Nil, nil, seven, one. Scoring seven is always an anomaly but still more of one amid the wreckage of Arsenal’s title challenge, ended by impotence, amid the oddity of their last four games. They averaged a goal every 13 minutes in Eindhoven on Tuesday. They have one in their last 270 minutes against English opposition.
It highlighted one of the oddities of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. They can run riot and have scored at least five goals in six different games this season, two of them away in Europe, one against the champions of England. But there have become too many times when the goals don’t flow: three blanks in their last six games, nine this season. Liverpool have scored at least two goals in 19 consecutive home games. Home and away, Arsenal have scored under two in 19 matches this season.
So perhaps there was something fitting in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United marking an end. A 1-1 draw with the same, limited United brought their elimination from the FA Cup, after all. Draws can be defeats by another name: Arsenal have 10 of them in the Premier League, 20 points slipping from their grasp as the points were shared.
Some of the draws are respectable: away at Manchester City and a Nottingham Forest team in third and a Chelsea side now fourth, at home to the champions elect. Cumulatively, though, they reflect on a lack of ruthlessness. A first half at Old Trafford was a case of sterile domination, to borrow Arsene Wenger’s phrase.
And, like much else at Arsenal, they come back to the inescapable, inevitable discussion about centre-forwards and a lack of transfer business. Seven of those draws came with Kai Havertz starting, an eighth without Gabriel Jesus. Only the last two have come without a specialist striker but before injuries ended the two attackers’ seasons, the accusation was that Arsenal had the wrong type of forward.