What went wrong for Arsenal during the month of August? by SE
Midst high expectations and certain degree of excitement, Arsenal kick started their 2014/15 campaign on a decent note. Despite relative inconsequence, the FA Community Shield win over Man City was, as it turned out, the brightest point of the month. Looking beyond that evening at the Wembley stadium, however, what went wrong for Arsenal?
Talking Points
Sometimes, your inferior opponents can cause you the biggest of headaches, as they are the ‘underdog’ and, almost always, a win for the superior team is rubber-stamped, even before the referee blows his whistle for kick off.
We haven’t seen many shocks in the league so far; the solitary upset came at the Etihad, where the former Man City manager took his current Stoke side and conjured up a terrific result against the Premier League holders.
But Arsenal, who are so used to seeing off those mid and lower-mid table sides, haven’t really lived up to history. And, albeit they started off with a hard fought win against Crystal Palace in their season opener, those two points dropped against Leicester could prove costly come the end of the season. The Leicester game, most importantly, proved to be an implication of what really was going wrong for the Gunners.
Arsenal’s ineptitude to score goals
In 5 competitive games this season, exclusive of the FA Community Shield, the Gunners have managed to find the back of the net 6 times, only. On average, as a result, Wenger’s wizards have managed 1.2 goals per season, which is not good enough. Barring a tough away fixture against Everton, Arsenal had a relatively easy time of it during the month of August and, consequently, should have scored a lot more goals.
Arsenal’s strikers haven’t been prolific, which is the cornerstone to the paucity of goals. Having said that, goals win you football matches and, in Arsenal’s case, it’s their failure to score a good number of goals that impeded their results – subsequently – during the month of August.
Final Thought
With Welbeck’s acquisition, Arsenal’s frontline should get a boost in the quality of personnel, as well as in the number of goals they score from now till the end of the season. However, during the month of August, it was Arsenal’s ineptitude to score more goals that impeded them from enjoying a ‘satisfying’ start to the 2014/15 campaign.
Arsenal MUST improve on this in the next few weeks……
Suhith