The nine days that reduced Arsenal’s season to a crumpled mess: Injuries, impotence, and the one glaring problem that has left Mikel Arteta facing serious questions after Man United FA Cup defeat

Without a doubt, this has to be one of the lowest points I can remember as an Arsenal supporter, and I certainly feel the anger in the fallout from Arsenal’s defeat to Manchester United. While I will not fall into the trap of losing sight of the bigger picture, it is important to discuss how Arsenal got here.

Arsenal should have won this match, not because they deserved it more than Manchester United, but because of what they created, the chances they had and the way the game played out. We’ve seen this story before, even just days ago when Newcastle beat the Gunners – the chances created in that game should have been taken.

“Incredible how you don’t win that game, that’s basically to sum up,” he said in the post-match press conference. “The dominance, the superiority with the opposition and everything that we did to try to win the game and that’s it we didn’t get what we deserved clearly.

“But there is an element that is about putting the ball in the back of the net that we did once and the amount of situations, chances, penalties that we had we didn’t. We go home extremely sad, but I cannot be prouder of my players, the team, the individual collectively what they produced on Wednesday against two top teams, it’s incredible.”

It is all well and good when you say something along the lines of playing that game a hundred times more and you win ninety-nine but the irony is Arsenal keep playing these games, and they keep dropping points

Yes, the goal tally is better than it was at the same stage last season, but if we are measuring where gains can be had to get the club closer to silverware, it is impossible to ignore what an elite center-forward would do for this side.

Martin Odegaard generated an expected assist value of more than three against Manchester United and had zero assists to show for it. Chance after chance came and went and then two huge opportunities for Kai Havertz were missed that at this level never, ever should be.

A moment of true sadness was when Havertz missed his penalty and people in the Arsenal end of the ground got up to leave. I cannot stress enough how saddening that is to see – of course worse were some of the comments seen online relating to the forward which go beyond any sporting discourse and hopefully some consequence, rare I know, can be realized.

Back to the football however, and with the amount of missed chances comes the most obvious of follow-on conversations, transfers. Close to two weeks into the January transfer window and we are yet to see any true links to a forward.

We cannot pretend that there have not been players available either with Omar Marmoush looking likely to move to Manchester City and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the way to PSG. A lot has been made of Arsenal Profit and Sustainability freedoms but football. London understands that despite this compliance, the club are aware of UEFA Financial Fair Play restrictions and therefore when they spend, it will be on somebody they are entirely convinced by.

Again, I go back to when I asked Arteta myself about whether the January window would ever see the loosening of the high bar that Arsenal set when it comes to making a decision on a transfer. His response was a very simple and perhaps predictable, my fault maybe, that they do not want bodies.

Now, while Marmoush and Kvaratskhelia I certainly wouldn’t describe as ‘bodies’, I know they will add to their new sides. The idea that Arsenal could end the January transfer window by not signing anybody is both realistic and scary.