‘Finishing is a little bit cyclical’

Arsene Wenger is confident his team will improve their goalscoring record this season - once they stop trying to “force the situation”.

Arsenal have not scored in either of their two Premier League home matches so far in 2015/16, but they did find the net twice as they won away at Crystal Palace.

The Gunners have won eight of their last nine away games in all competitions, which Wenger believes is due to opponents playing in a more expansive style.

“Our results away from home, with goalscoring opportunities and our finishing percentage has been higher recently,” the manager said.

“Teams come and defend very deep at our home, so as long as we have not scored the first goal it is maybe more difficult to open up the defences and in the recent two games that is what happened to us.

“Maybe we are not firing on all cylinders at the moment. By definition, the finishing is a little bit cyclical and it goes in cycles. Finishing qualities come and go and you do not always know why, but certainly at the moment we want it so much at home that we’re trying to force it a little bit.

“It doesn’t look natural enough in our finishing qualities because we want to force the situation a little too much.”