Arsenal have lost their language skills and Ødegaard's return won't solve everything | arsenal

To paraphrase a Catch-22, just because you're being dragged across the continent by a frothing cloud of online paranoia over questionable refereeing decisions doesn't mean the game isn't coming for you too.

Arsenal were undoubtedly unlucky in splitting competing penalty claims in the first half of their 1-0 defeat to Inter at the San Siro. But bad luck also has a tendency to look for a place to linger, a ledge on which to perch. The continental Masonic referee conspiracies could end up getting you too. But you can also make it difficult for them.

Should we do the penalties first? And then we come to the question, why are the penalties, while regrettable, not really the right thing? Because in this case, Arsenal had every right to complain a little about at least one of the crucial decisions in the first half that could actually have gone the other way.

First came the one who was not given but could have been given. Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer came out to clear a cross and instead hit Mikel Merino in the head. It was, to be fair, a really sweet, clean shot that hit Merino right in the side of the head and sent him to the ground. The referee waved sternly. The VAR took a look, but Sommer was cleared of any foul, thereby conceding a penalty because, well, goalkeeper.

A few minutes later, with the game still goalless, Inter were awarded the penalty that would ultimately decide the game. Rightly so, but because of a silly rule that should be changed. This time it came from a free kick fired into the Arsenal wall, where the ball bounced haphazardly off the unfortunate Merino's raised foot and traveled about 18 inches further to his arm, which was right up where arms go, there he is poor.

The penalty was awarded after another check. The crime is basically possession of weapons. There was no fraud or unfair advantage. Under Premier League management this would probably not have been the case as a degree of common sense was introduced into these situations. Here it was according to the rules. Change them. If even the Premier League's perpetually confused refereeing brain has managed to better understand this scenario, perhaps life is trying to tell you something. The kick was duly buried. And from then on, Arsenal always seemed to be losing this game, even if it seemed like they were squaring off because of the pressure, the territory, the shots and the spectacle of the Inter players spread out across the pitch like a re-enactment of a Civil War battle , forcing the way back in.

You are currently running through difficult terrain. The defeat here resulted in two wins in the last six games. Away from home they have not scored against anyone other than Preston since Gabriel's header at the Etihad at the end of September.

Is that bad luck? Are these dark forces? The fact is that this Arsenal team still has so many of its best qualities, from defensive prowess to mind and heart to ease with the ball. But they have also clearly plateaued and are actually as good as they come attacking unit retreated. There is a big problem with Saka dependency. No other major team has put such a heavy burden on a single, very effective attacker in recent years.

And although Bukayo Saka is a wonderful right winger, his range of motion is focused and narrow rather than meandering creativity across the entire pitch. If you close a narrow channel, you essentially lock that team out of open play. This is a failure in attacking the imagination and also in recruiting.

They still played well here. Things really got going at the start of the second half. They could have easily equalized. Kai Havertz missed a poacher's chance. Is that bad luck? Havertz is not a poacher. He will miss these. The squad is missing that special spare part, the quick-fix dealer, the player who wins an ugly game.

Arsenal have recently been accused of moving more and more towards the Jose Mourinho style, an observation that is largely taken as a massive insult, which is pretty funny in itself. But the fact is that they don't want to play like that. They have only lost part of their language skills, which have been disproportionately weakened by the absence of a single player.

Without Martin Ødegaard, Arsenal don't have even a remotely Ødegaard-like senior footballer to fall back on, no connection, no free-floating element. On the other side of Saka, however, Gabriel Martinelli is essentially a runner, who here spends the game racing up and down his sideline in an insistent straight line, a man who performs shuttle sprints that are pretty close to a football game .

Due to this lack of teeth, referred pain occurs. Arsenal's possession of the ball in the second half had a strange structural paradox. Somehow they managed to be urgent and meandering at the same time. They will probably still make it to the next round, although perhaps not with a bye to the round of 16. But there are structural problems here that shouldn't be obscured by the return of the only missing piece and indeed by a bit of bad luck on the night.