Not for the first time this season, Arsène Wenger has told the media not to worry about Arsenal’s finishing ability.

The Gunners are on their longest scoreless run in the Premier League since February 2009, but the manager isn’t worried. After a cagey away game at Stoke, Arsenal played with 10 men for 70 minutes and didn’t manage to find the back of the net against a resilient Chelsea side.

An FA Cup clash with Burnley brought two goals and some relief, but Tuesday evening was frustrating once again as Fraser Forster and Southampton kept the Gunners at bay. Wenger, however, isn’t worried.

“I felt we were a bit nervous in the last two home games, against Chelsea and Southampton – we didn’t come out of the blocks like we would have liked,” the manager said on Friday morning.

“We played at Stoke, we played a 0-0 what was not a shame because they are quite strong at home. Against Chelsea we played with 10 men and that makes the game against a good side very difficult.

“Against Southampton, we created the chances and couldn’t finish them off. I believe overall, we should not be alarmed, because the quality of our performance was there in every single game.”

As I said, the Chelsea game was played with Arsenal a man down for 70 minutes, while the visitors protected a one-goal lead. Southampton was another story altogether, when Arsenal did manage to create chances but – thanks to some poor finishing and a good goalkeeping performance from Forster – couldn’t take one.

The confidence may have taken a hit, but if Arsenal create the same chances again on Sunday it would be incredible not to take one of them.

“We should take a lot of encouragement from that, even if sometimes in the recent games, we didn’t get the result we wanted.

“We have to prepare without being obsessed with [scoring] – finishing is cyclic and if we create the same amount of chances we will score.”

Back in August, Wenger said finishing is cyclical. He was proven right then, the statistics prove him right, and he’s sticking to his guns.