Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have started the season in steady form, picking up 10 points from their opening five games, despite already facing both Liverpool and Manchester City.
The Gunners have also posted the best goal difference in the league so far, currently sitting with a +8 GD, scoring 10 goals and only conceding twice.
However, when you look a little bit deeper, Arsenal are still struggling to generate high value chances in open play, with 0.70 of their 1.48 average xG per game coming from set-pieces.
Whilst their effectiveness from set-pieces is a clear strength, generating the most xG from these scenarios in the league, Arteta will be looking to improve their open play xG, especially after spending big in attacking areas this summer.
In this article, we’ll cover
Gyokeres’ start to life at Arsenal
Perhaps the biggest signing for Arteta’s men this summer, Viktor Gyokeres, who was signed from Sporting for a fee of around £55m plus £8.5m worth of add-ons.
The 27-year-old striker has netted three times in his opening six games for the Gunners, with a brace against Leeds and one goal against Nottingham Forest.
That being said, Gyokeres will likely be extremely dissatisfied with his start to life in London, as Arteta is still struggling to get the optimum usage out of the Sweden international.
Despite scoring three goals, Gyokeres has only taken six shots in his opening five Premier League matches, averaging 1.36 shots per 90. This is a drastic difference to the 4.07 shots he was taking per 90 at Sporting last season.
Other areas his game has been affected include touches per 90, progressive carries per 90 and perhaps most importantly, npxG generated per 90.
- Gyokeres touches per 90 in 2024-25: 36.6
- Gyokeres touches per 90 in 2025-26: 22.5
- Gyokeres progressive carries per 90 in 2024-25: 4.26
- Gyokeres progressive carries per 90 in 2025-26: 0.68
- Gyokeres npxG per 90 in 2024-25: 0.69
- Gyokeres npxG per 90 in 2025-26: 0.30
Arteta’s attacking tactics
The start of the 2025-26 campaign has been a different test for Arteta, as he looks to adapt and tweak his tactics to platform his new striker to the best of his ability.
Arteta has already used Gyokeres in a variety of different ways, experimenting with various partnerships and dynamics in the attacking unit.
The main selections that determine the usage of Gyokeres are the wingers, as Arteta now has a group of wide players who offer differing skill sets.
So far this campaign, we have seen certain dynamics with the Sweden international dropping deep to link play and vacate space for the wingers to run into. Whilst seeing other dynamics which include a winger drifting centrally, allowing Gyokeres to run in behind on the last line, often into the left channel.
Arteta is clearly looking to find creative solutions to get the best out of his new centre-forward, wanting to utilise his engine over large distances, ability to attack in transition and be clinical in front of goal.
However, the balance is yet to be struck, proven by Gyokeres only averaging 1.36 shots per 90, which begs the question of his service.
Arsenal’s creation issues?
Jamie Carragher stated “So I go back to when people keep saying Arsenal’s problem is finishing’, but it’s not, it’s creating. They don’t create enough…they haven’t created one chance for him” referring to Gyokeres against Manchester City.
The data backs this up, as Arsenal currently rank 10th in the Premier League for big chances created, creating just 1.2 big chances per 90, level with West Ham and Brighton.
With both Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka missing significant minutes this season already, the creative burden has often been lost within the team, with a box midfield being formed of Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and Ricardo Calafiori.
A lack of progressive passing in central areas has made it difficult for the Gunners to access dangerous zones, meaning a lot of their chance creation is falling on wide isolations and set-pieces.
Eze the answer?
The answer for Arteta could be right in front of him, as the introduction of Eberechi Eze in a more permanent central role at the weekend suggested, setting up Arsenal’s equaliser against Manchester City with a clipped ball over the top.
All of Eze’s starts so far for the Gunners have come from the left, with Arteta looking to implement a dynamic between himself and Calafiori, allowing for rotations to get the England star in more favourable positions.
The problem with this so far is the time needed to grow these synergies between the players, with Gyokeres also looking to understand Eze’s tendencies when coming inside and generate chances.
Eze either starting or Arteta changing during a game to have the England international in a central starting position could be the solution to this whilst these relationships are still forming, making the instructions more simple and natural for Eze.
Once things click, Arsenal clearly have the additions needed to begin generating more chances from open play, the question remains how will Arteta speed up the process or tweak things to make improvements whilst new synergies develop.