The Technical Area – The Real Arteta Stands Up

Mikel Arteta’s brace in the 5-1 demolition of Hull on Sunday reacquainted him with the fantasy fraternity and raised his profile on our radars.

The subject of a Watchlist article last month, visitors here have always been aware of his potential. The question we have to ask ourselves now is whether Sunday’s performance is just the start of continued returns from the Toffee’s playmaker…

It was Steven Pienaar that found his way into my Scout Picks for the weekend and while he chipped in with an assist and Fantasy Premeir League bonus, he was vastly overshadowed by Arteta’s two goal and assist contribution. And yet, as mentioned at the time, in his five league appearances before the Hull game, Arteta had not registered a single effort on goal.

Unkind Opponents

Perhaps that can be explained by the opposition he faced. Since his return to league action Arteta has come up against Sunderland, Liverpool, Chelsea, United and Spurs. He was also subbed in two of those matches and only came off the bench against Liverpool. Against Hull Arteta had five efforts on goal; he matched that only once last season – against Sunderland in the 3-0 win, his last league appearance before sustaining the cruciate knee ligament problem that robbed us of his services for so long.

Moyes’ Tinkering

Another, perhaps more likely explanation for Arteta’s improved output on Sunday was a tactical change from David Moyes. Arteta has revealed that by employing Johnny Heitinga as a defensive anchor in a five-man midfield, Moyes handed him a greater licence to threaten the Hull goal…

“I had more freedom to go forward because we were playing Johnny (Heitinga) behind me….The manager wanted me to go forward and play closer to the strikers and have more influence in attack.”

While there’s no mention of this tweak in his own post-match comments, Moyes was understandably full of praise for Arteta but also reiterated that he feels the midfielder is still short of full fitness…

“He played well all-round so I’m really pleased for him. Mikel is still not right back to where he was but today it was more like him. It shows you how much we have missed him over the last year or so. I knew he would come on a bit as his fitness and confidence has grown.”

The Real Arteta

Teammate Phil Jagielka was also dishing out the praise for Arteta and his comments offer evidence that, after a slow start, Arteta is close to being back to his best…

“I think so far we’ve had the safe Mikel. He’s not had to go into that many tackles, or play too many world-class passes and he’s done everything neat and tidy. But if you’ve watched him in training the last few days, he seems to have everything back; his balance, his eye to foot coordination, and it’s frightening. If you look at the way he runs with the ball, and his vision, and the way he teams up with Bainsey particularly on the left. As you could see against Hull, some teams will have no answer to it.”

Will Arteta earn investment then? With Villa’s pair of double fixtures over the next two gameweeks there is no doubt that James Milner heads shopping lists everywhere. Ironically he is available for the exact same value (8.2) in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game and that’s certain to be a factor which will dampen initial investment in Arteta.

The Cahill Factor

Everton do have kind fixtures however and also have their own double in gameweek 31 – Bolton and Man City provide the opposition. As a result, more suitors will arrive prior to gameweek 31 but then we wil have another factor to consider. Tim Cahill is likely to have returned from injury to offer a cheaper alternative to consider over Everton’s generous run-in. Even if you right Cahill off as an option, his return will surely influence the role handed to Arteta. It will likely be Cahill charged with supporting the striker from a deeper position once he’s back in Everton’s 4-5-1 system. Arteta may have flourished with his freedom to attack against Hull but with Cahill’s return, he may well be directed to prompt matters from a deeper position.

With Arteta visiting the stubborn home Birmingham defence at St Andrews this weekend, we are perhaps handed the luxury of at least another week to assess his credentials as a potential differential for the last quarter of the season. It may well take Cahill’s return before we can ultimately run the rule over Arteta’s likely returns for the remaining games.