Mikel Arteta has been appointed Arsenal's new head coach after he signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with the north London giants on Friday. The Spaniard leaves his assistant manager role at Manchester City to replace Freddie Ljungberg, who took over the club as an interim manager following the dismissal of Unai Emery last month.The 37-year-old returns to the Emirates after having played 150 games for the club as a midfielder, winning two FA Cups and two Community Shields under Arsene Wenger.🥁 Introducing our new head coach...Mikel Arteta ✍️ pic.twitter.com/PTmElGDMR3— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 20, 2019Arsenal currently sit at tenth place in the Premier League after suffering one of their longest winless runs under Emery and registering only one win in five games under Ljungberg.Arteta will be looking to salvage any chances for a top-four finish in the remainder of the season but having inherited a squad full of imbalances, he will be faced with the difficult task of solving multiple issues across the field before the club can mount such a challenge.In this article, we take a look at three key areas of concern as the Spaniard takes his place in the managerial seat at the Emirates:#1 Defensive instability and lack of urgencyDavid Luiz and SokratisArsenal have long garnered a reputation for possessing the most notoriously leaky defence in the Premier League and, as such, sorting out this never-ending barricade crisis must be Arteta's top priority upon his arrival at the Emirates.It would be difficult and naive for the Spaniard to overlook the catastrophe when the numbers that are churned out after every fixture demand a cry for action. The Gunners have conceded more goals (27) in 17 games than in any Premier League season, with this campaign being the first time they have ever had a negative goal difference after as many games. They have the joint-worst record of clean sheets (2) in the English top-flight and are conceding an alarming number of shots (16.4 per game), a statistic which is only better than Norwich City and Aston Villa.The only consolation behind the horrendous defending is Bernd Leno, without whom the Gunners' rate of conceding goals would have been much higher than the already-abysmal record. The German shot-stopper has made more saves than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League and has played a pivotal role in either keeping the scoreline down or salvaging a point for his team. Much of the issues have stemmed from the lack of stable and commanding figures at the heart of the Gunners defence. Neither Wenger nor Emery has been able to find an effective centre-back partnership, with the likes of David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos appearing as though they are struggling with the basic tenets of defending.Meanwhile, the full-back positions have been ravaged by injuries with the likes of Kieran Tierney, Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Sead Kolasinac having made their way to the medical table in recent months. While Bellerin is easing his way back into the squad, Tierney picked up a shoulder injury against West Ham United and is set for yet another spell on the sidelines. Kolasinac also limped off with a suspected ankle problem against Manchester City, leaving the club with a host of injured full-backs and no effective replacements.Considering Arsenal's history in the transfer market, Arteta may either be forced to wait until the transfer summer window to find a long-term solution to the centre-back problem or he may have to depend on the return of William Saliba from his loan spell at St. Etienne. Until then, the former Gunners captain will have to re-acquaint the current group of players on basic positioning, awareness, movement and the art of taking responsibility for individual defending.Also Read: 3 reasons why Olympiakos can beat Arsenal in the Europa League Round of 32