The worst of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger can be seen on the road this season, and the lack of consistency highlights real failings with his management.
Arsenal have played away from home 17 times this season. They’ve won just five times. For a team with aspirations of returning to the Champions League, that record is far from good enough.
We’ve seen just about everything on the road this season. Big teams have thumped us, mid-table teams have frustrated us and smaller team have upset us. Plenty of goals have been shipped, and not enough have been scored.
Arsene Wenger is at the head of the problem. His team is built in his image. So here are three things that Arsenal’s away form tells us about his management.
Ineffective football and a blunt attack
It used to be that you could always count on Arsenal to score a few goals.
Nowadays, scoring a goal away from home is a struggle. 21 goals have been scored in all competitions, with nine of those goals coming in just two games – the 4-2 win over BATE Borisov, and the 5-2 win over Everton.
Arsenal have been held to stalemates by Southampton, West Ham and West Brom. They couldn’t score more than once against Watford and Bournemouth. They couldn’t score at all against Stoke.
Wenger tried to change the formation to make his team more dangerous, but it made little difference. Our main striker, Alexandre Lacazette, hasn’t found the net on the road since the 3-1 defeat to Manchester City in November.
Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck, who have featured more and more this season, have a single goal between them. Any decent defence came keep this Arsenal team out. Whether it’s a lack of quality or a lack of attacking plan, Wenger has been unable to come up with an answer.
A lack of preparation
On top of an ailing attack is a leaky defence.
25 goals have been shipped against every type of opposition. We’ve conceded from set-pieces, counters, long shots and simple goals from open play.
A lot of these goals stem from individual mistakes. Arsenal have given up goals from failing to play the ball out the back effectively, as well as being caught out at the back.
The players continue to make the same errors and struggle to deal with the same threats. Just by watching the team, you can tell that they haven’t worked on dealing with specific threats or recognising danger.
No fear factor
Unable to score consistently, and constantly conceding easy goals, Arsenal are far from a scary team.
When sides get over the supposed quality in the starting line-up, they realise that Arsenal are easy to play against now.
When they’re not being starved of the ball or being battered like they expected, they grow into the game. Arsenal’s mediocrity encourages the opposition.
This is a culmination of bad results from poor performances. Now teams will be willing to take Arsenal on and be confident of getting a result.