Arsenal have been excellent defensively since the return of football after the September international break as the club have gone on a six-game Premier League unbeaten run.
During this change of form the Gunners have also managed to maintain three clean sheets, and two of these occurred in back-to-back games which the club hadn’t managed to do since last January.
Whilst the defence has seen major improvements the attacking phase of Mikel Arteta’s side still needs some improvement.
At the start of the season the Gunners’ were desperately struggling to find the net as the team failed to score a single goal in the opening three Premier League games as they fell to three defeats, which left the club at the bottom of the table.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang wasn’t receiving any service and created chances were hard to come by.
But after the victory against Norwich where the club stumbled over the line the attack has shown glimpses of quality which would guarantee Arsenal European qualification if they could maintain a form of consistency.
Despite the six-game unbeaten run the north London side have only managed to score more than one goal in a game twice this season, but in both of the games against Tottenham and Aston Villa where the club won 3-1 the attack was firing on all cylinders.
Consistency is the issue with Arteta’s attacking phase of play because, after an exemplary performance against Spurs, the team were toothless in the search for goals against Brighton and Crystal Palace which led to disappointing draws.
But with the impressive glimpses shown by the attack, if this can be carried out on a consistent basis then Arteta is building a side that will be able to challenge for the top spots as the defence seem to be settled and solid.
Pep Guardiola spoke to Sky Sports after Manchester City’s 4-1 win against Brighton about Arsenal’s current situation, he said: “Arsenal is growing, one game a week, and they will be up there.”
Before the injury suffered to Kieran Tierney, Arteta had fielded the same defence for five consecutive matches.
It would have been six games which hasn’t been done since October 2016, showing that Arsenal finally have a defence that can be relied upon and the young age of the backline has created a promising defensive future that Arteta and Edu has built.
The Arsenal boss has yet to find his best-attacking pattern as along the six-game unbeaten run the forward line-up has been changed on numerous occasions by the boss.
However, Arteta is halfway to building a squad that will be able to challenge and with the defence secured it is just the attacking consistency that needs to be addressed.
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