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Mikel Arteta must fix new major worry that has already cost Arsenal in Premier League title race

Arsenal will look to bounce back from what has been a disappointing week in both the league and the Champions League when they take on Wolves at Molineux in the Premier League on Saturday night.

Mikel Arteta looks on during the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg match between Bayern Munich and Arsenal FC.
Mikel Arteta looks on during the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg match between Bayern Munich and Arsenal FC.

The last week has been one to forget for Arsenal, as they lost control of the Premier League title race before exiting the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.

A 2-0 home loss against Aston Villa in the league was followed by a 1-0 loss against Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday night. Arsenal return to action on Saturday when they take on Wolves at Molineux in the 7.30pm kick-off.

Despite the disappointment of the two losses, Arsenal are still right in the title race. They sit in second place, two points behind leaders Man City. Any slip-up from Pep Guardiola’s side, and they will be ready to pounce.

While losses are never what a team wants, they do give managers a chance to see what is going wrong and correct any problems. And there has been one weakness that has been exposed in the last two games that Mikel Arteta must solve.

Aston Villa’s first goal came from a Lucas Digne cross from the left. Kai Havertz was slammed by pundit Paul Merson for not stopping it. "I’m a big fan of Havertz, but he has to stop that cross," he said.

"There were a few occasions where that happened; Ben White pulled out of a few tackles just before he came off, you have to stop that.

"These chances of winning the league don’t come around very often, for some people, it’s once in a lifetime, so you have to get out there and stop it. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t the bravest player, I wasn’t a tackler, but you need to get out there.”

It seems that the warning from Merson wasn’t taken on board. Bayern Munich’s winning goal came from a very similar position, with the cross coming in from the left to allow Joshua Kimmich to head past David Raya. Conceding similar goals in the last two games should have alarm bells ringing for Arteta, and it may be something that opposition teams may now look to expose, should they notice it during their tactical analysis.

It’s something that Arsenal should be aware of going into the final games of the season, starting against Wolves on Saturday. Learning from mistakes made in the last two games could just make a difference in the title race.

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