After a tough start to the Premier League, Arsenal went on a good run and are still unbeaten in 15 games in all competitions. However, the competition this season seems fierce, and even after a great run, the Gunners find themselves outside the top four (By 3 points). Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea seem unbeatable at the moment, and that leaves the other clubs with only one Champions League spot to fight for at this moment.
Arsenal’s good form has come on the back of some scintillating displays from their forwards and the defence still seems to be a problem from last year. Not many would say the Gunners deserved a draw last weekend against Wolves and Nuno Santo’s side exposed significant issues at the back. Bernd Leno has often come to their rescue in the previous few games, and it seems clear that defence is still a matter of concern for Emery.
England legend Alan Shearer also seem to share similar sentiments as he said, ”There’s definitely an improvement in Arsenal. We saw that last weekend [against Liverpool]. It wasn’t one of their better performances against Wolves. I still think they need to add to it defensively to get where they want to be but there is an improvement, without a doubt.”
Arsenal currently have the second worst defensive record in the league among the top seven clubs and all their major rivals seem to be much tighter at the back as Emery’s men have conceded 15 goals so far.
Among the top four clubs, only Tottenham have conceded in the double digits, i.e. 10 and it’s clear that the Gunners would not be able to win all their games on their firepower of the likes of Mesut Ozil, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang or Alexandre Lacazette.
Laurent Koscielny has been a big miss for Emery and Sokratis Papastathopoulos has found it tough to get used to the pace and physicality of the league. Shkodran Mustafi has improved from last season but if one compares him with other defenders of the top clubs, he stands nowhere near them.
Arsenal’s director of football Raul Sanllehi has already claimed that he doesn’t have any big plans for the January window. He had said,”I’m not a strong believer of the winter window, normally it’s used for emergency cases when things are not going the way you planned in the summer window.”
He might have been right in his assessment a decade back but not anymore. The rivals are not going to think on similar lines and they are definitely going to improve. Manchester United, who are currently languishing on the 8th spot, are expected to make an entry in the transfer market as Mourinho has given enough indications that he wants certain positions to be strengthened in January. It seems highly unlikely that Arsenal would sign anymore defensive cover in January and this could come back to bite them as the season progresses.
