Ollie Watkins' goal in the 68th minute helped Aston Villa regain a point despite being 2 goals down to Arsenal. For the "Gunners", this draw could cause them a lot of trouble in the Premier League title race.
Arsenal fans are probably running out of patience and want the club to spend money on transfers immediately. Their current squad is simply not good enough to win the title.
Looking at Liverpool, coach Arne Slot's team won a dramatic 2-0 victory over Brentford. When the match was deadlocked, Liverpool's substitutes Darwin Nunez, Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones and Federico Chiesa were brought on to turn the game around. And finally, Nunez shined brightly with a double to bring the important 3 points for The Kop.
When Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta turned to the bench to assess his options, he had only Raheem Sterling, two left-backs, Jorginho, Jakub Kiwior and three other new signings. Sterling, on loan from Chelsea, was particularly disappointing when he came on.
"When you look at Arsenal's performance, I don't know how many teams are playing at this level in the Premier League. But when you look at our bench, you probably know we are very short of players.
"There are definitely moments when you can win games with quality substitutes. Liverpool did that, they made substitutions and the substitutes made an impact and turned the game around. We didn't have that," Arteta admitted.
William Saliba's absence was a major factor in Arsenal's poor run of form two years ago and it's happening again. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, Arsenal have conceded 0.8 goals per game when Saliba has featured (85 games), compared to 1.7 goals per game when he hasn't played (13 games).
However, Arteta appeared to compound the problem by not bringing in a similar replacement for Kiwior, instead opting to shuffle the squad. Jurrien Timber was moved into centre-back, Thomas Partey moved to right-back, with Declan Rice dropping into defensive midfield and Mikel Merino operating as a 'number eight' alongside Martin Odegaard.
Arsenal have now dropped 12 points in games where they have led, more than in any season since the 2019-20 campaign. Worse still, this is the first time Arsenal have failed to win a home game where they have led by two or more goals under Arteta.
Arsenal need more than they currently have to win the title they crave. So it's time to splash the cash if they don't want to be left saying: if only!
