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Mikel Arteta has suggested Arsenal concede too many goals at home because they are over-emotional and urged his team to show greater composure in future.
Arsenal are unbeaten in their opening six Premier League games — winning four and drawing two — and have kept clean sheets in both away matches to date, as well registering a 1-0 win at Brentford in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup fourth-round tie.
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But they have conceded six goals in four home matches, most recently twice allowing a lead to slip in their 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Asked whether the disparity could be explained by his team being too “charged up,” Arteta said: “At times we are, yes. We want to attack too fast, yes. It comes down to many factors, not just one.
“Especially at home we have a lot of individual errors leading to goals and that has caused us some problems especially, away from home we have not had that.
“It is true that away from home I think that approach is very different from opponents but it is something that we have to turn around quickly as if we want the consistency in results especially at home it is something that we need to change that is for sure.”
Although the sample size is small, Arsenal are conceding an average of three shots on target per game at home while that figure drops to 1.5 on the road. Furthermore, the Gunners have conceded in the first minute of three Premier League matches in 2023.
“In football in general, we are not going to change our approach in terms of how we want to win the ball back,” Arteta added. “And we are a very, very aggressive team and we are not going to change that.
“It is about having the ability to change gears. We cannot play with those gears all the time when we have the ball and we don’t have it. We have to play at different paces and the game requires a different pace in relation to the behaviour of the opponent: Are they waiting for you? Are they jumping? Are they being aggressive? Are they not? Where are the spaces? And we have to manage that a bit better.
“It is [a] mental [issue], it is about reading the situation, it is about finding the composure and being uncomfortable or comfortable when it is a more chaotic game that sometimes we provoke in our way of playing.”
Ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth, Arteta has doubts over several players including Declan Rice (back), Bukayo Saka (foot), Leandro Trossard (muscle) and Gabriel Martinelli (hamstring.)