Why have the goals dried up for Arsenal?

Full back or winger?

The free scoring Arsenal seems to have dimmed in the past month. Maybe it’s the cold, maybe it’s Christmas season, maybe something else. Logically though, it looks to me like the injuries we’ve had in the defence that have contributed to this.

No, I’m not indicating our back line has become fragile, I’m talking about the loss of our wing backs. I say wing back not full back because Arsenal employs a lot of wing play in their game not unlike many other Premier League teams and Wenger picks the right people for this job. Maybe that even explains the surprise purchase of a relatively unknown Andre Santos over the summer.

Gibbs, Santos, Jenkinson and Sagna like to make darting forward runs, the former two even find themselves venturing into the opposition penalty box and getting their names on the score sheet. But with them injured, our make shift back four accommodates two center-backs, playing out of their usual position (with the exception of midfielder Coquelin, who by the way is turning out to be an amazing dribbler). From his displays, Djourou clearly isn’t comfortable trotting inside the touch line in the opposition half, and that isn’t doing any good to the out-of-form Walcott either. Koscielny isn’t very comfortable in the position too. They cannot be blamed though, since it takes some getting used to. They’re accustomed to holding their ground and checking their lines.

The left wing has taken a bigger hit because the likes of Santos and Gibbs were remarkable in foraying forward. Their movement off the ball in an attack was one of the main outlet of the Gunners attacks in recent months, and has been clearly missed over the winter period.

Here are some stats-

Since the start of the season Arsenal have scored 35 goals in 19 games until the right back position was devoid of both Jenkinson and Sagna. Since then, they’ve notched up a meagre 17 in 13 games.

In case of left backs, 45 in 25 games until Santos’ injury and 7 goals in the same number of games after.

Lightly put, it would be nice having the four of them back.