The wisdom is that Arsenal need a No 9 but maybe more No 10s are just as important

A note to incoming Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta: it’s not all about the centre-forward.

The 53-year-old Italian, who left Atletico Madrid in January, is in the process of finalising his new post in north London. High on his agenda will be the acquisition of a goalscorer — a need reaffirmed by Arsenal’s struggles to break down Manchester United.

But a new striker is unlikely to be a panacea. Arsenal’s attacking issues extend beyond the No 9 position. Mikel Arteta’s side did not fail to win because they spurned a host of presentable opportunities.

It was because they could not effectively turn dominance in territory and possession into clear-cut chances. It is not simply a question of finishing: it is a question of creativity.

It is difficult not to look at last week’s 7-1 thrashing of PSV as an anomaly in Arsenal’s recent form. Their last 270 minutes in the Premier League have yielded just a single goal: Declan Rice’s beautifully curled equaliser at Old Trafford.

This was a game of two halves. The second developed into an end-to-end, structureless affair in which Arsenal were fortunate not to come off worse. A series of excellent saves from David Raya was the difference between a draw and a defeat.

But if Arsenal had a cutting edge, they might have been out of sight by half-time. For the first 45 minutes, they were utterly dominant in every aspect bar the one that matters most: goals.

In his post-match press conference, Arteta characterised his team’s second-half performance as “unusual”. He’s right — the defensive sloppiness and the carelessness in possession was decidedly ‘un-Arsenal’.

But that first half — that futile siege on the Manchester United penalty area — was very much like them. It has become a familiar pattern, especially against teams in the lower half of the Premier League table.

The low block is proving Arsenal’s Achilles heel. United head coach Ruben Amorim admitted after the game that he would not ordinarily wish his team to play so deep, but equally accepted that “the plan was perfect”. There is now an established formula for frustrating Arsenal.

“We lacked a little bit in the last 15-20 metres,” conceded Arteta. “More purpose, more direction, in the last pass, the last action.”

Arsenal are 15 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Would a more potent striker than Mikel Merino have helped? Undoubtedly. The Spaniard, trying manfully in what is a totally new position for him, missed Arsenal’s best chance of that humdrum first half.

But what of the supply? Against a low block, the No 9 can sometimes be the most detached player in the game, desperately seeking space that does not exist. The onus is on the rest of the team to generate chances.

Arteta agreed Arsenal’s goalscoring problems extend beyond the centre-forward position. “That’s the responsibility of all of us and we don’t want to put that into the No 9,” he concurred. “That’s the initiative that everybody has to take, especially when we attack against so much density — we’ve done it in the past, we’ve done it recently, but we have to do it consistently.”

Arteta’s assessment was to call for more “efficiency” — but perhaps it is also a question of more imagination? There was a time when the archetypal Arsenal player was a technically-gifted quasi-No 10 with an eye for the improbable. The tradition ran through the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Aleksandr Hleb, Jack Wilshere, Andrey Arshavin and so on. Arsene Wenger might as well have hung a sign above the dressing room saying, “You don’t have to be a diminutive playmaker to work here, but it helps!”

Under Arteta, however, Arsenal have largely recruited more for muscle than for maverick spirit. That has paid off. The perception of the team as having a soft underbelly and flaky mentality has been eroded.

But perhaps there is a balance to be struck. Only Martin Odegaard could be cited as an obvious successor to that list of playmakers. Ethan Nwaneri has the potential to fit that bracket, but this occasion showed that the 17-year-old still has much to learn.

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As Arsenal have improved, they have played higher and higher up the pitch. That serves the purpose of keeping the action away from their goal, but it also compresses the space available to them. The defences they need to unpick are becoming ever more dense — and they only really seem to have one skilled locksmith at their disposal.

That is something that will have to be addressed in the transfer market. Rice was Arsenal’s best outfielder on the day, but is there a recalibrated version of this midfield that places another central creator in the pitch?

Injuries have undoubtedly hurt Arsenal. The return of Gabriel Martinelli, who came on in this game, is a timely boost. Arteta intimated that Bukayo Saka may not be too far behind, with a return to action currently slated for April.

But theirs is a different game. Martinelli and Saka will allow Arsenal to press more effectively, and potentially capitalise on moments of transition, but we have seen them struggle against low blocks too. This has been an issue for some time. Arteta rued the drying up of set-piece goals, but Arsenal’s success rate at dead balls never seemed sustainable.

It is surely Arteta’s big project for next season: unlock the low block. And now it will be Berta’s too.

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(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)