It was an odd afternoon for Arsenal at St James’s Park on Saturday. They dominated the game - even before Aleksandar Mitrovic’s red card in the 16th minute - they tore Newcastle apart on quite a few occasions in the first half, but then once Newcastle settled into a rhythm, Arsenal couldn’t quite break them down.

It was a familiar story of a team down to ten men defending manfully against strong opposition. But there was more to it than that. Some things to worry Wenger, and maybe also some things to satisfy him

The good news, first off, was that Arsenal won the game. It sounds like the smallest of small victories given that their opponents had a man sent off in the first quarter of the game. But they did have to grind out a result against a team who were set up simply to defend. The three points were all that mattered, really. Champions always find a way to win the game, whether they’re playing well or not and no matter how the opposition are playing. Whether they convinced or not, that’s what Arsenal did.

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Before the sending-off it was a different story. Wenger’s starting 11 featured frightening pace. Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sanchez all started, with Ramsey and Cazorla providing creativity from deeper. The pace of Walcott occupied Newcastle’s centre backs. Scared of his pace, they dropped deep to limit the space in behind the defence. Space Walcott’s pace could exploit, and given the passing abilities of Ramsey and Cazorla they were frightened of stepping up.

But all that tactic did was allow Ramsey and Cazorla more space in the middle to roam in and pick passes. It looked like Arsenal would take full advantage. Then after Newcastle found themselves down to ten men it looked even worse for them, they lost their discipline and Arsenal looked rampant.

But the red card actually helped Newcastle in some ways. Once the team had regrouped, they kept two banks of four behind the ball and Arsenal couldn’t break them down. In those situations, the pace of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott aren’t necessary. Newcastle were defending deep, so there was no space to exploit.

Instead Arsenal needed some more movement, some more creativity, someone with the ability to unlock a defence. They were missing Ozil who may have provided a killer pass, and the introduction of Olivier Giroud went some way to solving the problem of a lack of movement in between Newcastle’s solid defensive lines. But it wasn’t enough - it took a fairly fortunate own goal to win the game.

The calls from Arsenal fans after the game were for a new striker. Something that seems to have been promised all transfer window. Arsenal have the look of a terrible student who had all summer to finish his dissertation. After some early promise - the signing of Petr Cech - they’ve procrastinated and now have 10,000 words to write before Wednesday morning.

After this weekend, it looks like Wenger will absolutely need to need to step up his search. Trying to close the gap on Chelsea by signing a goalkeeper Chelsea didn’t even use last season doesn’t seem to be a good strategy. This weekend added to the feeling that Arsenal don’t have the squad to challenge. It’s true that missing Ozil and Welbeck is a bad thing, but Arsenal’s lack of strength in depth meant that the only attacking options that Wenger had to call on at the weekend were Olivier Giroud and Joel Campbell.

Wenger’s tactics weren’t wrong against Newcastle. The pace worked until Newcastle settled after the red card. Wenger’s problem was lack of options from the bench. And when you’re up against a solid defence and finding it difficult to break down then you need options. Giroud gave them a different threat, but Campbell would have brought more pace, pace they already had with Walcott and Chamberlain. And pace wasn’t working.

Wenger needs to add something new to his squad, and more often than not this season, Arsenal will struggle to break down defences. They need new options up front either to bring on or start in games. And they need to find them before the end of the window.

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