Time for Arsenal to take the handbrake off: Mikel Arteta has nothing to lose anymore as Gunners chase goals in Premier League title bid

Arsenal are obviously in an extremely unenviable position. The title race should already be over; Mikel Arteta's men were 10 points clear just over a month ago, and being touted as potential quadruple winners. However, back-to-back defeats in the league, combined with a Carabao Cup final loss to City, and a shocking FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Championship outfit Southampton, have raised all-too-familiar doubts over Arsenal's mental strength - or lack thereof.

The pressure very much remains on Arteta and his players to prove themselves capable of winning a major trophy - and avoid the ignominy of what would be one of the biggest bottle jobs in football history.

In a weird way, though, the perilous but retrievable situation they find themselves in might actually help them get over the line, in that a team Wayne Rooney quite correctly says has spent the season "trying to nick 1-0 wins" in classic George Graham fashion no longer has much choice but to go for the jugular.

There are many reasons why neutrals have failed to warm to Arteta's team: the reliance on set-pieces, the time-wasting, the training-ground Tik-Toks, the cynical exploitation of concussion protocol etc. However, frustration is a pretty big part of it.

Arsenal have an exciting and relatively young group of players - and yet they predominantly play a dull and archaic brand of football. The Gunners were a joy to behold in a full flow a few years ago, but they've become a tough watch because of Arteta's very deliberate decision to embrace conservatism and control in an increasingly desperate pursuit of success.

As a result, they've alienated the average fan to such an extent that most English football followers would actually rather see City, serial winners accused of breaking more than 115 of the Premier League's financial rules, finish first for the seventh time in nine seasons because the likes of Rayan Cherki are thrilling exponents of 'The Beautiful Game'.

However, Arsenal are now in a very rare scenario, level on points with the league leaders with just five rounds remaining. It's like a penalty shootout - and the Gunners get to take the first two in front of their own fans.

In the space of a week, Arsenal will host both Newcastle and Fulham at the Emirates, meaning they don't just have the chance to put six points between themselves and City before their rivals play next, they can also significantly boost their goal difference.

Newcastle are in total freefall, having won just three of their last 12 league games, and have kept just one clean sheet since January 18. As a result, Magpies manager Eddie Howe is under even more pressure than Arteta going into Saturday's game in north London.

Howe's Fulham counterpart, Marco Silva, will be in a much better frame of mind right now, amid rumours that he's on Chelsea's shortlist to replace Liam Rosenior as the club's permanent manager, but it's not as if his team is on fire at the moment either. The Cottagers are 12th in the table, just two places and three points above Newcastle, and have their own issues at the back, having conceded more goals (46) than even relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest (45) this season.

Of course, whether Arsenal actually have it in them to beat both Newcastle and Fulham, let alone put them to the sword, is very much open to debate.

A significant amount of confidence has clearly been sapped during Arsenal's run of four defeats in six games in all competitions, with the nervous nature of the performance in the shock 2-1 loss at home to Bournemouth particularly concerning.

However, while seven-time Premier League champion Roy Keane took issue with Micah Richards' claim that there were some positives for Arsenal to take out of Sunday's loss at the Etihad, his fellow Sky Sports pundit had a point. The visitors displayed a greater sense of adventure than many expected, and while their only goal was a gift from Gigi Donnarumma, they created enough chances in the second half to have at least picked up a point.

If anything, though, Arsenal were too open at the Etihad. On more than one occasion, they risked conceding on the counter-attack - something that nobody would have even thought possible before kick-off. The understandable presumption was that the risk-averse Arteta would instruct his team to shut up shop in the hope of securing the draw that even Guardiola admitted would have claimed the title.

The challenge, then, will be for the Arsenal boss to get the balance right against Newcastle. There's no need for the Gunners to be gung-ho - the Magpies do have some players that could do damage on the break, chief among them Anthony Gordon - but the hosts do need to get on the front foot from the off and maintain a high level of intensity for the remainder of the game.

Having the week off should help, as key players such as Rice and Martin Zubimendi have looked exhausted in recent weeks, while the Fulham fixture, which falls in between two potentially gruelling Champions League clashes with Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid, is a far more dangerous game than the meeting with Newcastle.

In reality, though, Arsenal's issues are more mental than physical.

Rice said recently that he doesn't care about the criticism of Arsenal's style of play - but it really should be a cause for concern, as it could cost them the title. The common consensus has long been that the Gunners are too cautious, particularly in big games. As former Manchester United right-back Gary Neville said all the way back in August, Arteta appears more concerned with avoiding defeat than actually winning matches.

Keane also pointed out that they try to control "the pace of the game with their set-pieces and playing out from the back" - and it worked well for them for the majority of the current campaign. However, such a pragmatic approach will usually only take you so far, particularly when you don't have any proven winners in your squad, and it's not actually come as that big a surprise to see Arsenal struggling at this decisive stage of the season.

They've been here before, and failed to get over the line. Guardiola's City, by complete contrast, have never previously failed to go on and win the league after being top after 33 rounds. In that sense, relying on City to drop points would actually be a riskier ploy than allowing his team to play with greater freedom.

Arteta said himself that "a new Premier League" has begun after last weekend's loss at the Etihad - and it's going to reward positivity over pragmatism. 'One-nil to the Arsenal' isn't going to cut it anymore.

However, if Arteta finally takes the handbrake off fully, the Gunners can reclaim the initiative - and the lead - in this tightest of title races.

Click here to read article