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The path to true love rarely runs smoothly. And after three near misses, Mikel Arteta decided to take Arsenal on a different route to glory.

This season has been all about getting the job done. Arteta has been characterised as a risk-averse, safety-first manager to finally deliver the Holy Grail of the Premier League title.

That is fine if you are getting the results. But if you then have a blip - the wheels have come off Arsenal’s title bandwagon after taking just two points from their last three games - then it becomes the perfect storm.

Arsenal’s football has been pretty dull and they are going through their biggest dip in form this season. Manchester United legend Paul Scholes this week claimed Arsenal would be the worst team to win the title in Premier League history.

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That seems a stretch. But, even more cuttingly, Scholes said: “If you’re thinking of picking a team of the season and picking the front four, nobody from the Arsenal team gets in that.

“Look at previous champions – Liverpool‘s forwards, brilliant. Possibly the only one is Saka, and I don’t think he’s been brilliant. He’s not scored many goals this year or assists.”

And that is the point. Arsenal’s forwards have been the issue. Bukayo Saka has managed four goals in the Premier League this season and three assists. He has also now gone 13 games without a goal in all competitions.

Incredibly, only 57 per cent of Arsenal’s Premier League goals have come from open play this season. And that puts them 17th out of 20. They have scored 16 goals in the Premier League from set-pieces and 24 overall.

Arteta has made Arsenal deadly from corners, free kicks and set-pieces. But it does beg the question: why? First and foremost, they are playing to their strengths.

Gabriel is such an important player for Arsenal. He is a force at set-pieces. And, despite being at the top and only outscored by Manchester City, it feels like they have struggled for goals.

It looks laboured and difficult. Viktor Gyokeres is joint top scorer with Leandro Trossard with five each in the Premier League. Their forwards have not been great so they have had to look for other ways.

The lowest top scorer of a title-winning team in Premier League history are Frank Lampard and Ilkay Gundogan with 13 each for Chelsea in 2004/05 and Manchester City 2020/21 respectively.

With well over half the season gone, Arsenal are on course to beat that. Gyokeres just has not worked. He was signed to score goals - and has not done that enough and his all-round play has been poor.

Arsenal have really missed Kai Havertz because he holds the ball up, he can bring others into lay and is particularly effective away from home. At the moment, the ball just bounces back on the break. Havertz’s return is well overdue.

Arsenal needed to strengthen their squad last summer. They spent big. Gyokeres cost £64m and has started most games.

Martin Zubimendi has been the biggest hit because none of the others - Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Christian Norgaard, Piero Hincapie, Kepa and the highly-promising Cristian Mosquera - have been regulars.

They have depth but surely the strongest squad can only be classes as such if it wins the league. And Arsenal have a long way to go.

The other reason why perhaps Arteta has gone safety first and moved away from the free-flowing and exciting football of their first title challenges in 2022/23 and 2023/24 was the mistakes of last season when, despite finishing second, they never really challenged Liverpool.

Last season, Arsenal drew nine of the 30 games they took the lead in. That is a staggering 21 points lost from winning positions. They ended up losing the title to Liverpool by ten points.

It has been a rarity this season. They let the lead slip at Sunderland and drew 2-2. They lost to Manchester United last Sunday having taken the lead and scored the first goal. That was a first.

The issue here is that Arteta knows the pressure is on him to win the title. They have tried and failed in the past three years. But however you paint it, he has still done a remarkable job.

Arsenal’s sporting director Andrea Berta - rather than Arteta - must take the lion's share of the blame if they do not get over the line. But Arteta is playing safe to make sure that Arsenal end their 22 year wait to be champions - and he does not care how they do it.

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