Arsene Wneger has acknowledged that goals have been in short supply in recent times for Arsenal, and the Frenchman is anxious to find a solution as the season enters its final months.
The Gunners travel to Old Trafford tomorrow having scored just 6 goals in their last 8 games in all competitions.
“I agree that our goals have dried up seriously,” said Wenger, “and we have to find a solution. I’m conscious of that.”
Asked why the goals haven’t been coming with the frequency we’d like, he said, “It’s a good question – and it’s a bad answer. If I had an obvious answer… It’s going through my head at the moment.
“It’s not down to individuals because if you look at the goals that Sanchez has scored this season, you will see he hasn’t scored for a long time. It’s not especially down to him. In the last five, six or seven games we have struggled to score.
“There’s many aspects that I analyse at the moment and we have to find a quick answer.”
There could certainly be changes to the forward line tomorrow, with suggestions that Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott could both start. Whether that’s enough to get the goals flowing again remains to be seen.
Let’s hope so.
“There’s only one Arsene Wnger”…:-)
*Wneger.. Doh!
Coloured laces. They’ll do it for us. Why are we worrying about goals now we have coloured laces?
8 thumbs down for correcting my post…interesting…
But you didn’t correct it. You still spelt it wrong.
I spelt it the same way as the article! Have a look….first line
You cameback to count your thumbs??
Errrr YES!
Tough audience!
I seriously wonder if he actually thinks about the obvious hammerings he’ll get from the dumbass media when he comes out with certain things?
WE TOLD YOU TO BUY A STRIKER IN THE TRANSFER WINDOW, STOP MOANING.
Yeah but thing is…they were right there. At the very least, we NEEDED a striker, a goalkeeper, and a defensive-minded midfielder, and ideally a winger and another defender too.
We just got the goalkeeper, and in January we bought a defensive-minded midfielder who has yet to make his Premier League debut.
Honestly, Wenger’s shocking lack of activity in the transfer window has really hindered us in a season where we could have ran away with the league title. Instead, we’re 3rd, behind two over-achievers, with some difficult away fixtures on the horizon that don’t exactly inspire confidence.
Give it a rest
He’s completely correct though
Although yeah talking about Wenger’s lack of spending does get pretty boring
Yes he is, and yes it is boring talking about it now…..especially in this weird season where even those teams that DID spend lots of money are floundering behind us on the league table and the ones that didn’t spend much on their squad, like Leicester (and us?) are doing good.
I’d agree with you if we’d had injuries and resorted to Arshavin up top on his own, but instead we’ve had Giroud, Sanchez, Walcott and Ramsey all going through droughts. Any striker we would have signed wouldn’t really have played ahead of one of these, given realistic options (i.e. not Benzema), and so it you would be expecting a backup striker to suddenly go on a scoring spree halfway through the season. Seems more fruitful to experiment with a fit and motivated Welbeck.
I really don’t see Benzema as an improvement on Giroud. Very similar players with same abilities and flaws (good positioning, great at holding the ball up, very wasteful). I rather stick with Giroud. He also seems to drive better and doesn’t film his team mates 🙂 it’s extremely hard to find a quality striker that would guarantee you goals all season without injuries, if such a striker actually exists. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, imagine if Leicester had sacked Vardy at the start of the season, as they were set to do. Sometimes some things boil down to pure luck,… Read more »
Stop…benzema is WAY better than Giroud. How anyone can say otherwise is baffling to say the least. Comparing both is like saying Alexis isn’t an improvement on Raheem Sterling.
Benz is more skillful and faster than Giroud.
Giroud once again is getting overrated by you people. The only decent reason I can accept for him not signing a striker is because he hedged all his hopes on getting benz and was too late to chase other targets not this nonsense about not having strikers better than Giroud and Welbeck available. Giroud isn’t world class and barely makes the top 10 best strikers
Ok, just for the chatter, lets have your top ten strikers. The list Giroud barely gets into. (Btw if Giroud does make the ten, even in tenth and assuming the rest are MSN, Lew at Bayern, Aguero, Benzema that’s a possible top 7 that leaves about two strikers you think we should have bought) Anyway, over to you……
maybe the top ten list will include Ibrahimovich, Higuan and maybe Ronaldo (if Messi counts so does he).
I still think Giroud brings other qualities and helps bring out the best in our midfielders, with his movement, hold up and interplay.
Top 10 strikers
1. Lewandoski
2. Suarez
3. Aguero
4. Ibra
5. Benzema
6.Higuain
7. Aubamayeng
8. Daniel Sturridge(when fit)
9. Diego Costa
10. Cavani
And I haven’t even mentioned the likes of Dybala and Greizmann who can play as a striker.
