Facts and figures, with a few moans thrown in

There is so much to discuss after Arsenal’s second Premier League defeat in-a-row. 1-0 to Aston Villa.

Arsenal got back on track in January as Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka and Bernd Leno were all nominated by the league for their outstanding performances during the month. At one point Arsenal had gone 7 matches with out a league defeat.

However, February is beginning to resemble November and December, and once again the boos birds are singing loud and clear.

Here are a few facts and figures to digest, in no particular order of importance…

The Claret and Blue officially has Arsenal number’s winning their third consecutive match v the Gunners. Both wins this season were also clean sheets.

The highly anticipated Thomas Partey is injured again. More to follow by Monday. Hopefully, this will be a short term injury.

Martin Odegaard made a difference when he came onto the pitch. He booted an open shot high, but overall, he added spark and energy to a squad struggling to find something offensively.

Mat Ryan got burned in his first minute as a Gunner due to a sloppy outlet pass from Cedric, but then Ryan settled in and made 7 saves. I think he’ll be just fine.

Mikel Arteta strongly confronted the referees on the pitch following the match, and will hopefully avoid any punishment from the PL or the FA.

The Gunners have scored only 1 goal in their last three PL matches.

Here are a few moans, again in no particular order…

Defensively (minus a few stupid miscues from time to time), Arsenal has greatly improved this season. However, offensively this was another game when our front line just couldn’t seem to finish what they started. Either the ball hits the woodwork, a pass is too tall or too hot, players try to get too fancy, or they just take too long to get the shot off. Which ever one of those it is, it isn’t working, and our goal production is in the toilet. No goals, no wins. No wins, no European football.

Somehow Arsenal remains in 10th place at the end of Saturday’s matches. Our league record, 9 wins, 4 draws and 10 defeats, with a +4 goal differential.

Arteta and his squad now have a week to prepare, to rest and to heal before hosting Leeds United on Valentine’s Day.

There is a lot of good, hard work taking place on that pitch, with some really good performances, however, at some point the hard work and good play needs to consistently turn into W’s!

COYG!

Gunner1953