It’s fair to say that Arsenal’s season isn’t quite going to plan. Having narrowly missed out on their first Premier League title in 20 years last season, it was widely expected that the Gunners would be hot on Manchester City’s heels again – but a three-match winless run in the league which included defeats to Bournemouth and Newcastle United has rather derailed their campaign.
That means that Mikel Arteta and his team are already seven points down on early league leaders Liverpool and even out of the top four. All of which begs the question – what exactly is going wrong? And what does Arteta need to change in order to get things back on track?
In order to try and get an insight into Arsenal’s issues, I went back through the footage to watch all 11 goals that they have conceded in the Premier League this season, looking for common themes and concerns – and found two areas in which the Gunners will have to improve if they want to mount a serious title challenge once more.
The first and more evident problem is with their ability to defend set pieces. Last year, Arsenal shipped just seven set piece goals across the whole Premier League campaign, including penalties – this time around, with a quarter of the season in the books, they have already conceded four. Only Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton, both relegation candidates as it stands, have allowed more.
