Mikel Arteta faces Emile Smith Rowe Arsenal dilemma as Chelsea ramp up transfer interest

The Gunners boss is at risk of losing his number 10 if he does not start to offer him more game time amid interest from the Blues ahead of transfer deadline day

As Emile Smith Rowe arrived at Arsenal's pre-season training camp in America there were hopes this could be a new dawn.

The 23-year-old had endured a frustrating 2022/23 campaign, but after an impressive hand in England's under-21 Euro success, he came back raring to go. In fact, Smith Rowe was so committed to seizing his opportunity at his boyhood club, that he forewent a decent chunk of his holiday to join up with the Gunners squad in New Jersey.

After being overlooked on countless occasions last season Smith Rowe could have been forgiven for struggling to find the motivation to go again. Instead, he was a bright spark in an otherwise lacklustre performance in a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United, caught the eye with a second half cameo against Barcelona and did well on his first Gunners start in over a year against Monaco. He then went on to play an important role in helping Arsenal come from behind to beat Manchester City on penalties in the Community Shield.

It felt as though Smith Rowe's momentum was building to a crescendo that would perfectly coincide with the start of the season. Instead though, things have fallen flat.

This will once again have left the Hale Ender questioning his status at Arsenal. Although injuries played their part, he did not start a single game in any competition last season, and with the £65million summer addition of Havertz, he appears to have fallen even further down the pecking order. After the Fulham game though, Arteta seemed to hint that it would only be a matter of time before those who have been in the fringes of the squad so far this season would be given their chance in the limelight.

"It’s difficult to leave all the players out," he said. "When I see on the bench there are a lot of players who still haven’t played. At the moment though we are once a week, when we are two a week it’s going to be a completely different scenario how we are prepared for that."

As the Gunners struggle with the issue of putting games out of the reach of their opponents by converting the multitude of chances that they have been able to create, there's certainly a strong case to suggest that Smith Rowe deserves to be more heavily involved. The 23-year-old was Arsenal's second highest scorer just two seasons ago, and has the potential to recreate that end product again now that he is fit and finally playing pain free after surgery on a longstanding hip injury last year. The onus is now on Arteta to give Smith Rowe the chance to remind us all just how important a player he can be.