Arsenal have got so much right over the past few years, starting with the appointment of Mikel Arteta in 2019, the Spaniard assuming his first managerial role at the Emirates after departing from Manchester City as Pep Guardiola's No. 2.

The high-flying outfit are five points clear of the second-placed Cityzens at the top of the Premier League after 27 matches, having failed to even qualify for the Champions League for the past six seasons, and the steady crafting of this budding super team has indeed left the Gunners in a stellar position to cement their newfound stature for years to come.

Martin Odegaard, ostensibly on for Premier League Player of the Year, was signed from Real Madrid for an initial £30m in 2021, having previously impressed on loan, while Gabriel Martinelli's £6m transfer now looks to be one of the biggest bargains in recent English history, prodigious centre-back William Saliba also integral after his £27m transfer from Saint-Étienne in 2019, earning a shot this season after spending three years out on loan, an opportunity he has taken emphatically.

With so much going right in north London, it's easy to forget that not all the deals have panned out as planned, with left-back Nuno Tavares at the forefront of the scant few of Arteta's signings to have fallen wide of the mark.

How is Nuno Tavares performing at Marseille?

Signing for the Gunners for just £8m from Benfica in 2021, the talented Tavares' arrival initially looked to be a shrewd move indeed, but the prospect would only make 13 starts in the Premier League, scoring a goal and assist apiece, before being shipped out on loan to Marseille last summer.

Arteta would sign versatile City left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko for £32m one year later, hampering Tavares' chances of making an impact with a regular starting berth any time soon.

According to a recent report from Coeur Marseilleis (relayed by Sport Witness), The Olympians are growing discontented with the £28k-per-week wide defender, with his last few performances receiving scathing criticism from the French media.

A journalist for the French publication stated: “Tavares is getting worse and worse. Marseille as a whole are less performant, but certain individuals are too. It’s the case of the Portuguese, who frustrates both in his choices and his attitude. On the left, he often made the wrong choices, lost 25 balls through poor passes or wrong runs."

With Arsenal currently boasting the aforementioned Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney - albeit with the latter linked with a move away - it seems unlikely that the powers that be at the Emirates would disrupt the finely-poised fluidity and place Tavares back into the fold when the 23-year-old has been out-of-sorts of late.

As per Sofascore, the Portuguese ace floundered to a lowly 5.9 match rating against Strasbourg, losing possession 25 times, failing with all five of his dribble attempts, winning just four of his 14 ground duels and completing just 57% of his passes.

And despite clinching six goals from 23 Ligue 1 matches this term, Tavares' average rating of 6.7 is an indication that his clinical threat masquerades the overall level of his play, having won just 39% of his total duels and completed only 36% of his total dribbles.

If performances do not improve quickly, the chances of Arteta investing time and energy into the marauder grow slimmer, and his time on Arsenal's books might have be chalked off as one that failed to make the grade.

As such, he must be ruthlessly tossed aside by Edu and co once the window opens in a few months' time.