Arsenal don’t keep many clean sheets at home.
Apart from the final-day 5-0 demolition of Wolverhampton Wanderers last season, when there was precious little riding on the result for either side, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of March for our next shut out – a 4-0 win over a hopeless Everton side.
And it seems the trend shows no sign of abating into this season as we gave up a goal late on against Nottingham Forest to spoil an otherwise tidy performance.
Quite why we are so lax in defence when at the Emirates is anybody’s guess but it’s not something we seem to repeat on the road. You only have to go back as far as Monday to find our last clean sheet away from home and we managed another in May at Newcastle before that. It’s odd.
And while it may seem harmless enough, you could easily argue it was that slackness on home soil that contributed to our falling at the final hurdle last season. Take the 3-3 draw against Southampton and 3-0 thumping by Brighton during the run-in as case in point – not to mention the 1-1 draw that ultimately saw us dumped out of the Europa League against Sporting.
Ultimately, it matters not a bit if you concede goals at home or away, as long as you out-score your opponent, but there will always be incidents that go against you (take Brentford last season, for example) and when that happens, you have to fall back on something else.
I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, though, because it shouldn’t be taken for granted that we will win any games, let alone add clean sheets on top, but one really does beget the other.
As entertaining as nerve-shredders and energy-sapping cling-on jobs are, it would be nice to have the sort of win that doesn’t rest on all XI players camped in our own box, fending off long-ball barrages deep into 15 minutes of added time. As I said earlier this week, we need to learn to win beautifully.
Fulham have made a reasonable start to their campaign. They eased past a woeful Everton side on the opening day before slipping to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of London rivals Brentford. They had a lot of speculation around manager Marco Silva to contend with this summer and only recently said ‘goodbye’ to talismanic striker Alexander Mitrovic, who jumped ship at the first whiff of Saudi gold.
Although we didn’t have much trouble with them home or away last season, they enjoyed a strong campaign overall and were unlucky to drop away from the European places in the final stretch. Given their relative size and budget, they can be well pleased with a 10th place finish. Clearly, Silva and his side are no fools.
Three points has to be the aim for Mikel Arteta, however. There will be occasions in which we drop points this season, it is inevitable in any campaign, but I see no reason why it should be this Saturday. If we guard against complacency, we have enough quality to get past the likes of Fulham.
In terms of personnel, I wonder if we will see the return of Gabriel Magalhaes to the starting line-up after consecutive demotions to the bench. With Oleksandr Zinchenko available again after a curtailed pre-season, it might give the manager an opportunity to restore him to left back and send Ben White back out to the right.
The experiment with Thomas Partey as the inverted right back has been a success, you would have to say, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s a good long-term solution. I also don’t think it wise to keep a player of Gabriel’s quality and impact out of the side if he’s available.
Ultimately, however, you have to respect that the manager has made the right calls so far this season and we couldn’t have asked for much more than two wins from two.
Should he decide to persist with Partey on the right, I’ll begrudgingly accept, but I wonder how long it will take before a side comes up with a plan to counter it. I hope we never have to find out!
Here’s to a clean sheet!
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