Work in Progress

Is it masochism or simply lack of concentration, this Arsenal tendency to concede an early goal (or sometimes two) and give themselves the proverbial ‘mountain to climb’? It happened after just eight minutes at the Reebok Stadium, when Bolton Wanderers’ Faye produced a near post header from Diouf’s corner kick. And sure enough, it happened again at Craven Cottage, when Brian McBride buried Jensen’s cross with only six minutes on the clock, and thirteen minutes later Fulham were two up, as Tomasz Radzinski rushed in at the far post to convert Luis Boa Morte’s cross.

The whole problem is exacerbated by the fact that, though Arsenal are conceding early goals, they aren’t scoring any and as a result they are unable to take control of the game and build from a position of strength. It is a fact that in the first 20 minutes or so, Arsene Wenger’s team are creating scoring opportunities, and missing them, on a regular basis – so often that if they converted most of them, they could actually afford to give goals away and still be ahead. And if Arsenal had successfully put away half the chances they have engineered this season in each 90 minutes, then for all their defensive frailties they would be ahead of Manchester United and Chelsea because they would have maximum points.

What is particularly worrying is that these early deficits tend to focus public attention upon weaknesses and diminish the perception of strengths. People concentrate on what Arsenal can’t do rather than what they can, and with a predominantly young team this can have a damaging effect, both individually and collectively, upon confidence, which in turn may lead to further decline and more bad results.

So it is important to have both a balanced and a long term view, which means not concentrating exclusively on the weaknesses to the detriment of your strengths. It is also absolutely vital not to allow people whose thinking on and knowledge of the game are shallow to dismiss appropriate attention to the team’s virtues as devious or irrelevant. Young players in particular need the positive reinforcement that comes from praise and encouragement rather than the damage which may be inflicted by constant criticism. Or to put it another way, they need to be given the time to develop properly – something which is very difficult in a professional game which puts such a high premium on success, especially at a massive club like Arsenal.

And however great the disappointment at losing 2-1 to Fulham, all you have to do is look at Robin Van Persie’s brilliant 30 yard free kick and the quality of Arsenal’s approach play to confirm that Arsene Wenger is building another great team. A team that will surely win trophies - given time and a little patience.