ArsenalFC

The Fatal Flaw That Is Killing Arsenal’s Title Hopes
by Sean Quinn on February 23rd, 2010



For such an obviously intelligent man, and one who famously places great reliance on the objective merits of statistics (no bad thing, perhaps, given his notorious myopia), I will never understand why Arsene Wenger has failed to address a flaw of Arsenal’s that has dogged them for a decade: their inability to convert chances. Their low “goals to chances” ratio – meaning that for every goal scored they need to create an unusually high number of opportunities – has become almost as characteristic of Arsenal as is the beauty of their play, and is probably the main reason why they have failed to win the trophies the quality of their football has often deserved.

When Francis Jeffers – the so-called “fox in the box” – moved to Highbury from Goodison Park it followed an FA Cup Final that Arsenal had dominated and yet contrived to lose in the last 10 minutes of what had been an entirely one-sided game. That was in 2001. Perhaps it was because Arsenal went on to win the double the following year (with minimal contribution from a fox that was either rooting around on the substitutes bench or the treatment table) that such a profligate tendency was overlooked by Wenger, and appears to have been ever since. For Premiership titles in 2003 and 2008, a Champions League in 2006, and a Carling Cup in 2007 were all lost, you could argue, as a direct result of their seemingly incurable need to look gift horses in the mouth. Why, only last Saturday, almost nine years after that FA Cup defeat, Arsenal were clinging until the 90th minute to a one goal lead – having by then missed several opportunities to bury Sunderland – that would almost certainly have been lost had a Michael Owen circa 2001 been playing instead of Kenwyne Jones. And there is not a single Arsenal fan alive who would have been surprised had that game ended 1-1 rather than 2-0.

There has been much talk of those recent heavy defeats by Man United and Chelsea, but those were games Arsenal deserved to lose. The points thrown away this season were the three at Old Trafford (1-0 up and cruising) and the two at West Ham, where Arsenal led 2-0 until late in the game only to miss the killer third and concede twice. At times it seems as if the players are so confident another chance will arrive it doesn’t concern them when they miss. They are like a man waiting for the empty train that guarantees a seat, unaware that the one that offered standing room could well have been the last of the night. You wonder what it will take for them to learn their lesson. I would bet that between now and the end of the season Arsenal will take the lead in games, miss good chances, concede a goal, squander more points, and squander a Premiership that is genuinely there for the taking. For the feeling persists that whilst they continue to play sexy football, this is a team that for some reason prefers foreplay to the real thing.