As in every transfer window, some Arsenal fans have been clamouring for Arsene Wenger to bring in a top class striker to improve our goalscoring record and give us a chance to compete with the other top sides in the Premiership, but the stats are saying that we have already improved immensely.
Wenger brought in Lucas Perez in the summer, but instead of throwing him straight in as our main striker Le Prof decided instead to make Alexis Sanchez our main centre-forward but also to tinker with the rest of th front line on occasion.
Well you will be pleased to know that this has worked. At this stage of last season we were top of the League, but amazingly had only scored 37 goals, whereas this season we have increased that by nearly 30% and have a current total of 48 goals, with he scorers coming from every position on the field.
Wenger is impressed with these new figures. “It’s a very big rise,” he said. “It’s down to the quality of chances we create, and as well the quality of our finishing this season is much better than last. The quality of the finishing is certainly linked with the chances we create.
“I believe we are one of the teams that has scored the most goals in the final part of games, more than everybody else. We have the players coming off the bench who have had more impact than anywhere else. That is simply linked with the quality and of course the team spirit as well.”
We certainly have enough strikers now, and Wenger believes that our improvement stems from our desire to fight right until the end of games, whoever comes on the pitch. “Maybe [we thrive in the second half] because the other teams have suffered a little bit from the pace we put into the game, and they cannot last for 90 minutes,” he said.
“Maybe technically as well because the superiority comes out a little bit later in games sometimes. And sometimes as well because when you are in front, the teams have to come out and open some space that we can exploit, because we are very quick on the counter-attack.
“We have a very strong attack, we can score goals from everywhere and I like that. I like that the offensive dynamic in the team can come from everywhere.
“At the moment we have Walcott out, and he’s scored goals. We have Alexis and Giroud scoring most of the goals but we have recently seen that Ramsey can score, Iwobi can of course score, Ozil can score. That is something very interesting for us.
“I’m a manager who likes to go forward but we have to find that balance between offense and defence, and that’s maybe where the future of this season lies – can we find a good balance between attacking and defending?”
Strangely enough he didn’t mention the new-boy Lucas Perez, who has also scored 6 goals from just 7 starts, although only 1 has come in the Premier League. I am sure if he was given more chances he could even improve our current figures.
Strangely enough, at this point last season we were top of the League, but although we are now in 4th, we actually have 1 point MORE than last season! That just shows how much the other top teams have improved as well…..
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