If you are looking for an explanation as to why Arsenal struggled to rescue a draw with Hull City at the Emirates today and only managed it with a stoppage time equaliser from Danny Welbeck, there are two simple reasons. The Gunners are still struggling at either end of the pitch.

You cannot blame Wojciech Szczesny for any of the four goals scored in the last two Premier League games, but Mertesacker and Koscielny have both made mistakes and the fact the defensive part of the squad is not strong enough has been made crystal clear by the injury situation. We cannot seem to keep a lead for long and our clean sheets have disappeared.

Once again against Hull, Arsenal had the lion’s share of possession, nearly 67 percent, 10 corners to nil, 29 crosses to two, 25 shots to four and a passing accuracy of 88 percent to 76. But for some reason we are not really clicking and making enough clear cut chances.

Because of Harper’s shoulder injury before halftime, Hull played the whole second half with the third choice goalie and Arsenal failed to work him until right at the end. That is just not good enough. We desperately need to sharpen up at both ends of the pitch. And we desperately need to beat Anderlecht on Wednesday to get the confidence up because that will help all aspects of our game flow and we should be flying in the current nice run of fixtures.

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