A lot has been written about our porous defence and dismal away form last season. And rightly so. The 51 goals conceded in the league was not only the most since the 60 in 1983-84, it was only the second time an Arsene Wenger Arsenal squad had given up more than 44. In the 21 seasons prior, Arsenal averaged 36.38 goals against per season. We earned only 16 points away from the Emirates, placing us in a tie for 11th on the away table. Southampton, a team that won only 3 away games and lost 8, finished 1 point ahead of us.

I don’t think that entirely explains our poor season, though. It wasn’t that long ago that Arsenal were the team that neutrals enjoyed watching. No longer, and not because of our abysmal defence. Neutrals aren’t generally interested in watching good defence – they want explosive offence. While not all the statistics back me up here, I believe that we lost our verve offensively, especially in the build-up. We were reluctant to make adventurous passes from deep, we took too long to move the ball down the field and we rarely counterattacked effectively. By the time we got the ball into the opposition’s final third, we encountered a set defence and often 10 men behind the ball. We had become boring. Would anyone argue that last season was not one of the most boring seasons in recent history?

We scored 74 league goals last season, which was tied for the second most we have scored since the 83 in 2009-2010, and shockingly only 1 less than in the Invincibles season (when we also conceded 25 less). But we were tied for 7th in fast breaks per game, behind such “luminaries” as Palace and Stoke. Arsenal ranked 11th in a watchability ranking (that included all the clubs from the top 5 European leagues, and not just the Premier League) that takes into account dribbles, deep completions, passes allowed per defensive action in the opposition half and expected goals, behind rivals City, Liverpool and Tottenham. We were not fun to watch and our matches had become a grind.

Why were we so sore on the eye? I think our deep lying playmaker has to take some of the blame. But Granit Xhaka was not solely at fault. I think our players often failed to move into open spaces or make penetrating runs, leaving Xhaka few opportunities to pass the ball forward. I am not the only person to observe the lack of energy in our outfit last season. In American sports, the phrase “lost the locker room” is often bandied about. Players listen to the coach or manager for only a certain amount of time then tune him out. Arsene Wenger lost the locker room and players stopped working hard on the pitch for him, especially in the tedious and often unrewarding task of making themselves available. Xhaka led the league with 3,116 passes. He also made a large amount of “accurate long balls,” but I believe that statistic is misleading and that most of his long balls were side-to-side. How many times did Alexandre Lacazette make a run and was either never seen or at least didn’t receive the pass? I threw my hands up in frustration countless times.

It is difficult to compare Xhaka with other players because there are not many Premier League players who perform his role. So, I will compare his numbers to those of other players who do some of what he does, but admittedly often further upfield. Of Xhaka’s 3,116 passes, 3 created “big chances” and 11 were “through balls.” Kevin De Bruyne (the most unfair of these unfair comparisons) created 19 big chances and executed 41 through balls. Mesut Ozil created 13 big chances and made 18 through balls. And Christian Ericksen made 15 big chances and 24 through balls. Again, those guys all play further upfield, so it is not quite a fair comparison. Perhaps Fernandinho is the most appropriate – he had 7 big chances and 19 through balls.

We all thought we were getting the defensive midfielder we craved when we signed Xhaka. Physically, he fits the part. But it became apparent right away that he wasn’t that kind of player. Yet it turned out he could fill another role, one that we hadn’t had since Santi Cazorla’s injury. Talk about unfair comparisons, but here goes – in Santi’s final season in which he played most of the games, 2014-15, he made 2,367 passes with 12 big chances created and 26 through balls.

In my opinion, Xhaka dwells on the ball too long, doesn’t make the decisive downfield pass and too often settles for a safe side-to-side pass. Again, his teammates need to be better and make themselves available. If there is a pro-Xhaka side and an anti-Xhaka side, I am safely encamped on the border, still waiting to render my verdict. As I do for every Arsenal player (I dislike zero of our guys), I want him to succeed.

Which brings us to my new favorite player (half kidding), Matteo Guendouzi. I know, I know, every year Arsenal has a new young player that shines in the pre-season, then is hardly heard from again. But didn’t young Matteo show more quality and do it more consistently than the others? How many times did you say to yourself “nice ball” after a Guendouzi pass? By my unofficial count, he made exactly a ton of great passes. Yes, it was in pre-season, when defences were lax and he wasn’t being pressed. And yes, he dwelled on the ball, seemed susceptible to turnovers in dangerous areas and went down a little too easy. But boy, he showed something, some fire, desire, heart, whatever you want to call it. He wanted the ball, kept his head up as he scanned the field and often made excellent aggressive passes down the pitch. I am not saying he needs to start immediately, but I think he should be in the discussion for Premier League minutes and I would not disapprove if he were in the lineup on Sunday against the champions.

Before I finish let me make a final point. The idea that improving our defence (which did NOT look improved during the pre-season) and away form alone, and that getting us into the top 4, assumes that we will equal our impressive home form from last season, when we had 15W, 2D and 2L. On the one hand, that is going to be difficult to replicate. On the other, as Kevin Whitcher pointed out in Reality Check, we only earned 5 points in the 5 home games against the teams above us in the table. So, we continued our trend of eating the minnows and struggling against the top sides. But that is a story for another day.

We need to do more than improve our lousy defence and away form. We need to show some urgency on offence, both on and off the ball. Our playmakers need to move the ball quickly and decisively and those without it need to find spaces and make penetrating runs. Arsenal need to be fun again. Not just for us, the supporters, but for the often-neglected neutrals, too.