Woeful Arsenal trait remains unsolved all season

Leaving Estadio de la Ceramica with a vital away goal in a 2-1 defeat has Arsenal, somehow, still in a tie they could easily have drawn the curtain on. Villarreal will be kicking themselves that they’ve not got both feet in the Europa League final.

There are a number of issues within this Arsenal side that won’t be fixed until amendments are made in the upcoming transfer windows. Based off Thursday night’s performance, a host of those issues were also self-inflicted with baffling calls from Mikel Arteta.

One area that wasn’t supposed to be an issue this season, and was even seen to in the previous summer, has been set pieces. Arsenal made the backroom appointment of set piece specialist Andreas Georgson from Brentford, the second coach plucked from the Bees along with goalkeeping expert Inaki Cana.

Let’s start with the praise.

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Woeful Arsenal trait remains unsolved all season as Gunners are useless on attacking set pieces

As a defensive unit from set pieces, Arsenal are far better. It isn’t even close. Last season in the Premier League the Gunners conceded 14 goals from set pieces (excluding direct free-kicks) and only Manchester City have conceded fewer this term. This season that number sits at just five, with the side distinctly better organised in defensive situations via combination of zonal and man marking.

That wasn’t evident against Villarreal, but nothing is perfect all the time. The manager isn’t in many peoples’ good books at present yet he pinpointed a weakness and hired a man who has helped take Arsenal from one of the worst sides at defending dead balls to one of the best.

However, the issue is from an attacking standpoint. Enhanced solidity in defending corners and free-kicks has seemingly come at the cost of any output at the other end. It’s proving detrimental.

It’s already been touched on this just how shambolic Arsenal are at corners – the league tally sits at three this season – but it’s from set pieces that there are still major concerns severely limiting the side.

Georgson is supposed to be an expert at this. There is no hiding behind any unsubstantiated claims of the players not having the height or aerial ability as Pablo Mari, David Luiz and Gabriel are all effective in the box. It’s simply not enough.

What makes the issue even more stark is that Arsenal are at stage where matches are decided on fine margins. Neither here nor there, it’s become paramount that the minor details work in their favour to secure a positive result (see: VAR against Fulham and Everton).

With games on a knife-edge, or when distinctly second best and looking hopeless with the ball in play, they need in-direct free-kicks to be of use, not just a tool for the opposition to counter-attack with men committed the other way. Even when Arsenal have scored from set pieces, they’ve been the result of either atrocious opposition defending or stupendous Gabriel headers.

One must tip their hat to Georgson for revamping the entire defensive structure when facing set pieces. But there is no further praise for being unable to transfer that organisation into genuine goal threat. Against Villarreal there were three corners and four indirect free-kicks for the visitors and not one resulted in a goalscoring chance.

There appears to be a dearth of players who can deliver a ball when Kieran Tierney isn’t playing, but if that is the case then find methods to nullify that: use the near post, work the angles differently etc.

For a side who struggle to score from open play, not being able to convert dead balls is a serious issue.