Alan Shearer sends direct warning to Mikel Arteta over ‘huge gamble’ happening at Arsenal

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Arsenal exited the FA Cup at the earliest stage, falling short to the ten men of Manchester United at the Emirates.

Being unable to crack down Manchester United after 120 minutes of action at home was not in Mikel Arteta’s plan for the game.

Arsenal were beaten on penalties by Man United, who played with ten men from the 61st minute after Diogo Dalot was sent off.

The Gunners had a goal ruled out for offside, with the only goals of the game coming from Bruno Fernandes and Gabriel Magalhaes, seeing the tie go to penalties.

• READ MORE: Mikel Arteta sending a message and a red card avoided – Five things you missed in Arsenal’s defeat vs Manchester United

Alan Shearer sends warning to Mikel Arteta

In the space of a week, Arsenal were punished in both the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup, first losing miserably to Newcastle United, then to Man United. 

Even Arteta commented on Arsenal’s lack of a clinical streak after the Newcastle game, and the verdict was identical against the Red Devils.

While the Gunners’ absent conviction has been glaring for some time now, Arteta has yet to indicate that a new attacker could arrive this winter, seeing the Arsenal manager come under fire.

The latest to question Arteta’s methods was Alan Shearer, who warned the Spaniard of the ‘huge gamble’ he’s taking in attack this season.

“They still were creating chances today, they just didn’t have the ability, the killer instinct, to put that ball away,” Shearer said of Arsenal’s attack on The Rest Is Football podcast. 

“They had four, maybe five, really good chances that should’ve been in the back of the net. Arteta said the same against Newcastle, then against Brighton. When you look at their goals from open play in the league, they’re about eighth or ninth, that tells you that he’s [Arteta] taking a huge gamble by not improving that position.”

Arsenal fans were unhappy with Kai Havertz’s performance in particular, as no matter how simple the chances were for the forwards to convert, every opportunity seemed to be a tremendously big ask.

Many will share Shearer’s warning to Arteta regarding the state of the front line in what is set to be a decisive remainder of the month for Arsenal.

How bad was Arsenal’s attack against Man United?

The pleasure of watching Ian Wright, Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie and even Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are now just a distant memory for Arsenal. 

Against United, Arteta’s attack looked way below standard, with the numbers only reinforcing such.

The chances that Arsenal created were simply recycled and repeated for the forwards to miss again, as made clear by the four big chances missed at the Emirates.

Gabriel provided the clinical streak required to level the scoring however, Arsenal’s attackers were unable to break down United with a man short, telling of the issue Arteta has to solve.