Arsenal Vs Everton: Away record a mental thing

Arsenal have a horrible away record this season and an excellent home one. As they now face five road matches in their final seven games, they must face the mental block that is their struggles away from the Emirates.

It’s a funny old thing, this sport business. Rarely does it go the way you expect it to. Or want it to, for that matter. And oftentimes, it is not the most talented or best performing that win. Luck, mental fortitude, desire and determination all play their part in what amounts to determining the winner of a match or competition or even season.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Season in review; Summer window looms

That is why we all love it. While there is a justified desire to become smarter, better understanding the details of sport so that improvements are found in every nook and cranny, — the upsurge in data science, physiology and marginal gains is a wonderful thing — sport is not played on paper. Numbers do not mean victory. People do. It is the human aspect of sport that makes it unpredictable. And so riveting.

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This season, Arsenal have fallen foul of the personhood of professional sport. Specifically, their home and road records are seemingly that of two different teams. At home, the Gunners have won 14 out of 17 matches. Only Liverpool and Manchester City have a better record, and even then, it is marginal. But away from home, Unai Emery’s side have amassed just 19 points from 14 matches. At present, that ranks them in 10th in the Premier League.

Such a disparity between home and road form is quite astounding. It is difficult to understand how the same team can be so prolific at the Emirates and so pathetic away from it. And yet, here we are.

As the season enters its final stages, Arsenal’s road form will be tested. Five of their remaining matches come against opposition on the road. Of those five opponents, four sit in the top half, from seventh-placed Leicester City through to tenth-placed Everton, who are the opponents on Sunday.

But the players ostensibly recognise the need to switch up their away form. Speaking this week with Goal, Sead Kolasinac said:

"“We’ve spoken about it amongst ourselves, talked about how we can win our away games. I think if we play in the same way that we do at home, with the same energy, the same urgency that we can take points away from home. It’s not always easy to go away because you are playing against a lot of fans who are pushing their team on, who are really going for the win at home. We have five tough away games, starting at Everton and we know we need to be 100 per cent focused to get the right results.”"

The first stage of solving a problem is admitting that one exists. Kolasinac and his teammates are not naive enough to have convinced themselves that everything is fine and dandy. They are aware of the issue at hand. But how do you solve something that is a mental, rather than technical or tactical, flaw?

Arsenal’s issues away from home are not because they are not good enough or because they are tactically inept. It is a mental block, whatever ‘it’ is. And this brings us back to the beauty of sport. The drama of the run-in is only intensified by the uncertainty of Arsenal’s away form, the unpredictability of their play on the road. And now Emery must wade into this ambiguous mess and attempt to speak clarity and purpose.

Whether he is able to or not will be determined by the results his team gets between now and the end of the year. But right now, all that can be said is this: Arsenal have a mental problem away from home. And for however frustrating it may feel, deep down, it is why we all love sport.