Mikel Arteta has a seriously worrying flaw at Arsenal that nobody is talking about

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Arsenal have made untold amounts of progress under Mikel Arteta since his reign began in December 2019.

Mikel Arteta won the FA Cup in his first season back in 2020 and then had a couple of turbulent seasons trying to re-build Arsenal from the sorry state he found them in.

Since the 2022-23 season, the Gunners have been consistently challenging for the Premier League title and although they now sit 11 points behind Liverpool, Arteta believes ‘it is possible’ to still win the league.

There have been disgraceful calls about Arteta’s job recently however, the Spaniard will want to prevent a worrying trend from continuing over his managerial career as he takes his side to the City Ground in another tough encounter.

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Mikel Arteta needs to stop worrying trend developing in his Arsenal career

Arteta has managed 271 matches in charge of the Gunners so far in his reign and is producing an average of 1.97 points per game.

Out of those 271 matches, the 42-year-old has lost just 64 times but the defeats are starting to appear in a pattern that needs to be eradicated.

In the 2021-22 season, Arsenal were gunning for a top four finish and qualification for the Champions League when successive defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle derailed their hard work.

Last season, back-to-back defeats against West Ham and Fulham over the festive period ultimately cost the Gunners the league title whilst this season a defeat at St James’s Park in the league followed by defeat to Inter Milan in Europe.

Arsenal’s ability to bounce back from disappointment is an issue and something that Arteta needs to address quickly. In the 2022-23 season, it was a run of four games without victory in April 2023 that led to Arsenal throwing away their best chance at the title since 2004.

Arsenal have to improve their performance levels against Nottingham Forest

Arsenal were poor against West Ham with Riccardo Calafiori and Declan Rice particularly scoring low in the Arsenal player ratings.

A similar performance against high-flying Nottingham Forest would mean that the Gunners could be dragged back into a race for the top four places let alone a title bid.

One major boost for Arteta could be the return of Ben White to the starting line up for the first time since November 2024 and would provide an additional attacking threat down the right hand side.

White could help Ethan Nwaneri explode if he can form a similar partnership on that flank to that with Bukayo Saka and it may just give the Gunners enough impetus to get a positive result from the game.