“We conceded very few goals from open play, most of them were from set pieces in a way you don’t want to concede goals,” Arsene Wenger said this week.
“It’s something that’s easy to correct. We need to improve the size of our squad. We need a bigger variety in the height of our players. We need to be more capable of fighting against some characteristics than we have been this season.”
Although Arsenal conceded a higher proportion of goals from set-pieces (53.5%) this season, more than any other in the Premier League, is Wenger on the right track?
The recently published OPTA statistics show Arsenal let in the same number of set piece goals than this season than last when Tommy Vermaelen was a regular (23).
The previous season to that, Arsenal only let in nine set piece goals and Kolo Toure had more headed clearances than any other Arsenal player. And his 129 headers in his last season in London are more than any Arsenal player this season.
Kolo Toure wasn\’t big as centre backs go. So athleticism, positional sense and timing are key, not necessarily size alone.
Buying players on size could lead to players like Stepanovs, and following the ancestral line of big clumsy defenders.
The OPTA stats for this season show Arsenal doing some things right, coming top in:
*Possession – the only team to average more than 60% possession in matches
*Passes – they completed the highest number of successful passes per game – 444.8.
*Woodwork – hit more times – 22 than anyone else
*Red cards – victims of 9
*Most accurate shooter – Samir Nasri – 65.4% on target
*Most goals per minutes on the pitch – Robin Van Persie – 98.2%