I keep reading in the football press that Arsenal have the best attacking options in the Premier League, but are often let down by the defence or the midfield going walkabout and trying to join in with the attacking side of things. While that may have been true at times and while our defence has struggled sometimes, I think the top end of our team has a lot to answer for as well.
Wenger defended Olivier Giroud after the Monaco debacle and I don´t blame him, because he needs the big Frenchman to be feeling good about himself. But if Giroud had been on form that night then it would not really have mattered about us letting a couple of goals in. A game or two more like that, however, and the Gunners could be out of the FA cup and the top four.
It has largely been the story of our season. We fail to kill off games despite having a boatload of chances and often end up hanging on for grim death. It happened at QPR this week and the game should have been out of sight and that was not a rare occurence; remember Brighton in the cup, Leicester, Palace, QPR at home and many more. I am not just blaming Giroud either, because Welbeck, Alexis, Ozil and Cazorla have all squandered plenty of good chances.
I do agree that Arsenal have the best attacking options but we are not making the most of them. Chelsea are said to be professional and workmanlike but they have scored more league goals than us, as have Man City who lost Negredo, had Aguero injured and bought Bony to boost their strike force.
Wenger blames the defence for making mistakes but he needs to get the forwards to be more clinical. Then he keeps Theo Walcott on the bench although the England star has three goals from just three starts and seven sub appearances to make him our most prolific player. I understand that he likes the players to contribute in all sorts of ways but is it not a good idea to have someone to put the ball in the back of the net sometimes?