After a fantastic start to the season Arsenal have hit a bump in the road and the root of their draw against Southampton and loss to PSV lies in their lack of squad depth
Mikel Arteta has problems to deal with at Arsenal
If the warning signs were there against Southampton, then Arsenal were hit with a full-blown wake-up call against PSV Eindhoven.
This season was never going to be straightforward for Arsenal. Nobody was expecting them to saunter all the way through the long and gruelling schedule to the awaiting silverware at the end of the season. There were always going to be rough patches – and it seems they might be entering their first one now.
The loss is far from the end of the world. Having won their opening four games, Arsenal remain top of Group A in the Europa League, two points ahead of PSV and in control of their destiny ahead of next week’s home tie against bottom side FC Zurich.
Arsenal are also two points clear at the top of the Premier League. They have a very winnable fixture against bottom side Nottingham Forest at home on Sunday. This is no crisis. The wheels have not come off. But there are signs of wobbles.
Luuk de Jong caused havoc in the Arsenal penalty area ( Image: Broer van den Boom/Getty Images)
That did not happen. PSV were utterly dominant in the match and all five of his rested players ended up coming off the bench as Arteta tried unsuccessfully to turn the tide.
Arsenal had 70 per cent of the ball, but couldn’t fashion much with it. Their high defensive line was extremely vulnerable, with no pressure on the ball in midfield, while Xavi Simons found dangerous pockets of space time and again.
It took until the 55th minute for the goal to come, with Joey Veerman finding the top corner in style. But the strike was indicative of everything wrong with Arsenal in Eindhoven: Rob Holding was too weak up against Luuk de Jong and Albert Sambi Lokonga let Veermans run off him into a gaping hole in defence.
De Jong could easily have scored a hat-trick, with Arsenal’s marking non-existent and Kieran Tierney particularly guilty of ball-watching. It could have been worse too, had Cody Gakpo timed his runs a little better and not seen his two goals ruled out for offside