25 September 2023 , 07:42
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Ian Wright is concerned about Arsenal ’s lack of a killer instinct in front of goal and believes it could cost them in the race for the Premier League title.
The Gunners drew 2-2 with Tottenham in the north London derby on Sunday and sit fifth in the league table after six matches. Mikel Arteta’s side went ahead via an own goal from Cristian Romero before Gabriel Jesus missed a brilliant chance to double their lead.
It proved costly as Son Heung-min banged in two equalisers either side of Bukayo Saka ’s penalty to earn Spurs a point at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal remain unbeaten in the league, but now trail defending champions Manchester City by four points.
Arsenal have missed eight of the 13 chances this season which Opta deem to be ‘big’ and they rank eighth in the league for expected goals (11.4xG) and shot conversion rate (12 per cent). Asked if it was his one major concern on Match of the Day 2, Wright said: “It is, yeah. Because if you are going to try and chase down City, if you are going to try and stay in that top four and try and win the league then the chances you’re creating from good play – from good closing down that they’ve done there – then you have to take those chances.
"Those are the margins. If that’s what you’re doing it for then you’ve got to take the chance.” Asked if Arsenal therefore need to sign another No9, he replied: “We’re talking about the margins now and you do need to score those goals – 2-0 makes that a different game. We’d probably have seen a different kind of Spurs because 2-0 down in the derby is different to 1-0.”
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Wright was talking about the chance Jesus fired over after pressing high to dispossess James Maddison inside his own penalty area. “This is where you believe Arsenal have finally done it,” he said. “Maddison, look how deep he’s had to come. Jesus nicks it off of him and you’re thinking ‘bit of composure, bit of calmness here and it’s 2-0’. Then we would’ve seen what Tottenham really were made of in that respect. But he misses the chance.”
Arteta clearly agreed with Wright’s assessment of the Jesus opportunity, telling reporters: “We had control of the game, could have made it 2-0 with Gabi and then you concede the goal and you have to bounce back. We did and scored the goal but it’s a shame that within a minute you concede the other one.
"I think that affected the team emotionally quite a lot and we lacked some composure to make more passes in the final third. It became a more transitional game that is a risky one to play against them. We pushed in the last 15-20 minutes but we lacked the quality in the final pass to win the game."