1930 – the club’s first major trophy – as Chapman came good on the five-year plan to transform their fortunes that he had announced on his appointment. A first league title followed in his sixth season at the helm in 1931 as the north Londoners went on to dominate English football, even after Chapman’s untimely death at 55 from pneumonia in January 1934.

The FA Cup won in his first season means Arteta has the same number of trophies as his famous forebear after five years in charge, although the chances of history repeating itself look extremely slim given the way things have been going. Having finished as runners-up to Manchester City for the past two seasons, Arsenal are in their longest period, now into a 21st year, without a league title since first becoming English champions in 1931.

The ghosts of Chapman’s teams and the Invincibles of 2003-04 have hung over the Emirates since the club moved there from Highbury two years after their last Premier League title under Arsène Wenger. Only four FA Cup triumphs – albeit ones that have extended Arsenal’s record number of wins in the competition to 14 overall – have been added to the trophy cabinet in almost two decades.

Arteta has acknowledged that he is unlikely to be given the funds to make a statement signing this month and his admission before the meeting with Manchester United in this year’s third round that Arsenal’s rivals have spent considerably more on attacking players over the past few seasons was perhaps a hint of his growing frustration. Just six – Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Raheem Sterling, Marquinhos (who was sent out on loan again this past week) and Willian – have been brought in since the Spaniard took over in December 2019, compared with seven full-backs, five centre-backs, five defensive midfielders and five goalkeepers.

Much of that has to do with Saka’s sparkling performances, of course, although there has been a feeling among some supporters that the manager has been too loyal to some of his other forwards such as Gabriel Martinelli or Jesus before his return to form. The decision to bring in Sterling on loan from Chelsea as a stopgap after deciding against pursuing a big-money signing in the summer has not worked out, although he could return this weekend after injury, while Trossard – who joined from Brighton two years ago in January after Chelsea gazumped them for Mykhailo Mudryk – looks lacking in form and confidence at just the wrong time.

Moves for Nico Williams or Benjamin Sesko – the Slovenia striker who has been heavily scouted for the past two years – would be the kind of signings that would reignite Arsenal’s campaign, although neither Athletic Bilbao or RB Leipzig can be expected to do business for their prized assets this month. Meanwhile, Alexander Isak’s value has soared to almost double the amount Arsenal baulked at paying when he was still at Real Sociedad and the Swede appears out of reach for now.

Having surrendered the advantage to Isak and Newcastle in the home leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final, another cup run might be the last thing that Arteta’s side need given the hectic schedule that lies ahead of his side, with crucial Premier League games at home at Spurs on Wednesday and then Aston Villa on Saturday this coming week. But the Spaniard was dismissive of suggestions that Arsenal would prioritise one competition over another and insisted his squad can produce another strong finish to the season despite not being able to recharge with a week in Dubai like they were able to this time last year.

“I look at it the other way around,” said Arteta. “In the first part of the season, with all the injuries and suspensions, with more games and more competitions, we are in a better position than last year or exactly the same in the Premier League. How is that possible?” He added: “Everything is ahead. It’s in our control. There are things we can still do better with or without injuries, and with the schedule, and we focus on that.”

 

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