Three reasons why Arsenal haven't scored

In the past three games, Arsenal’s attack has been dumb. Unable to speak.

The team, the body, has worked. The possession stats against Sunderland (57 percent), Chelsea (51 percent), and Manchester City (61 percent), prove that.

But the attack – the mouth – has been frozen. There’s been no noise. Arsenal haven’t scored, in a domestic game, since Andrei Arshavin hit a half-volley against Wolves four weeks ago.

Arsenal’s attacking players, such as Arshavin, Samir Nasri, and Tomas Rosicky, want the ball. They’re footballers – exquisite footballers – and they’re unhappy without it.

And that’s the problem.

Some players don’t want the ball. Michael Owen, in his prime, didn’t want the ball. Neither did Marc Overmars. They lived behind the back four, not in front.

Owen and Overmars didn’t want the ball thirty yards from goal, like Rosicky does. They didn’t want to take a touch, roll it off, then move five yards, like Nasri does.

They wanted to dart behind. They wanted to come deep then spin, pouncing like a cat on a mouse.

Owen and Overmars could live without the ball. Arsenal’s attackers, reared on five-a-side pitches in Hertfordshire, can’t.

It means that, when Arsenal are 40 yards from goal, building a move, everything happens in front of opposition defenders. The polite attackers take turns to have touches; side-to-side, back and forth. After you. No - after you.

No-one ignores the ball, and runs. No-one disturbs their back-four. Instead, they let them watch, admire, breathe, and block.

It’s why so many Arsenal attacks end with a hopeless, half-baked cross from a full-back. Arsenal’s attackers play themselves into dead-ends, each pass slower than the last, like a drawn game of Connect 4.

When everyone wants the next touch, no-one wants space. Possession without movement equals paralysis.

The answer is part mental – confident players do things quicker – and part personnel. Robin van Persie is quicker, sharper, and busier than Eduardo. Theo Walcott – the closest thing Arsenal have to Owen, or Overmars – makes more runs than Rosicky.

So Arsenal fans, alas, must wait. Without movement – and van Persie, Walcott, and an interested Arshavin - goals may be scarce against Stoke.

There are, of course, two more reasons Arsenal haven’t scored since Wolves. But they don’t need 400 words to explain.

They don’t shoot from distance. And they don’t score from corners.