Arsene Wenger tends to reel out the same quotes after a disappointing result. Usually these revolve around spirit and character and a late comeback meant that he could do the same at West Brom and deflect attention from the flaws that continue to hold us back.
The manager has used our relatively low number of goals conceded as a justification for his claim that we are ‘much improved’ defensively but that does not tell the whole story. We have become much better at dominating matches and restricting the opposition to very few opportunities. There cannot be many matches where we have registered less shots at goal or had less possession than our opponents and yet we have still dropped points at regular intervals throughout the season and have been unable to register a longer winning run than three matches.
The very few chances that we do allow our opponents invariably end up in goals. This is due to poor goalkeeping, as for West Brom’s second goal, or defensive lapses in our own area such as West Brom’s first goal or Birmingham’s winner in the Cup Final. We have conceded nearly 50% of the total number of goals that we have conceded from set pieces. This means that in open play we are far superior and really should be winning the league but basic errors are undermining our challenge and it is incredibly frustrating. We find the supposedly ‘basic’ tasks of football almost impossible.
We fought back to claim a point at the Hawthorns which is commendable but they should have been goals to win the match, not salvage it. Arshavin’s superb strike came out of no-where and was symbolic of the Russian’s style as he can appear to be having yet another bad day at the office but still produce moments of magic. Unfortunately, despite setting ourselves up for a storming final ten minutes, our efforts petered out and Man Utd’s late winner means that we can no longer afford to drop a single point. A tall order for a team that has yet to master the basics.