Arsenal's Lack of Goals

I would not be writing this piece if we did not think this was a serious problem we are facing at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as patient as the next guy, I wait for the Arsenal to spin their magic and score the Arsenal way. However it irks me no end that we have not stuffed a team in domestic competition in recent times. Not to say we haven’t domin ted the possession, we have, but we have not nearly done enough with it. We have not taken our early chances to put the game to bed, it has been all last minute stuff. As exciting as it is , we do need a barn-stormer of a performance in the Premiership.

In no particular order, here they are:

1. Adebayor misfiring. We have been riding on the big Togolese strikes in the absence of RVP. Ade did step up to the plate handsomely, however presently he is lacking a good first touch and confidence in front of goal.

2. Lack of support strike. This is especially because Dudu is out injured, we only have RVP back now. We do not have someone (until RVP’s return recently) who we could count on to score goals for instance if Adebayor is having a bad day. Though Theo and Bendtner have found the net recently, they are hardly proven goal scorers at the moment. There is plenty of hope with the return of Robin Van Persie though.

3. The midfield is goal-shy. Apart from Fabregas, there are no real goal contributors from this part of the pitch. Hleb, Falmini and Rosicky/Theo need to step it up.

4. That extra pass in the box or at the edge of the box. No one seems to take it upon himself to take a shot on goal (whether the Gooners in the crowd are justified in shouting “shoot” is another matter all together)

5. Opposition have worked us out. The opposition have realized that we do not play a direct game, always looking for that extra pass, that gives them more time to put a foot in and steal the ball away as we over elaborate at times. While this sort of play won us plaudits and the tie at the San Siro, sometimes a more direct option should be used when we need to, it’s not as pretty mind you, but maybe we need to mix it up a bit.

6. Limited use of plan B. We need to use our long ball option more, remember Eduardo scored those two goals against Everton recently, when it looked like we would never get the ball in?

7. Teams step up their game when they play us. Well, this cannot be counted as a real reason. Of course teams are going to put in one of their performances of the season when they play a top side. I don’t know how we can counter that other than raising our own game.

8. Too many chances. As a team we create plenty of chances or half chances during the course of the game. These chances have not been translated into goals . When an opportunity goes abegging they players are rarely distraught, they always feel that an opportunity will roll by soon enough, and it does. But it does occur to me that the lack of clinical finishing can be put down in part to the players thinking “Oh, don’t worry Cescy will dink another ball through in a minute”. While this is a positive attitude, it does account for us not finishing a fair proportion of the chances.

This is just my opinion, feel free to disagree with me in the comments section .

Arsene speaking after the Wigan game blamed the pitch in part for the result saying-

"For me the pitch is a disgrace," "It's disrespectful to fans who come and pay money."

Arsene however believes that the team will take-off from this blip also saying,