Fifty-six shots. Two goals. That is Arsenal's return from their first three Women's Super League matches, and it is why a trip to Stamford Bridge four weeks into the season already carries more weight than it should.
Renee Slegers' side are seven points behind Manchester City at the top, with a game in hand. Draws against newly promoted Crystal Palace and against Manchester United have done the damage. Arsenal have not won the league in seven years, and in every one of those seasons the problem showed up early.
The chances are there. The finishing is not
Against Palace they had 79 per cent of the ball and 70 touches inside the opposition box, and drew 0-0. Against United they needed a 95th-minute equaliser from full-back Smilla Holmberg. In the Champions League on Tuesday they got past HB Koge with a penalty in the 93rd minute. Three games, three late rescues or none at all.
Slegers is not pretending otherwise. "If I look at the last two games, not turning that dominance into goals and wins, is something we have to look at," she said. "It really is about the details in the final third." She has also talked about decision-making, technical execution and ruthlessness in the box, and asked out loud what kind of situations the team is setting up: which spaces they occupy, what the runs look like, whether they are dangerous enough from counter-attacks and set-pieces rather than only from breaking down a low block.
England's number nine is playing at number ten
This is the part that will not go away. Only Khadija Shaw scored more WSL goals than Alessia Russo's thirteen last season, and across European competition Russo finished second behind Barcelona's Ewa Pajor. She has started all three league games this season in the number ten role at some point, and she has not scored.
The split is stark. Under Slegers, Russo has three goals in 507 minutes as an attacking midfielder and 21 in 2,913 minutes as a striker. She creates slightly more from deeper, 1.42 chances per 90 against 1.27, but she takes fewer shots, plays fewer passes ending in the final third, and gets fewer efforts from inside the box. Eleven shots this season, ten of them from inside the area, none of them in. There is also this: Russo and Stina Blackstenius have never once combined directly for a goal in a match Russo started in midfield.
Slegers has the players. That is what makes it strange
Arsenal were many people's title pick after a transfer window that brought in the German pair Lisa Baum and Selina Cerci, even with Beth Mead leaving for Manchester City. Chloe Kelly, Olivia Smith, Russo, Blackstenius and Caitlin Foord are all available, with Michelle Agyemang due back later in the season.
Slegers explained the United set-up as a deliberate choice rather than a compromise: two number nines in the box for crosses, Russo kept as high as possible, Blackstenius doing her job, Cerci adding aerial threat off the bench on her official debut. "She's a fantastic number nine," Slegers said of Russo, before adding that she can do both roles well. The first part of that sentence is the one Arsenal supporters keep reading.
Context: Arsenal play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday 27 September, 16:30 BST. Arsenal have scored two goals from 56 shots in their opening three WSL matches and sit seven points behind leaders Manchester City with a game in hand. Alessia Russo, striker, has not scored this season from eleven shots. She scored thirteen WSL goals last season, second only to Manchester City's Khadija Shaw. Arsenal last won the WSL seven years ago.
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