Arsenal conceding late goals isn’t a defensive problem for Mikel Arteta – it’s an offensive problem | Football news

Another scare before Christmas. Arsenal never seem to do it the easy way.

Brian Brobbey to Sunderland. Emiliano Buendia to Aston Villa. Toru Arokodare against Wolves and now Marc Guehi against Crystal Palace. “It’s something we have to improve, we concede at the last minute,” goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga said after the final minute.

Four goals conceded in the final minutes of matches should worry Mikel Arteta. Except they’re not, at least according to what the Arsenal boss says.

Normally, such a trend would cause angst and doubt about a team’s credentials, especially a team like the Gunners, who have struggled to take that final step in recent years.

This doubt would even recall the days when Arsenal were shaky at the back under multiple managers – the final years of Arsene Wenger, the entire tenure of Unai Emery and even the early days of Arteta.

But the reason Arteta isn’t worried is because Arsenal’s problems late in the game aren’t defensive problems – they’re offensive problems.

“The margin should have been a lot bigger,” Arteta said after the Carabao Cup win over Palace on penalties, referring to the 1-0 lead Arsenal took in stoppage time – something they also did at Sunderland and Wolves.

“It should have been three or four, and we’re not worried about what happens in the last minutes.”

That was certainly the case against Crystal Palace – and once again, Arsenal’s attack appears to be drying up in December.

In incredible numbers, it’s been over 300 minutes since an Arsenal player scored a non-penalty goal. Since the hour mark of the 3-0 victory against Club Brugge, the Gunners have relied on three own goals – two from Wolves and one from Palace – and a penalty from Viktor Gyokeres at Everton.

Own goals and penalties are not something to be ashamed of – they are a sign of chaos within the opposition’s defense that forces errors. But the data shows Arsenal players should have scored at least six times in their last three games – but failed to manage a single one.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to Arsenal over the festive period. In December 2023, they suffered back-to-back league defeats around Christmas against Fulham and West Ham and exited the FA Cup despite Liverpool dominating chance after chance.

Twelve months ago, Arsenal drew consecutive matches against Fulham and Everton in December. Their 1-0 win over Ipswich just after Christmas was far from convincing in terms of attack. They then exited the Carabao Cup despite dominating the first half of their semi-final first leg with Newcastle.

There’s a trend there – and it looked set to continue against Palace on Tuesday night, where Arsenal managed 25 shots without finding the net themselves.

Noni Madueke missed a first-half hat-trick, Gabriel Jesus was denied in both halves by the excellent Walter Benitez in the Palace goal – while Jurrien Timber was also guilty of a couple of missed chances before the match went to penalties.

Yet Palace got a result in normal time – and the game was similar to Arsenal’s woes last season. The Gunners drew 14 times in the last Premier League campaign – only Everton had more – with many of those stalemates being 1-1 draws.

They tried to solve this problem by adding more layers to their attack. Players like Gyokeres, Madueke, Eberechi Eze and even Martin Zubimendi were brought in to add an edge to Arsenal’s front line – with the aim of getting that second goal before the opposition got back into the game.

It seems to have worked. Forget the ‘1-0 v Arsenal’, it’s actually 2-0 which has been the most popular scoreline of their season so far.

Arteta’s side recognized the need to score that decisive second goal quickly – the fact that they were 2-0 up in the first minute of the second half on three occasions shows that this is a key part of the Arsenal coaching staff’s discussions.

But that hasn’t been the case in recent weeks. Arsenal have fallen back into their old habits of sitting on thin leads.

If VAR had been stricter on William Saliba’s challenge on Thierno Barry at Everton, Wolves’ Yerson Mosquera had not headed into his own net at the Emirates or Palace had won the cup penalty shootout lottery, then Arsenal would be heading into another crisis situation at Christmas.

The fact that Arsenal continue to win games despite conceding late goals is testament to how well they have prepared for this season in terms of squad depth and game management.

But they need to be more ruthless from the start if they want to finish the job. They can’t have a dry January after a hectic December.