Giroud isn’t better than anyone on this list. FACT
I’m pretty sure we knew Welbeck was out until 2016 in the summer, plus he’s never been a prolific goal scorer. Ramsey and Walcott have poor injury records anyway, and while the former can’t be relied upon to take up too much of the goal-scoring burden (too much for a central midfielder) the latter is far too inconsistent. That leaves Giroud and Sanchez. Giroud will score lots of goals before suddenly going ob a drought, while Sanchez had a reduced summer break, no pre-season and was close to burnout for too long until his inevitable injury. So yeah. That pretty… Read more »
Erm, whatever makes you think Benzema is not a realistic option? Might as well forget about trying to sign Ibra, Muller or the likes next season then?
There was no one better available to buy in that window who could score goals.
Aubemeyang says otherwise.
Not very available, when he himself says ‘I am staying at Dortmund.’
BUT HE AGREED THE TERMS ON FIFA! Why doesn’t wenger just bid! it works like that , right?
pray tell, which striker would have magically turned our season around, helped us beat Barca and put us on the top of the league now?
it’s easy to say we should have had this or that, but in reality it’s not as straightforward as it seems. We are good in midfield, especially when everyone returns to fitness.
I do wish, however, that Wenger would been more serious on his pursuit of Suarez, cunt he may be, when he had the chance couple of seasons back.
Totally agreed. Do you think Lukaku is gettable for under 50m? We need a striker who is good, who this team can improve. That might still be Welbeck…
Do you mean the same suarez that missed a hatful on Tuesday against us?
No, he means the same Suarez that has scored more goals than Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain, Lewandoski, Aguero, Aubemayang, or Vardy this season.
the most idiotic comment ever, sums up arsenal fans that have been brainwashed. now even suarez is deemed not good enough, jesus my brain hurts. the bloke misses a few chances but has scored something like 50 goals in little over a season or so. please think before you you comment.
Any one who’s a great finisher and doesn’t waste the numerous chances our midfield has been creating.
Not much we can do except try and make teh team as functional as possible in its set up to make sparking more likely. We could go for Elneny in CM amd pop Ramsey out to right. We should faith with Sanchez on Left and I’s put Welbeck upfront. In the Summer we have two main positions to strengthen in the goals department: the right wing is most important: no one performs there for different reasons. Buy Mahrez who already appears to want to leave: negotiate it now. He’s Mr Right: massive assist and goals and more trustworthy that Walcott.… Read more »
Capital my good fellow – I heartily concur.
With regards to Walcott : sell dat ting!
Mahrez doesn’t do a good job defensively
With or without a new ‘superstar’ striker. You would expect a team, that creates in excess of 20 chances a game, many of which are on target, that we should score goals. Even Nicky B, would have nailed some of the ‘easy’ chances we have created that have been saved this season. As blogs put it a few weeks back, we seem to have made a habit of making average keepers look world class of late. I expect the United game will have many of the players fired up. If Welbeck starts I fancy him to be on the score… Read more »
Rain dance?
No!! We are rubbish in the rain 🙁
The umpires might stop play in the event of rain, but I’m not really sure that helps our chances at all.
A draw isn’t really good enough for us at Old Trafford, we really need the win to claw our way back in this test series.
A goal scorer?
It is the obvious answer. We let one of the best strikers in the world go by not offering enough. And we don’t have enough players in the squad of high enough technical ability, mental ability and hunger.
How is that an answer though? The way I see it, it’s more of an accusation that achieves absolutely nothing in solving our scoring problems right now.
And I’m pretty sure the boys’ technical is better than a lot of teams outscoring us right now, and has much more goals in it than what we’re getting. So it’s very simplistic to allot all the blame on Wenger not signing this or that player in the summer for veteran players underperforming. They have to step up their game and soon.
+technical ability
I miss Bentdner as well
Start scoring?
Play Theo,Welbz and Sanchez! Pace and movement is what we have been lacking. Giroud is ok if you want to go for the long ball/hold up game but he’s too slow to play alone. I’ve seen him going wide and crossing for Ozil! Surely the other way round would be more effective……
If we want to repeat our last mauling of Man U, then you’re absolutely right. Wenger should play Feo, Welbz, and Sanchez up top and mercilessly hit Man U’s fragile back four on the break. I’m hoping to see these three in the starting line up tomorrow. Or Campbell, Welbz, and Sanchez. Although, I’d prefer Feo.
A decent ref in one of the last few games would have helped.
Just a couple of the dozen ‘stonewall’ penalty incidents going for us would have kept the scoring confidence up.
Unfortunately ‘Blind’ Mike Dean will be the 4th official tomorrow, and his ‘Gimp’ Craig Pawson has the whistle…
Jeez….what a nightmare!
Why doesnt he just look at the list of players in the best leagues, and choose one who has scored more than Giroud and Walcott? AFC cant usually wrest players from the elite clubs, but that still leaves loads of others. Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid 48 x 2 96 2 Lionel Messi Barcelona 43 x 2 86 3 Sergio Aguero Manchester City 26 x 2 52 4 Jonatan Soriano Red Bull Salzburg 30 x 1.5 45 =5 Antoine Griezmann Atletico Madrid 22 x 2 44 =5 Neymar Barcelona 22 x 2 44 7 Jackson Martinez Porto 21 x 2 42… Read more »
That’s what you get when you have average strikers. We all know Giroud is as consistent as they come…Welbeck isn’t known as a finisher and the least said about walcott, the better. Wenger bought alexis hoping to turn him to a number 9 and be our Suarez but that clearly hasn’t worked out.
