Mikel Arteta makes three changes to elevate Arsenal into top four ahead of new phase this summer

The expectation of Arsenal at the beginning of the season was to show significant progress from the two disappointing eighth-place finishes under Mikel Arteta.

Granted the first season was a rescue job after Unai Emery had dropped Arsenal into the bottom half of the table, however, there remained several doubts about whether the current Spanish manager could bring the Gunners back to the right path.

This season has however exceeded most fans’ expectations and the club sit as firm favourites to achieve a top-four finish for the first time since Arsene Wenger was at the club. Champions League nights have been sorely missed by supporters and the club’s financial reports.

Mikel Arteta has changed a lot since his appointment but this season there have been three key changes in the squad that have contributed to this turn of form and progression towards the top four, in particular, since the turn of the new year.

Firstly is the switch of formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3. Arteta spoke in December of 2020 about how the side was lacking several players to play the desired way.

"We want to move to a 4-3-3 but for that, you need a lot of specificity in every position but now in five or six positions, we don’t have it," he said.

"The aggressiveness, the effectiveness, the amount of steals [ball recoveries] we make in opposition half I think we have been very steady against some big clubs.

"I think that what we miss is in the opponent’s area and the last part of the pitch. We have to find the key in the attack, that last decision, that last pass, that last cross to create a goal situation, a goal, a shot, a corner, etc."

However, after Arteta signed six players in the summer 2021 window, the change has finally arrived with Thomas