My thoughts:
1) There are 3 facets of the game one has to solve - defensive, midfield, attacking third. We seem to have “fixed” the first two. Believe it or not, the final part is the hardest to fix, because most of the time you can’t do it by drill. As a manager you can give the idea, but the players have to be intelligent and tactically/technically astute enough to execute it consistently. It’s more complicated than “play your best players”, etc. Some players fit that idea and are better able to execute and implement its demands than others. It’s clear to see that like Emery before him, Arteta is struggling with this aspect. Our current squad just does not have the quality or personnel to be balanced defensively while being expansive in attack.
2) We made a choice during the window as far as I’m concerned, about which position to prioritize as we attempt to find the key to “take the handbrake off” as some have put it in recent weeks. We chose Aouar I believe, but Lyon refused to agree to our terms and after haggling back and forth for most of the summer we decided not to accede to their demands, and went back for the easier transaction to pull off at the end of the window, got our Partey started.
3) We will go back in for Aouar or a solution similar to him in January. We must, if we are going to make a push for top 4 positions.