By Tony Attwood
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With Arsenal having scored more goals than in any season since 1964 during the 2022/3 and 2023/4 seasons and despite Arsenal suffering more injuries than any other Premier League team in the last season, it would be logical for the media to be debating why Arsenal have suddenly suffered more injuries in the last campaign, and what if anything can be done to stop that happening again.
But of course they don’t. What they debate is which centre forward we should buy, ignoring the injury situation of last season, and the great success of the two previous seasons.
The reason Arsenal slipped back in the goal-scoring achievement was because the number of shots that Arsenal had slipped back, AND the fact that the accuracy of the shots has declined across those three seasons. The numbers speak for themselves:
**Shots in league matches in 2022/23:** 593. Goals: 89. Shots per goal: 6.66. Pens: 3
**Shots in league matches in 2023/24:** 657. Goals 91. Shots per goals. 7.22. Pens: 10
**Shots in league matches in 2024/25:** 547. Goals 69. Shots per goal 7.93. Pens: 2
So to be clear, the number of goals collapsed by 22, and the number of shots was 46 lower last season than 2022/23 and a whacking 110 lower than 2023/24. (These numbers relate only to Premier League games). At the same time, the number of shots needed to get a goal went up and up. As for penalties, we clearly can’t rely on them since the number varies so wildly, that we might well ask what on earth the referees are playing at.
In fact Arsenal last season took on average three shots fewer per game than in the previous season..
Now it is possible to argue that this is because we didn’t have the right centre forward in place in the season just finished. But let’s consider the common forward line in these three seasons…
Season
**2022/23**
**Gabriel Martinelli**
34
15
Martin **Odegaard**
37
15
**Bukayo Saka**
37
14
2
**Gabriel Jesus**
24
11
1
**Granit Xhaka**
36
7
Season
**2023/24**
Gabriel Martinelli
24
6
Martin Odegaard
35
8
1
Bukayo Saka
35
16
6
Gabriel Jesus
17
4
Kai Haertz
30
13
1
Now this decline in the number of shots shows that it was not the lack of a centre forward who could score that did for Arsenal, but the ability to the ball to him so he could get the shots in.
Season
**2024/25**
Gabriel Martinelli
25
8
Martin Odegaard
26
3
1
Bukayo Saka
20
6
1
Gabriel Jesus
6
3
Kai Havertz
29
9
Several Arsenal stars — including Bukayo Saka and Gabriel — underwent surgery during the past season and only five players played 30+ games in the season as a result of injuries. For Liverpool, the number of players playing 30+ games was 11 and that is a key statistic, for if you want players regularly to score goals those players have to be playing regularly.
As we have noted before the answer does not simply lie in having more ready-to-play players, because top players brought in who then don’t get a game because the squad members are not getting injured will soon demand to move on.
So the prime questions for Arsenal have to ask is a) why were Arsenal getting so many more injuries than other clubs last season and b) what (if anything) can be done about this.
Now the answers might be linked. For example, if Arsenal are getting more injuries than other clubs because they are suffering from extra hard tackles and the refs are not doing anything about it, then there is not too much Arsenal can do other than to build up the squad with more and more attackers. So yes we could buy another goal-scoring player, but also keep the ones we have got, since there is every chance our new player will be surprised at the way he is tackled and the little protection he gets from the referees.
And indeed that is certainly making matters hard for Arsenal now because players who might come to Arsenal have been made very aware just how Arsenal’s injury levels mounted last year. It could have been a one-off oddity, but given the free-flowing way they managed to play in the previous seasons, it seems unlikely.
the feeling seems to be this is unlikely.
In this regard we can look at the number of times clubs were fouled last season. The top five clubs in terms of receiving fouls were Aston Villa, Tottenham Newcastle, Chelsa and Arsenal in that order. Players will always choose to go to clubs that get fouled less.
Arsenal might still go for a new number 9, but if they do, and they focus the new approach around getting the ball to him to let him shoot, they have to realise that he is most likely to be targetted by defenders, without referees taking action, in a way that he has not experienced either in other clubs in England, or indeed at all in other countries.
That fact alone will be putting players off coming to Arsenal, but if they do come, they will need to find a way to play around aggressive defenders who are used to being able to foul Arsenal forwards, without being called out..