“I think we created enough chances in the first 20 minutes to go one or 2-0 up. It was very disappointing to not be in that position. We had the chances but we didn’t take them."- Mikel Arteta after away loss to Dinamo Zagreb.
These two quotes above are enough to paint the picture of Arsenal's start to the 2015/2016 football season. I could have picked a few more, but I'm sure you get the point. Indeed, it's an issue which all fans have picked up on especially since the 1-0 win over 10-man Newcastle late last month. We have played six games so far, winning three, drawing one and losing two, and that is bang on average form for supposed title-challengers. It gets truly depressing when you consider the fact that we have made 137 attempts on goal in these six games and have managed just five goals (excluding own goals). This as per this tweet by @1DavidWall. Before last weekend's win against Stoke, no side in the entire division had attempted as many shots as we had, and we went on to register 29 shots during that game... the most attempts by any club in a single game so far this season.Only 12 of the 29 shots were on target, and only two of the 12 were scored. In total, we are scoring a goal after every 27 shots. TWENTY-SEVEN.
A lot needs to be said about the profligacy of our striking duo of Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud, but it would be folly to rely on the pair as the "be-all-end-all" source of our goals. Arsene Wenger, on several occasions during the transfer window, called for more goals from the plethora of creative talent behind the main striker, the likes of Ozil, Chamberlain, Cazorla and Ramsey. I already mentioned this in one of my earlier posts, but it's worth mentioning once again that aside from Giroud (16) and Alexis (25), only Ramsey managed to get into double figures in terms of goals scored... well, barely. He had 10. Six games into the current campaign, Alexis, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain have combined for a total of 78 attempts on goal, and only one of the 78 found it's way to the back of the net. Scary, eh? All in all, only Theo (2), Giroud (2) and Owen Gole (2) have scored in our EPL and Champions League fixtures. Ozil, for instance, has been singled out by the manager as one of the players from whom he expects more goals.
“He had a very good performance. He was important getting out from the back, getting out of tight areas. It is a pleasure to watch the quality of his passing and the intelligence of his passing. What I told you is what I want from him more is a few more goals this season. For the rest of the build-up in the game he was magnificent."- Arsene Wenger speaking after the 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.
Wenger set a target of 10 goals for the German, and in light of this you would think perhaps he would make more of an effort to get on the score-sheet with some form of regularity. Instead, he has not had more than one effort on goal in all but one of his five appearances so far this season, making only six attempts on goal in four EPL games+ one UCL game. Alexis Sanchez, meanwhile, has had 28 attempts on goal so far this season, but 13 of those have been blocked.
Now to Theo and Giroud. The pair have a combined 38 attempts on goal, resulting in four goals.That sounds miles better than the midfielders' conversion rate, but it still could have been so much better. One needs not look beyond our weekend win over Stoke to get a further illustration of this point. Theo scored after his seventh attempt on goal, and Giroud did too but after another glaring miss.
I won't sit here and claim that our inability to hit the target was to blame for our defeat yesterday, but as the captain put it, it was certainly a contributing factor. Pretty approach play and creation of chances only count for so little if no goals are scored. That is, after all, the only stat that counts. I guess the only positive here is that Giroud and Walcott are finding these goal-scoring opportunities to miss... what would really be worrying is if they had nothing to go on, no service into goal-scoring areas. I invite you to consider, if you will, one Roberto Soldado who spent a couple of seasons at Spurs and flopped before returning to the Spanish La Liga. Soldado hardly got the opportunities to finish off, and this is no absolute reflection on the quality of the player but just an example to illustrate how bad things can get. The sooner we can work on our chance conversion though, the better. With five games in the next 18 days against the likes of Chelsea, Spurs,Leceister and Manchester United,we cannot afford more missed chances.
Hii kitu ni ngumu
ReplyDelete