Arsenal cannot allow another English Cup game to obscure the club’s desperate need to review the team

Debate is open as to whether the FA Cup has been a blessing or a curse for Arsenal in recent years. But after reaching the semifinal for the thirtieth Sunday, following a dramatic late victory at Sheffield United, the sense of competition that gave the Gunners the chance to overcome the cracks was inevitable again.

Clearly, winning is always better than losing, regardless of the state in which a club is located, and manager Mikel Arteta will find many positive aspects from the 2-1 victory at Bramall Lane which was ensured by Dani’s downtime winner Ceballos, four minutes after David McGoldrick’s equalizer seemed to have taken the game into overtime. Arsenal showed determination and determination to recover from McGoldrick’s goal and, for long periods of the second half, his improvised defense had to resist the strong pressure of United defined by long balls against midfielder Oli McBurnie. There were also some lively performances by young Joe Willock, Bukayo Saka and substitute Eddie Nketiah, prompting Arteta to praise the result of his team.

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“This is a difficult place to come and win,” he said. “I’m really happy with the attitude and performance of the players. The FA Cup is a great opportunity to try and win a title and play in Europe.”

But it would be foolish for anyone connected to Arsenal to consider this victory as evidence of light at the end of a long tunnel for a team and a club, which had lost its way years before Arteta returned as manager in December. And success in the FA Cup is part of the reason Arsenal is now trying to emerge from a malaise that has held the team longer than anyone remembers.

Consecutive victories in the English Cup final in 2014 and 2015 – against Hull City and Aston Villa respectively – gave Arsene Wenger the mandate to extend his stay as manager, despite clear signs that the Frenchman had passed his use – by date in the Emirates. And it was the same story in 2017, when a 2-1 win at Wembley in the FA Cup final prevented Chelsea from closing a cup and cup brace. Three days later, Wenger signed a new two-year contract as manager, despite the fact that many fans want his seventh FA Cup win to act as a glorious farewell rather than a justification for a long stay.

Winning silverware is the main goal of every club, especially of big and historic clubs like Arsenal, but sometimes it can shift the attention from harsh realities.

It’s obviously a contradiction, because no club can ever consider success as a distraction, but Arsenal is a club that trades in league titles – only Manchester United and Liverpool have won more in England – and today, just like in 2014, 2015 and 2017, they are one million miles from the competition for the biggest national award. But those three victories in the FA Cup prevented Wenger and Arsenal from performing the major surgery that was required at the time, and it is a mistake that Arteta cannot repeat, even if the Spaniard leads the Gunners to their 14th FA Cup this season.

Sunday’s victory in Sheffield highlighted more negative than positive aspects for Arteta, and this race in the FA Cup cannot confuse the truth for the new manager.

On a defensive level, Arsenal was sometimes messy. They were lucky not to fall behind when John Lundstram’s first half header was rejected for offside after the four failed to handle an aerial ball in the penalty area – the inability to take the penalty kicks is it was a recurring theme that dates back to the distant Wenger era. And while the introduction of Rob Holding as a second-half substitute in place of the injured and error-prone David Luiz provided some height and organization, there have still been times when panic has taken over every time the ball has moved to the Arsenal box.

The Arsenal midfield lacks players to control the pace of the game. This is an area that Arteta must prioritize when, or if, she will have the opportunity to rebuild and strengthen at the end of this season. Arteta can no longer rely on the contribution or suitability of Mesut Ozil, who lost the game due to a “slight back injury”, and is likely to lose one or both of his main attackers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette: once the transfer window is open.

Inconsistency remains a problem across the team, although Arteta’s intensity should help focus minds more clearly and, at that point, both Kieran Tierney and Nicolas Pepe, who opened the scoring from the spot in the first half , have been greatly improved since the action restarted earlier this month.

Arteta seems to have an understanding of the challenge that awaits us and the time it will take to shoot Arsenal. But success in the FA Cup can convince others – perhaps those who sign the checks – that things are better than they actually are. Arsenal has made this mistake too often in recent years. They can’t afford to do it again.