Another scare before Christmas. Arsenal never seem to be having it easy.
Brian Brobbey of Sunderland. Aston Villa’s Emiliano Buendia. Tooru Alokodare vs Wolves and now Marc Gehi vs Crystal Palace. “It’s something we have to improve on. We conceded in the last moment,” goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga said after a recent match.
Conceding four goals in the closing stages of the game should worry Mikel Arteta. Except that’s not the case, at least according to what the Arsenal manager has said.
Normally, a trend like this would raise concerns and doubts about the eligibility of a team, especially a team like the Gunners who have struggled to take the final step in recent years.
The doubts may even be reminiscent of times when Arsenal were vulnerable at the back under multiple managers, such as Arsene Wenger’s later years, Unai Emery’s entire tenure, and even Arteta’s early years.
But Arteta isn’t worried because Arsenal’s troubles in the final stages of games are not defensive problems, but attacking problems.
“The difference should have been bigger,” Arteta said after the Carabao Cup victory over Palace on penalties, referring to Arsenal’s 1-0 lead in stoppage time. The same was true for Sunderland and Wolves.
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Watch highlights from the Carabao Cup quarter-finals between Arsenal and Crystal Palace. The Gunners won this match after an amazing penalty shootout.
“It should have been three or four hours. Then I’m not worried about what happens in the last few minutes.”
That was certainly the case against Crystal Palace, and once again Arsenal’s attack seemed to be drying up in December.
It’s an incredible number, but it’s been over 300 minutes since an Arsenal player scored a non-penalty goal. Since the first hour of their 3-0 win over Club Brugge, the Gunners have relied on three own goals (two from Wolves and one from Palace) and a penalty from Victor Goqueres for Everton.
Own goals and penalties are not something to be ashamed of, they are signs that confuse the opposition defense and force them to make mistakes. However, according to the data, Arsenal’s players should have scored at least six times in the last three games, but they still failed to do so even once.
This is not the first time something like this has happened for Arsenal during the festival period. In December 2023, despite overwhelming Liverpool one after another, they lost consecutive league games to Fulham and West Ham around Christmas, and were eliminated from the FA Cup.
Twelve months ago, in December, Arsenal drew with Fulham and Everton in back-to-back games. The 1-0 win over Ipswich just after Christmas was far from convincing attackingly. After that, despite dominating in the first half of the semi-final first leg against Newcastle, they were eliminated in the Carabao Cup.
There was a trend there, and it looked like it would continue against Palace on Tuesday night, with Arsenal having 25 shots but none of them finding the back of the net.
Noni Madueke scored a hat-trick in the first half, Gabriel Jesus had Palace’s goal denied by the excellent Walter Benitez in either half, while Julian Timber was also guilty of missing a few chances before the match went to penalties.
Arsenal miss 25 goals against Palace – own goals don’t count in shot count
Still, while Palace squandered a result in normal times, the game felt similar to Arsenal’s woes last season. Last season in the Premier League, the Gunners drew 14 times, with only Everton drawing more, with most of the stalemates ending in 1-1 draws.
They tried to address this problem by adding more layers to the attack. The introductions of Gokeres, Maduke, Eberechi Eze and even Martin Zvimendi added to Arsenal’s front line and they looked to score a second goal before their opponents got back into the game.
It seems to have worked. Forget about “1-0 to Arsenal”. In fact, it’s 2-0, which is Arsenal’s most popular scoreline of the season so far.
Arteta’s side knew they needed to score a crucial second goal quickly. The fact that they led 2-0 within the first minute of the second half on three separate occasions shows that it is a key part of Arsenal’s coaching staff’s team negotiations.
But that hasn’t been the case in recent weeks. Arsenal are reverting to their old habits of sitting on a slender lead.
If VAR had been more strict about William Saliba’s challenge on Tierno Barry at Everton, if Wolves’ Jerson Mosquera had not headed home his own goal at the Emirates, or if Palace had won the cup penalty shoot-out draw, Arsenal would have been in crisis again at Christmas.
The fact that Arsenal have continued to win games despite conceding late goals is testament to how well they have prepared for this season in terms of squad depth and game management.
But we need to be more ruthless up front to get the job done. You can’t have a dry January after a hectic December.
