Analysing just how bad Arsenal have been this season

ARSÈNE Wenger’s toughest task in his long tenure at Arsenal may well be putting a positive spin on a decline that will surely bring his time at the club to an end in a real whimper. Arsenal’s defeat at Brighton on Sunday was their fourth in their last five league games and their fourth in succession on the road. Wenger managed to avoid losing four straight away games in his first 20 years at the club but has now succumbed to that fate in two consecutive seasons.

Arsenal have only picked up seven points from their eight league games so far in 2018. They join Everton as one of two sides who have not won a single point on the road in 2018. Arsenal are already 33 points off the searing pace set by Manchester City at the top and it would be a surprise if that gap didn’t extend to 40 or more by the end of the season. With 13 points separating themselves and fourth-place Tottenham, their hopes of returning to the Champions League places ended some time ago. Arsenal’s decline has been apparent for a long time but the dip from last season is marked. Their total of 45 points after 29 games is nine shy of their tally this time last season. That campaign that was labelled a disaster, so this must be considered another year in which the famed “top six” has become a top five. Arsenal find themselves in no-man’s land in the Premier League: cut adrift of the teams above them but relatively untroubled by the sides below. Arsenal are not scoring as many goals as they did last season (down from 2.03 to 1.79 per game) but they have still outscored Chelsea this season and have only scored three fewer goals than Tottenham so far. Their main problem is their defensive ineptitude; their goals against column has taken a battering this season.

Arsenal have conceded 41 goals so far – one more than 16th-place Newcastle and only two fewer than last-place West Brom (who have won one league game since August). In this, Wenger’s 22nd season in charge, his side has conceded as many or more goals than in 16 of the 21 that preceded it – and there are still nine games remaining. This season is on course to be their worst defensively under Wenger; they conceded 49 goals in the 2011-12 season but, if they continue at their current rate, they will concede 54 goals this season – one more than Middlesbrough conceded last season on their way to being relegated.-The