Ray Parlour believes Arsenal lack bite in attack
Arsenal has been a team known for beautiful football for years, but in recent times it has been beautiful football with no results. The Gunners have not won any silverware in last 5 seasons, and the manager’s policy of sticking
with youngsters has started to frustrate the fans and the critics. There are number of former players and pundits who have started to question the way Arsene Wenger has been running the club, and have said that the Frenchman needs to change his tactics to
some degree to earn success for the team.
Ray Parlour, a former Arsenal player has said that some work needs to be done in the attacking third of Arsenal, if they have any ambitions of winning something this season.
With the season just 7 games old, Arsenal has already suffered a mini slump. The London club has lost 2 and drawn one of their last 3 games.
The home defeat at the hands of West Brom this season was the biggest shock of the season for Arsenal. At one stage they were trailing the baggies by 3-0. It was thanks to Samir Nasri who put in 2 late goals to make the score line
respectable. It was also down to 2 massive goalkeeping errors from Manuel Almunia.
However Arsenal did raise their game to another level against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but the blue brigade was too good for them on the day and ended up winning the match 2-0. Looking at the overall stats of the match though,
Arsenal had number of great chances, but it was the lack of ability inside the opposition 6 yard box that cost them heavily.
While talking to a Sports web site Parlour said:
"Arsenal are lacking in the final third. They play some lovely football, but they're missing that cutting edge, the player who's going to score them a goal out of nothing.
"In the old days they had that with [Thierry] Henry or [Dennis] Bergkamp but they're missing that now.
Parlour admitted the fact that Wenger is at the moment shorthanded with number of injuries to some of his key players, he said that when Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie return to the team it may improve. He added though that
in the past those players have been part of the team, but the results have not been too different so only time will tell if they will improve or not.
Ray Parlour who left Arsenal to join Middlesbrough was part of the historic team in 2003-04 season. The team is famously known as the “Invincibles”, that was when Arsenal managed to win the season without losing a single match.
That was also their last Premier League title, and since then number of big names have left the club.
Commenting on the next game for Arsenal in the league that is against Birmingham City this weekend, Parlour said that in normal terms Arsenal should come out as easy winners. However, at the same time he said that victory was also
assumed against West Brom but Arsenal ended up losing the match. He added that the Arsenal team at present has abundance of talent, but do not have 2 things. One of them is an inspiring leader who has some good experience behind him, and secondly someone in
the attack who can score goals regularly. He went on to say that if Arsenal do not manage to win against Birmingham then it may raise number of questions, and will leave Arsene Wenger in serious problems at this early stage of the season.
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