Just a few days ago, London's "Arsenal" was named as the main favorite of the "Premier" league. However, the defeat on Boxing Day to "Southampton" showed that the "gunners" are still missing a very important detail - a defensive midfielder.
Around this time last year, Francis Coquelin returned to the team, surprisingly becoming one of the best attackers, but his injury this November is costing the capital club dearly.
Out of the five "Arsenal" matches in the Premier League since then, only one opponent has been in the top half of the league table, but Arsene Wenger's protégés have seen a significant decline in results.
They allow opponents to take more shots on goal, create more scoring opportunities, concede more goals, and struggle to keep clean sheets.
Without Coquelin, "Arsenal" concedes an average of 16 shots per game, while with him - only 21. When the Frenchman is present, opponents create an average of 0.7 real opportunities, but when he doesn’t play, this number jumps to 2 opportunities per game.
Interestingly, after Coquelin's injury, offensive indicators also deteriorated - the "gunners" now create only 1.6 scoring opportunities per game instead of the previous 2.8. They also make only 4.6 shots on target compared to the previous 5.8 with their main midfielder.
Perhaps the new signing will be the salvation of the North London team? Yesterday we quoted the press reporting on Arsenal's negotiations for Basel footballer Mohamed Elneny, who has more assists than Napoli's player Mirko Valdifiori in the UEFA Europa League.
