Interestingly, in the 09-10 season Arsenal scored more goals from outside the box than any other team. 19 of 73 goals were scored from outside the box. Denilson led the way then with strikes against Hull, West Ham, and Everton Home and Away. Tom Vermaelen was the second biggest threat from

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when Arsenal get clinical with their finishing we’ll win the league.

We had more touches than any other Premier League side in the opposition box during 2010-11. 

We made more successful through balls than any other team in the Premier League last season, 49% more than the 2nd highest team.

We hit the woodwork a good deal more than anyone else in the league as I’m sure you’ll remember, 22 times – PINNNNG!  Here’s some of ‘em to infuriate yourself with:

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You’ll probably have seen that alternate league table too, the one where every shot to strike the woodwork counts as a goal – where Arsenal win the league by 12 clear points. 

So, while possession doesn’t win you trophies, as Arsène Wenger’s detractors are so fond of pointing out, it does seem to facilitate chances on goal. 

We’ve all seen this. We’ve all seen Arsenal produce the sublime and the ridiculous in font of goal these last few seasons. In tight situations, when the ball hits the net, that final pass is genius. When it doesn’t, it’s over-elaborate; self-indulgent ballet dancers afraid to have a pop at goal… consumed by a gnawing ambition to score Turneresque masterpieces thanks to the stubborn idealism of their aesthete French master. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

To my eye, recent developments in the über-catenaccio tactical dungeons of Blackburn, Sunderland, Birmingham et al have necessitated a bit of what some will call ‘over-playing’. Stuck in heavy traffic, engineering that opening with one final tweak is the way to pick the lock. That final pass is what many of our players (academy players especially) are brought up on. And when our quick passing game clicks, when we’re all on the same frequency – it does work.

A Frank Lampard blindfolded shy at the coconut stall will win a prize from time to time but if you’ve got the technique and you’ve got that understanding between attacking players, whittling the opening out to ‘unmissable’ is an incredibly effective weapon to have. Change the angle and change the percentage of the chance in your favour.

Nasri’s solo waltz through Fulham’s defence is a good example of the Arsenal way of bumping the percentages. He had three chances to shoot from the moment RVP laid it off and into his path. Each chance was a 50/50 glimpse at goal with an obstacle in the way. Instead of take a shy at that he takes a touch each time instead; round one defender, round another, and round the keeper to set himself up with a chance he knew he’d hit 9 times out of ten. It was beautiful, it was graceful, it may even have been genius – the speed at which it was executed; but he was also ‘simply’ ‘playing the percentages’. (I hate to use the word ‘percentages’ about football, but it’s true.)

Of course, “tippy-tappy bullshit”, as it’s known to some in the stands, isn’t the only way Arsenal score goals. The prolific Fàbregas/Van Persie link-up has added a new directness to the attack, and Andrey Arshavin has never been afraid to shoot – sometimes to a fault.

Interestingly, in the 09-10 season Arsenal scored more goals from outside the box than any other team. 19 of 73 goals were scored from outside the box. Denilson led the way then with strikes against Hull, West Ham, and Everton Home and Away. Tom Vermaelen was the second biggest threat from range, and he was also missed this season.

The short passing game is Arsenal’s meat and drink though. We have the highest pass completion rate in the league: 84% (groans from the gallery), we were the only team to average more than 60% possession in matches, we made a higher percentage of short passes than any other team, and, predictably, the fewest long passes. This is how we play. (Rotten fruit exchanges hands along the benches) 

I know, I know, but it’s not all going sideways. Arsenal had the best pass completion in the attacking third of the pitch too (75%). Remember all those touches in the opposition box? They led to chances, and, importantly, we hit the target with them more consistently than anyone else – registering the highest shooting accuracy in the league with 47.5%. The sharpest marksman in the league was one of ours: Samir Nasri hit the target with 65.4% of his chances.

Trust in the passing game that creates these chances. The chances are there for all to see. (With countless missed ones scorched into our mind’s eye to rue at will on Arsenal Rued Chances Anytime+.) Trust in the passing game that creates the chances and I think we can look forward to more of them ending up in the back of the net next season as the squad improves and matures and grows more ruthless. I think a summer spent training with Robin Van Persie, if nothing else, will inspire confidence in first-time shooting.

Arsenal’s game relies upon selflessness and the almost prescient instinct to pass around opponents until an opening is made. That same instinct that gets us into the box can be our undoing once we get there, as we all know. (PUT YOUR LACES THROUGH IT, DIABY!) Here we have the cannibalisation of the passing game. Not pretty, and we’ve all seen quite enough of it now, thanks.

This is the dichotomy of the Arsenal passing game then; to simultaneously teach a player to pass and pass for the good of the team – and at the same time teach him the kind of selfish ruthlessness a goal-scorer needs to put those chances away.

For me, the solution must come from midfield. It’s going to take a lot of hard work. When people say they wished Martin Keown was brought in to drill organisation at set-pieces, to be honest, I’d much rather Eduardo be drafted in to teach our midfielders ruthless, natural, scud-missile-to-bottom-corner finishing.

We will all remember tame shots trickling toward a grinning, untroubled goalkeeper at this point, and there lies the rub. We create more chances than anyone else, we hit the target more consistently with those chances than anyone else. Now it’s about conversion. Arsenal are a fine-tuning away from being an absolute goal machine. We train hard to pass quick enough to make openings happen. We train hard to hit the target with our shots when they do happen. Now we have to train hard to hit the back of the net, hit the corners, push the white lines.

I like to think of this Arsenal team as akin to Roger Federer in 2002. Beautiful to watch, but yet to find a killer instinct. Pushing white lines in training. 

Arsenal are already pushing white lines, as that woodwork montage testifies. Hitting the white lines is no accident, and it’s not bad luck. We train to hit the far reaches of the goal to beat the keeper. The radar isn’t there yet, but it’s very close. Now’s the summer to ratchet up the power, calibrate, zero-in, beat the keeper, beat the woodwork and take every chance.

Shooting practice, anyone? 

Thanks to Orbinho and Arsenalreport for the stats.

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