The title race is back on because Arsenal aren’t getting their business done. A series of away draws – Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Wolves – have allowed Manchester City to stay alive. Win their 12 remaining league matches and City will win it.
The psychodrama of the Arsenal supporter is now in full swing, but this is not just psychological. There are weaknesses in Arsenal at the moment and they are being exposed.
Lack of a reliable goalscorer
Arsenal’s last seven league goals have been scored by six different players. We are in mid-February and the top non-penalty goalscorer for the title favourites has six goals. This isn’t normal.
Sharing your goals around the team can absolutely be a strength, but it’s also true that it would be really handy for Mikel Arteta if one of his strikers could both stay fit or stay scoring. They are the cheat codes that get you cheap goals that make leads unassailable.
Gyokeres is not even a flat-track bully right now (Photo: Getty)Viktor Gyokeres has been fairly presented as the flat-track bully that they need in games against weaker opponents, but during the three winless draws at Forest, Brentford and Wolves he managed a single shot in 210 minutes. Either the movement, the communication or the service isn’t good enough, or all three.
The ‘now or never’ fear
Bukayo Saka dismissed the notion that the Wolves setback was in any way a psychological problem, but this is a proof positive issue. If enough Arsenal supporters believe that the club is caught up in its own psychodrama, it becomes true.
And how couldn’t it? This team has come so close before. This manager had the reputation as a nearly man until the first half of this season and now the same moniker starts to repeat. There is a very real sense of 2025-26 as the “now or never” season, which is probably not true but, again, if enough people believe it…
Is that slightly strangling how the team operates? Is there too much focus on control as the potent weapon over attacking penetration because control feels safe? And are Arsenal – supporters, players, media, manager – ready to cope with the pressure being turned up higher once again?
Sitting back on leads
It is the statistic that most damns Arteta in the aftermath of Molineux. Arsenal have won two of their last seven league matches and they have allowed leads to slip in three of those winless games. Only West Ham and Crystal Palace have dropped more points from winning positions since the turn of the year than Arsenal’s seven. They only dropped two between August and December.
Tempers flaring at the full-time whistle as Arsenal drop more points in the title race pic.twitter.com/syDC8Y1i6L
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 18, 2026This appears to be where tactical and psychological issues meet. At Molineux, you can interpret the concession of late goals through miscommunication as evidence of crumbling, but Arsenal invited the opportunity through a lamentable lack of energy from the 20th minute onwards.
It’s not so much that Arsenal sit back in a low block and invite their opponents to attack them; if anything they might be more successful doing that. It’s that they seem to play their same style of football but with less intensity and urgency and in doing so allow opponents to stay in matches, particularly away from home.
And when that pressure is applied to the central defenders and goalkeeper, they have looked chaotic as if unprepared for it.
Arsenal have won only two away league games this season by more than a one-goal margin (Burnley 2-0 and Leeds 4-0). When your fanbase possesses this deep fear about things falling apart, it hardly makes it easier to watch a team failing to kill off matches.
The injuries have stacked up
Arsenal do not look ready to cope with pressure (Photo: Getty)Firstly, this is not an excuse. Since June 2021, Arsenal have spent just over £1bn on incoming transfer fees and not sold a single player for more than £30m in a process of creating a squad deep enough to compete in every competition. This squad is good enough, or at least should be.
But injuries have played a role in the fragmenting of Arsenal’s momentum. The return of Kai Havertz as the frontline centre forward who could drop deep gave Arsenal a boost; he’s injured again. Mikel Merino has been a better focal point centre forward than Gyokeres and he’s out too. Both Gabriel and William Saliba have failed to start more than a quarter of the league matches and Saka has failed to start a third of them.
It has created the vague sense, fairly or otherwise, that this is still a team trying to get an exact handle on itself in open play because the actors change on such a regular basis. In their last seven league games, of which Arsenal have won only two, they have started seven different combinations of front three/four.
Full-back chance creation
The three Arsenal full-backs with the most league appearances this season are Jurrien Timber, Piero Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori – a combined 4,758 minutes. In those combined minutes, they have created 33 chances between them or one every 144 minutes. That’s a significantly lower rate than the full-backs at each of the other clubs in the top four.
That is a product of the tactical system in the main, but there’s a real danger that it makes Arsenal a little one-dimensional. Given how much of the ball they have, there is a clear need to create overlaps and to stretch the game wide. How often do we see Saka receive the ball with two men to beat simply to create a chance?
With a natural central defender typically used at left-back, I think Arsenal need more from Timber and yet he looks absolutely knackered and in need of a rest. Without him, Arsenal would play Ben White at right-back and he is another natural centre-back who won’t offer attacking penetration.
Your next read
square MONEYI moved to Singapore where taxes are much lower – we work off stress at the beach
square TRAVELI’m a cruise expert, and this adults-only ship is the best for foodies
square DAVID BENSONI’ve been a headteacher at both private and state schools – these are the key differences
square DANIEL STOREYNobody seems to enjoy going to football anymore – I think I know why
Hence then, the article about five problems strangling arsenal s title bid and only one is their bottle was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Five problems strangling Arsenal’s title bid – and only one is their ‘bottle’ )
Also on site :
- Sheikh Sabri: Israeli enemy seeks to change reality of al-Aqsa Mosque as prelude to seizing control of it
- At 61, this major insurance CEO works out 6 days a week with his 23-year-old son—he picks his brain for a Gen Z perspective while lifting weights
- California Dreamin’: NBC Kicks Off 2028 L.A. Olympics Marketing Campaign With Kate Hudson (Exclusive)