Arsenal: Early goals continue to ask more questions than can be answered

Arsenal conceded early against Manchester United and Southampton this month, is this starting to become a concern?

Arsenal started on the back foot against Manchester United, conceding only four minutes into the game. This isn’t the first time this has happened, not just in this season, but in seasons passed.

It seems to be the case in this situations that, when we start the games, our possession is sloppy and our positioning off the ball is not up par with our opponents. The numbers don’t hide it. In the first 15 minutes of play, Arsenal have surrendered five goals. Only Crystal Palace has surrendered more.

Factor in the first 30 minutes and that number doubles to 10 goals. Only Stoke City and Watford are worse than that. Oddly enough, six of those ten have come at home in the first half hour, four have come away.

Going even further than that, the Gunners have only scored the first goal 47% of the time. Every other team in the top seven has a better percentage than that.

We conceded three minutes into the game against Southampton after United. When you defend as poorly as that you shouldn’t even consider a title challenge. Manchester City have only shipped in twelve goals this season and looked really solid defensively. Also add in the fact they’ve scored sixty goals this season, but I digress.

We have the capability to outscore opponents but we just lack the final ball as it was against Southampton. For eighty-eight minutes we couldn’t break down their defense. Then Olivier Giroud came on and headed home the tying goal.

For a neutral those are great games to watch but for an Arsenal fan, its frustrating to say the least. Problems that continue to plague us but aren’t addressed properly seem to be an all-too common thing.

Maybe the reason we ship in so many early goals is the mentality of the players.

Arsene Wenger doesn’t look like the Jurgen Klopp or Antonio Conte style of manager, who will drill into his players before, during and after a match.

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Add in the fact that we’re shifting between a back three and back four and can’t seem to nail down how to make this defense less porous.

On the ball early in games we look disinterested with playing it forward. Playing it backwards seems like a safe bet. That’s what they inevitably do. Urgency levels are at a minimum as they matriculate the ball around the edge of the 18 yard box, rarely making a concerted effort forward.

Then, when they finally do, if it doesn’t go into the back of the net, they run the risk of being hit on the counter. So many players are drawn up into that steady build up that they were then left scrambling to cover the other way.

Then when one of your center backs wants to take it forward and play as another midfielder, it starts to raise more questions than answers.

Next: Arsenal vs Liverpool Player Ratings

Should we invest in another center-half or consider giving another one of our youngsters a run in the team? Only Arsene Wenger can make that decision.

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