Arsenal’s home form this season has been as impressive as their away form has been terrible, so why is that?

1Overview

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In 2017/18, Arsenal’s home form has been almost perfect.

In 21 matches, they’ve won 16, drawn three and lost just two. Even the first deafeat, 3-1 to Manchester United, was fairly unlucky. David De Gea had the game of his life, equalling Premier League records for saves in a match.

The second was a meaningless result against Östersunds FK, which didn’t stop the team progressing to the next round.

The three draws weren’t exactly poor performances either.

The 2-2 against Chelsea hinged on a very soft penalty awarded to Eden Hazard, and the equaliser in the 3-3 against Liverpool should never have made it past Petr Čech.

The 0-0 against Red Star Belgrade was the worst of the lot, but it was a match Arsenal didn’t need to win.

Meanwhile, their away form has been the opposite story.

In 20 away matches, Arsenal have won six, drawn five and lost nine.

Of those matches, it’s very hard to point to any good performances. There were a couple of impressive starts in Europa League games, such as BATE Borisov and Östersunds FK, but arguably that was down to the quality of opposition more than anything else.

In the Premier League, you can only really argue that the win at Everton was an impressive performance, and that one still required the team to come from behind after conceding a poor goal.

So what are the reasons for Arsenal’s contrasting fortunes home and away?

 

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