Eshan Miller 
(Ed’s note – This piece was submitted for issue 253 of The Gooner, but lack of space in the issue means we are running it here on the website instead. It was penned before the game against Chelsea, but the points are still valid)
Five games into the season, and by looking at our team stats you wouldn’t think that we are lucky to be in fourth place right now. 39 shots on target so far (up to the game versus Stoke) would suggest that we are a team that is confident and ready to challenge for the league and other cups this season.
But when you look closer at the stats it’s another story. From those 39 shots we’ve scored five goals (two of those being own goals). To compare, Man. City have had 36 shots on target (up to their game versus Crystal Palace), scoring 11 with no own goals, and Leicester City, who don’t feature in the top five for shots per game, have scored 11 this season.
So why can’t we finish our chances… and why is it when one player is having an off day everyone plays badly? Lack of quality up front? Maybe. Not enough money spent? Probably. But we can only deal with what we’ve got and for me the problem lies with Arsenal, not just the strikers, but the whole team, and even our team’s mentality. Herewith, a few theories as to why we seem to face this problem:
Take Cazorla, for example; at first I wasn’t sure if it was just me that noticed this, but after gathering opinions of other Gooners, it clearly wasn’t just me. When Cazorla is having a bad game it affects our whole team; because of his new role at the heart of midfield if he fails the tempo of passing, the number of key passes and thus the whole team in general, sinks. For example, in the opening game of the season versus West Ham, Cazorla only managed to create two chances, and the whole team looked dreary. This was also the case in our draw versus Liverpool, when Cazorla managed zero take-ons and created only two chances, with the team drawing 0-0. The over-importance of Cazorla’s role in central midfield I believe is due to a lack of a natural leader in the team. With Mertesacker out injured and Arteta getting on a bit our only natural leader in the team is Cech, who can’t be expected to fix all our problems in his first season. If we’re to progress, a leader has to be found.
But on to the main issue, why can’t we finish? This is the part where I’m expected to rant about getting rid of Giroud and protesting to the manager about the lost opportunity of the transfer window, but no. Sticking to the theme of repeating myself, we can only deal with the players we have. I think that the reason that we struggle in front of goal is that we have two extremes: Giroud- no pace, good in the air; Walcott- lots of pace, bad in the air - and the team find this hard to adjust to quickly if one gets substituted for the other. The team needs to learn to adapt to this change in style, especially as Giroud was our main striker for the majority of last season, when the team were used to providing balls into the box for Giroud to head in.
A reason (and not an excuse) for our poor adjustment is surely due to the timings of Wenger’s substitutions. As you might notice in pretty much all of our games, Wenger has brought on substitutes on around 70-75 minutes, giving them only 15-20 minutes to have any impact on the game. Henceforth our team’s tempo and playing style doesn’t change.
One last thing, slightly off topic but still relevant to the way Arsenal play. We keep possession too much, too long. For example, against Dynamo Zagreb (even Martin Keown commentating pointed this out), instead of moving the ball about quickly and getting into good positions to shoot, we tended to over- pass the ball, then give it away; the opposition counter-attacked and our defence goes narrow, ignoring any threat out wide and conceding a goal. Again, Sanchez or Cazorla will take one too many touches and will run into a crowd of people, resulting in the shot getting blocked by about three players at once. This isn’t the football we set out to play, and this is another reason why we have struggled in the Champions League and why we have been so mediocre in the league. Repeating myself one last time, we can only deal with what we have; I can only trust Wenger to get us back on track and turn this season around and get us playing with confidence and flow. He can only do it with this team for now, so all we can do is hope!
Eshan Miller writes for TheArsenalBlog.co.uk
Issue 253 of The Gooner can be bought from sellers on your approach to the stadium today. It can also be bought online here.