*inconsistent
Pls what has Campbell done. He is a better than Theo presently
Iwobi could help solve a lot of our problems. Play Welbeck up top, Sanchez left and Iwobi right. We’ve been missing someone in the front 3 that is a ball player. Campbell is half way there but doesn’t provide us with the Nasri/Hleb/Ramsey/Wilshere etc type of player that is a positive to our possession play rather than someone that we expect to lose the ball or not create much. Iwobi could provide stability, pace and creativity something Walcott and Ox don’t because they’re so technically inconsistent. Bear in mind Iwobi has played in one of the front 3 positions in… Read more »
Good shout. I wonder why The Jeff hasn’t been given a game at all. Must be not quite right in training. I miss Wenger truly bring through talented youngsters schooled in a way of playing. At the moment the team feels a bit like a ramshackle of players with no overriding philosophy. We may have a better squad of players but there is no real coherence to anything we’ve done this season…
Culture of the instant. Joel been halfway there? Are we watching the same sport? At Olympiakos he WAS there! I just don’t understand how Wenger and some fans can prefer underachieving ox, theo , or welbz, and now the new boy in town Iwobi to a seasoned international who has performed when given his chance.Great fan of him since day one and his style of play, skills, hard work, big game player.Proved it at the biggest stage at the WC against serious defense (Italy, Uruguay) Give me the track record of Welbeck , Walcott and the Ox in international tournaments… Read more »
The simple answer is we are not putting away our chance last and referees are allergic to award us penalties.
Would be nice to see som pace injected to the first eleven: Sanchez-Walcott-Welbeck with Campbell and Giroud coming from the bench. Giroud has looked a bit jaded during the last few weeks so a little time on the bench would do him good.
We’re just a bit shit atm.
Yeah but only in comparison to what we hoped, …it’s still up for grabs and lots of it on TV!
Excited!
Some bloke called Sonogo has just scored for Charlton on his full debut – appearently on loan from us – Yaya our goal scoring troubles are over – Charlton magic works again 🙂
-I think you just made me wet myself…..
Poxy Norwich goofing it up last minute against Leicester City!!!
yeah…shame though. fecking chickens!
The awkward moment when Alexis doesn’t seem to be able to score, but this lanky French guy named Yaya Sanogo scored a hattrick on his full debut.
Oh and did I mention he was subbed off after an injury? Which is a must have on your CV to join our club using the Kallstrom clause.
As I have been mentioning – 1) There is no midfield dissconnect with Flamini and Ramsey, We have kept clean sheets (Aside from Liverpool and Chelsea with the pair) and created plenty of chances at Soton, Bournemouth) 2) Coquelin coming in did not stop the first Barca goal granted Flaminni did not help trying to clear a poor pass from Metersecker. But the issue has been rather we did not take our chances at the other end. 3) We created plenty of chances at Soton, Borunemouth and Hull and are the premiership leader in shots taken so there is no… Read more »
I agree with you, but what is stressing everybody is whatever it is that is causing the goal drought, has to happen…now?
The next six league games will pretty much define everybody’s season. if we don’t score in the next 3, we might as well kiss the title race goodbye!……so, we need the floods now!
So Lord, send down the rain!
I would drop Giroud and start Wellbeck for Man U game. He looks fresh and could play along Walcott in a 4-4-2 setup. Man U are ravaged with injuries and we should win this game. COYG
I’d like to see Giroud in that 4-4-2 line up instead of him getting slated for the goal drought! He’s always played alone up front and done bloody well on it, he’d do better with someone else playing up front with him!
To be honest, we haven’t had any ‘clear cut chances’ or sitters that have been missed. The Ox chance against Barca wasn’t a clear cut chance- he was slipping when he connected with the ball. Against Hull, many of those chances were taken well (Campbell’s freekick, etc). Scoring is a cyclical thing, like most things in nature. It comes and goes in ebbs and flows. Unless you are Barca who can afford to have the best front three in the world, so that when one or two are going through a drought the others can compensate, all teams go through… Read more »
Want to score? Drop Ramsey.
He congests spaces for the forwards.
I think a goal scorer in the team would have racked up more points, put us top of the table and might have scored past Barcelona!!!
Michael, is that you?
Where are all the goons who were having a dig about Afobe a few weeks ago?
We’ve certainly had plenty of swings, so we must be due a few roundabouts.
I just really miss cazorla I swear it’s his brilliant genius that makes us creative and causes goals.
I wanna see this:
442 diamond
Sanchez – Welbeck
Ozil
Ramsey – Walcott
Coq
Defenders
Cech
Interesting.