While Premier League leaders Liverpool have drawn back-to back games, Arsenal have failed to take advantage, also dropping points in their last two games. Despite dominating Everton in every sense of the term on Saturday, the match ended level 0-0. Arsenal put five shots on goal for an xG of 1.42 compared to Everton taking two shots and not putting a single on net for an xG of 0.17.
Expanding that back to their last two matches and the Gunners have allowed four shots for 0.33 xG while generating 25 shots for 3.45 xG. That's a number that will generally average out over the course of a season which is why Mikel Arteta and the Gunners shouldn't be worried. The issue is that everything averaging out is also how Arsenal ended up two points short of the title last season and have continued to come up short of winning the title despite being an excellent team.
It's a slog to win the title and Arsenal are the only team in the top five without a double-digit goal scorer in Premier League play. Even Nottingham Forest know that they can look to Chris Wood for goals while Mohamed Salah, Erling Haaland, and Cole Palmer need no introduction. The Gunners are able to offset some of this via set play dominance where Gabriel is the top-scoring defender in the Premier League with three goals, closely followed by William Saliba with another two.
When a team is underperforming their xG, questions come to their key attackers but Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka are doing what is expected of them. In fact, Arsenal's team xG of 28 is exactly the same as their goals scored but the attack needs an extra gear to turn these draws into victories. Martin Odegaard's creativity is part of that but so is having a true talisman to make something out of nothing. Despite looking solid midweek against AS Monaco, Gabriel Jesus still hasn't been able to find his best form.
Saka can score great goals but he's also responsible for the creative strings in the attack as shown by his 10 assists in league play this season. But after a summer where Arsenal opted to not pursue a top striker, it makes these draws sting a bit more. It'd be too simple to say that with Viktor Gyokeres Arsenal would be leading the league instead of Liverpool, but after coming within single digits of winning the title in the last two seasons, it's time to take a swing and go big in attack.
The defense and midfield are set but with the winter transfer window opening soon, Arsenal have to explore their options in attack or this could be another season where they come up just short. Saka has already proclaimed that this is the year that they'll get over the hump and win the league but he needs help to get there.
Don't miss CBS Sports Golazo Network's Morning Footy, now in podcast form! Our crew brings you all the news, views, highlights and laughs you need to follow the Beautiful Game in every corner of the globe, every Monday-Friday all year long.
