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Nil, nil, seven, one. Scoring seven is always an anomaly but still more of one amid the wreckage of Arsenal’s title challenge, ended by impotence, amid the oddity of their last four games. They averaged a goal every 13 minutes in Eindhoven on Tuesday. They have one in their last 270 minutes against English opposition.
It highlighted one of the oddities of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. They can run riot and have scored at least five goals in six different games this season, two of them away in Europe, one against the champions of England. But there have become too many times when the goals don’t flow: three blanks in their last six games, nine this season. Liverpool have scored at least two goals in 19 consecutive home games. Home and away, Arsenal have scored under two in 19 matches this season.
So perhaps there was something fitting in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United marking an end. A 1-1 draw with the same, limited United brought their elimination from the FA Cup, after all. Draws can be defeats by another name: Arsenal have 10 of them in the Premier League, 20 points slipping from their grasp as the points were shared.
Some of the draws are respectable: away at Manchester City and a Nottingham Forest team in third and a Chelsea side now fourth, at home to the champions elect. Cumulatively, though, they reflect on a lack of ruthlessness. A first half at Old Trafford was a case of sterile domination, to borrow Arsene Wenger’s phrase.
And, like much else at Arsenal, they come back to the inescapable, inevitable discussion about centre-forwards and a lack of transfer business. Seven of those draws came with Kai Havertz starting, an eighth without Gabriel Jesus. Only the last two have come without a specialist striker but before injuries ended the two attackers’ seasons, the accusation was that Arsenal had the wrong type of forward.
There was something symbolic in the sight of Mikel Merino leading the line at Old Trafford, while Raheem Sterling languished unused on the bench, just as there was in Riccardo Calafiori scoring with the aplomb of a specialist striker in Eindhoven.
Last summer’s three outfield signings highlight how Arsenal have lost their way in the transfer market. Sterling, whose lone goal came against Bolton, was not the opportunistic coup he may have seemed. Merino has not proved a first-choice midfielder though as a stand-in striker, he salvaged victory at Leicester and scored against PSV Eindhoven. But he is doing the job many a supporter hoped a specialist centre-forward would be signed to do.
Calafiori, meanwhile, is a terrific footballer; yet Arsenal did not seem to notice Myles Lewis-Skelly’s potential when they committed precious funds to a left-back. When they needed an attacker in their quest for goals at Old Trafford, Arteta instead sent on two left-backs, in Lewis-Skelly and Kieran Tierney. A title-winning Arsenal manager, George Graham, accumulated central defenders. Arteta’s twist on a theme is to compile a squad full of left-backs.
Merino and Calafiori are not bad signings as such. They are two fine players; just perhaps not the two Arsenal needed, when the reasoning for their recruitment was wrong. There was too great a focus on solidity.
They seemed to assume it was fine to only have two creative players over the age of 17 in the squad. Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard represent a distinguished pair but each has spent spells on the sidelines. The captain has admitted he has been below his best. Havertz may not be a fox in the box but the fact he only ranks 33rd in the division for shots per 90 minutes is an indication too few chances have been fashioned.
Meanwhile, Arteta’s preferred model of sharing goals around the side can feel like total football in practice when it works. It isn’t inherently wrong but it is difficult to perfect. When Odegaard and Leandro Trossard have disappointing returns, when the set-piece goals dry up, the lack of an out-and-out scorer feels more telling. A recurring theme is Arsenal’s struggle to break down a low block. They have had at least 65 percent of possession in each of their last three league games. They got one goal in that time. They didn’t need a predator in Eindhoven, when Calafiori and Jurrien Timber scored like strikers. They did against West Ham, Forest and United.
Injuries are a prime reason why Arsenal have regressed. But there are individual errors, disciplinary mishaps, winnable games they didn’t win, failures in recruitment caused by confused thinking. When they were competing with City, they needed to be perfect. Now their imperfections have created a procession for Liverpool.
And that is part of the frustration for Arsenal. They had felt themselves the heirs apparent to City’s crown. Instead, they will get to witness Liverpool’s coronation, perhaps in person if they win the title at Anfield in May. Arsenal may think it should have been them. Yet they shouldn’t: because when the opportunity was there, they didn’t take it, because when they needed to get better, they got worse. Some of that is attributable to misfortune. But some of it is Arsenal’s fault.
