Arsenal’s Premier League title dreams took a gut punch with a flat 1-0 loss to West Ham at home on Saturday, leaving them staring up at runaway leaders Liverpool, now 11 points ahead.

Sky Sports pundit and Manchester United icon Gary Neville has a theory on what’s gone wrong: the Gunners are too hung up on set pieces, and it’s costing them big time.

With just 12 games left, Liverpool are charging toward their 20th league crown, while defending champs Manchester City trail Arsenal by nine points.

For Mikel Arteta’s squad, this season was supposed to be their golden shot at ending a 21-year title drought especially with City stumbling.

But Neville, speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, sees a missed opportunity echoing Leicester’s stunning 5,000-1 title grab in 2016, when the big dogs failed to pounce. “Arsenal have become quite rigid, quite turgid to watch at times,” he said. “This obsession with set-pieces overtaking the whole game, exacerbated by the presence of the set-piece coach (Nicolas Jover) on the touchline, puts more focus on set-pieces. And I think the freedom has gone a little bit from them.”

Injuries have hit hard Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, and Kai Havertz are out, leaving Arteta scrambling, even shoving midfielder Mikel Merino into a makeshift striker role.

“I know they have lost (Bukayo) Saka, (Gabriel) Jesus, and (Kai) Havertz, which are big blows and that is a big problem for Arsenal, but I still feel they have to do the job against West Ham at home,” Neville added.

He’s not wrong—the Gunners looked toothless against the Hammers, and their attacking woes trace back to not landing a top striker in recent windows. “It’s a defence but then you’ve got to plan for it,” Neville said. “I know they didn’t want to do business in the January transfer window they thought there wasn’t quite the value in the market or they couldn’t get the player that would come in and impact them. But they have left themselves short, there’s no doubt about that.”

Neville’s critique stings deeper when you look at the bigger picture. “The last two seasons they’ve gone very close and I’ve had a lot of admiration, but this season is more of a problem because when City weren’t going to be there, the team that had to be there were Arsenal in my mind,” he said.

“It’s not going to be them, it doesn’t look like, and that’s the big shock and surprise, and I think that’ll be the one that will hit hardest in the boardroom, and (with) Mikel Arteta, and the dressing room and the players.”

He drew a parallel to Leicester’s miracle run: “Questions will start to be asked because, a little bit like that Leicester season when a couple of the teams didn’t win it, you start to ask questions of those teams, saying, ‘Hang on a minute, Leicester went and won it.’ It’s that type of season where it’s up for grabs.”

Funny thing is, Arsenal’s set-piece obsession might not even be paying off like it used to. Last season, they led the league with 20 goals from dead balls; this year, they’re fourth with 10.

Neville’s take might feel old-school, but it’s hard to argue Arsenal’s focus on corners and free kicks seems to have sapped their spark in open play, and it could be the quirk that costs them a shot at the title.

Is Mikel Arteta Really to Blame for Arsenal’s Striker Woes?

Arsenal’s latest stumble—a limp 1-0 home loss to West Ham has fans pointing fingers, and Mikel Arteta’s catching the brunt of it.

Football.london is diving into the mess, asking just how much heat the manager deserves as the Gunners’ attacking depth crumbles.

Sure, he’s the boss, so it’s all on him, right? That’s the vibe for some after Arsenal’s first league defeat since November 2, when Newcastle pulled off the same trick West Ham did last weekend.

Now, with Liverpool stretching their lead to 11 points after thumping Manchester City, Arsenal’s title hopes are hanging by a thread, even with a game in hand against Chelsea.

The gloom’s been brewing since the January transfer window slammed shut without a new striker, and it’s only gotten uglier with a rash of injuries and limp results.

The Champions League draw hasn’t helped either—Arsenal face a slick PSV side next, and if they squeak through, it’s off to Madrid where Carlo Ancelotti and Kylian Mbappe are likely licking their chops.

The season could either fizzle out quietly or, worse, spiral to a point where next year’s Champions League spot is in jeopardy.

Arteta’s in the hot seat, and he owned it after the West Ham flop. “Very disappointed, obviously very angry as well,” he said. “I think we have to congratulate West Ham for the victory and the game that they played but I think a lot on our side we never got right.

It didn’t allow us to get enough momentum, enough sequence of play with positive action that could deliver into situations of threat for there and even though all the ball we had, then 20 shots, I never felt that we were at the standards or the levels we needed to have more threat and then don’t allow them to run.

We lost a lot of balls and we allowed West Ham to run into very dangerous positions.” Tough talk, but it’s not cooling the fans’ frustration they saw this striker crisis coming a mile away.

Ending January without a forward despite losing Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus to injuries was a glaring miss. I

t’s a black mark on the club’s ability to back Arteta and spot fixes when the chips are down. Meanwhile, players like Randal Kolo Muani (Juventus), Marco Asensio (Aston Villa), and Alvaro Morata (Galatasaray) moved on loan and started scoring elsewhere—salt in the wound.

Arteta and his players weren’t shy about begging for help, but none came. Then, bam—Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli went down with hamstring injuries, Havertz out for the season. The attack’s been a revolving door of hurt all year.

The latest jab? Arteta’s “run his players into the ground.” It’s an easy dig, but let’s unpack it. Imagine telling him to bench his stars while chasing a title without the attacking reinforcements he’s been screaming for—tricky, right? Picture this: Saka sidelined five to six months, Havertz out half the season, Ben White gone four months, Martin Odegaard missing two, Martinelli down two, newbies Mikel Merino and Riccardo Calafiori each battling two-month setbacks, Jesus out half a season, Takehiro Tomiyasu barely playing ten minutes before surgery knocks him out into next year.

Yet, Arsenal’s still second, nine points clear of a wobbly Manchester City, and into the Champions League last-16, trailing only Liverpool and Barcelona in the league phase. That’s worth a nod, isn’t it?

Sure, fans are howling for trophies fair enough, that’s the game. But when the injury gods are this cruel, griping that a striker-less, Saka-less, Martinelli-less Arsenal can’t score feels a bit… off.

Arteta’s not blameless the striker void’s a glaring hole but he’s steering a battered ship that’s still afloat. Maybe the boardroom deserves a harder look than the dugout.