After three consecutive Premier League games without scoring, the title is feeling significantly more distant than it was just a fortnight ago. But despite being fourth and behind, them-who-shall-not-be-named, we’re only five points off the top and all can change very quickly this season!
So what’s going to determine the rest of our season? Well given, we’ve only conceded 22 goals in the League, a stat bettered only by Tottenham and Man Utd, much of the issue lies with our finishing. Take a look at the shooting stats below:
Our shots-on-target conversion rate is 27.5%, which puts us towards the bottom of the table. Our style is very much to create as many chances as possible (thank you Ozil!) and convert something. Clinical finishing is not an attribute associated with us this season, and that’s why we’ve only scored 37 goals, less than our top four rivals. But strangely we do hit the target more than any other club in the League (Tottenham aside), so our strikers aren’t doing a ‘terrible’ job. It’s just an odd combination of poor shot choice and outstanding goalkeeping.
To make matters worse (sorry Arsenal fans!), we have more shots from inside the box than any other team. It’s not a case of long distance shots being saved, oh no, 74% of our shots are from inside the box (see below) and yet we’re still failing to get the ball past the keeper.
It may come as a shock that we have the highest WhoScored.com rating of anyone in the league, slightly edging out Leicester. But this isn’t a surprise given we have a strong defensive record and can create many chances (signalling we’re good in possession), we rack up the points in the ratings system just not in the league!
The season stats above are somewhat skewed by our devastating form recently. Since the turn of the year our shots-on-target-to-goals ratio is a paltry 17.4%, and our shooting accuracy rate is 33.8%. To make matters worse on the night we had 22 shots against Southampton with no goals, Arsenal loanees Benik Afobe and Wellington Silva were both on the scoresheet! Maybe there is something in the even-ending years…
Arsenal and the ‘even year’ curse!
Bournemouth visit the Emirates on the weekend, and then we start a series of tough, important fixtures. With Leicester, Man Utd, Tottenham and Barcelona twice in the space of a month or so we need to get back to goalscoring now our full squad is on the way back. It’s been a disappointing few weeks, but talk of us being out the title race is far too premature. Let’s break the mould and use February and March to define our season not forego it!
RK
statisticallyarsenal 
[…] our defence, particularly v Man Utd and Swansea, our strikers are missing a host of chances as our finishing woes continue. But Giroud, Alexis and co aren’t the only ones struggling with some form. Vardy and Mahrez each […]
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