“Killing Games” – Arteta Says Attacking Efficiency Must Improve In The New Year

Mikel Arteta is clear on the room for improvement…

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has stressed that the one key area he’d like to see his side improve in the new year is their efficiency in the final third, the Spaniard told the press at Anfield.

The game against Liverpool was a hard-fought encounter between two intense sides who’ll be contesting for the Premier League title, but the clear chances at both ends were at a minimum.

While Arteta can excuse that in this particular fixture, he expressed his concern at how close previous games became in terms of the scoreline despite the plethora of chances and territory we created.

We’re statistically the team that spends the most period of our games in the opponent’s third, topping the ‘field tilt’ stat at 73.3% (via markstats).

Given our dominance in games, the fact that we’ve only won a Premier League by more than a two-goal margin on just two occasions this season reflects poorly on our attacking department.

“There are some things we have to improve, especially killing games with the amount of dominance that we are showing,” Arteta said when asked what he’d like to see his side improve in the second half of the campaign.

“Sometimes the results have been too close, where we have had to dig in the last few minutes to maintain results and that is it, nothing else.”

It’s an interesting comment to make so close to the transfer window, especially when you realise we have no injuries in the forward area.

If the boss feels that our profligacy will cost us this season in the major competitions, the board must facilitate a way to add to the squad in that department.

It may be that an exit is required to raise funds to delve into the market and with noises emerging of Premier League interest in Eddie Nketiah, one wonders how the club will respond to an official offer.