Arsenal Vs Spurs: Sometimes, you miss chances

Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed crucial chances in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Spurs. While they should not be exempt from criticism, sometimes, sadly, it happens.

Prior to this weekend, Arsenal had scored 60 Premier League goals. Only Liverpool and Manchester City had scored more. Conversely, they had conceded 39 goals, the most of the top six and more than double Liverpool’s 15 goals conceded. It is clear where the strength of this team lies: in its attacking potency.

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The leading stars of the attack are undoubtedly Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Collectively, they have scored 28 league goals this season, just short of half of the team’s total number of goals. That is a sensationally high proportion, a clear indication of the dependency the Gunners have on their two centre-forwards.

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Many times this year, one or both of the pair has almost singlehandedly won games. They can score goals from nothing, they create chances for others via their vicious movement, and opposing defences have fits trying to contain the pair. But in Saturday’s 1-1 draw versus Spurs, the third and final North London Derby of the season, both were guilty of missing clear-cut chances that should have won the game.

Lacazette started through the middle. His first opportunity came a little more than ten minutes into the match. A deflected Alex Iwobi pass looped up into the air and into Lacazette’s path. The striker attempted to swivel and strike the ball with his left foot, but he pulled the volley across the goal with a poor connection. His more concerning miss came just after half-time, skewing Nacho Monreal’s low cutback well wide of the mark from just outside of the six-yard box.

Lacazette was then quickly withdrawn for Aubameyang shortly before the hour mark. Aubameyang, sadly, then outdid his strike partner, squandering a last-minute penalty with a painfully tame attempt that Hugo Lloris easily palmed clear. To add insult to injury, he then failed to convert the rebound thanks to a superb Jan Vertonghen block.

Usually, Aubameyang and Lacazette would not waste such excellent chances. While both do have their slightly loose moments in front of goal, predominantly, they are clinical finishers with clean strikes of the ball from all sorts of angles. Handing either of them a shot from cutback from several yards out or a penalty would usually result in a goal. But not here.

It is frustrating. Arsenal would have won this match had it been for more ruthless finishing on their striker’s part. But, unfortunately, sometimes, misses happen. Statistically speaking, shooting is one of the most unsustainable elements of the game. It is very difficult to replicate consistently and it tends to exhibit rather randomly. Defining someone as a ‘good finisher’ is awkward because there is such fluctuation in the conversion of chances over an extended period of time.

And for Arsenal, sadly, the trough of Aubameyang and Lacazette’s finishing form just so happened to come in the biggest game of the season. It happens. It is annoying. Frustrating. Enraging, even. But it happens, and, sometimes, you just have to accept as much.