Abject Arsenal already at risk of throwing away WSL title chances as pre-season favourites fall well short of expectations

After starting the new WSL campaign with a narrow but applaudable 1-0 win on the road against a good Brighton team, things have turned a bit sour for Arsenal.

A goalless draw with newly-promoted Crystal Palace was underwhelming. The Gunners peppered the visitors' goal, generating an expected goals (xG) statistic of 2.56, but just could not find a way past goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, who returned to the Emirates Stadium to frustrate her former side. That said, it's the sort of result that can happen and, when so many chances are created, it's easy to take the positives and move on.

There was a similar feeling about the draw with Manchester United which followed a week later. After a rare error from Stanway gifted the visitors a 1-0 lead, Arsenal threw everything at a defensive-minded United in search of an equaliser, generating another high xG statistic of 1.96. Eventually, Smilla Holmberg would come to the rescue with a strike in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time. Again, chances were being created but not taken. The path to things coming good was clear.

But Tuesday night's narrow - and, to be frank, rather lucky - 1-0 win at home to Koge in the Champions League highlighted more problems.

Head coach Renee Slegers tapped into the exceptional depth the summer transfer window has given her, making eight changes. Some teething problems could be expected from that amount of rotation, but it was still a surprise to see the Gunners create very little against an admittedly impressive Koge. Before Mariona Caldentey's 93rd-minute penalty saved Arsenal's blushes, they had managed just one shot on target and racked up a season-low xG of 1.2.

Was it a mistake by Slegers to change so much after two disappointing results? Perhaps, as a less-rotated XI may have fared better as this team looks to build some momentum. But that's not guaranteed - and isn't the point of this newly-built depth to allow Slegers to rotate? It might be early in the season, when players are still searching for sharpness, but this performance was a real concern.

Some of these issues are related to playing against a low block, an issue all too familiar to the Gunners. That was certainly the case against Palace and United, and Koge to an extent, though the Danes did come forward well at times and thus give Arsenal spaces to attack. But the Gunners have still created a lot of chances over the last three games and simply not taken them.

Asked after the Koge win if she felt her team began to panic, Slegers replied: "I think so and that’s been the last three games." As for how she can help the team be more clinical, the Gunners' boss emphasised the need to make things simple and easy for the players.

"The most positive thing is that we stayed in it, showed resilience and mentality and got the goal in the end," she said. "That’s where our focus is. I don’t want to over-analyse and over-complicate things. Keep things simple, move forward."

The good news is that Chelsea will not play in a low-block this weekend, nor will Man City next week. The bad news is that Arsenal still need to find a way to be more clinical and put the ball in the back of the net, something Slegers can only help so much with.

Stina Blackstenius had led the line in the last two games, something which has raised eyebrows because the Swede's strengths are certainly better suited to games where there is more space to run into, rather than playing against low blocks. That she didn't have a single shot on Tuesday and registered just 15 touches, before being substituted at half-time for Alessia Russo, supported that belief.

It's one example of the questions being raised of Slegers' team selection in the early stages of this season as she gets to grips with having such a big squad for the first time. The Arsenal boss has had to leave top players out of every matchday squad so far, with Geraldine Reuteler, one of the most interesting summer recruits, yet to even play a minute.

"As a club, I think we're probably ahead of things with how the schedule is growing and where I see it going with top teams. You need to have this depth if you want to compete. But what is the sweet spot?" Slegers pondered this week. "It's a luxury problem. We have so many different options and then the challenge becomes how do you choose certain things for certain games, while still keeping the main ideas and consistency within the team? So you don't chop and change everything."

Having so many options isn't a flaw-free luxury, either. There is an old cliché in tennis that a player with the talent to play every shot so well can take longer to develop than a more one-dimensional player, because their decision-making process is more complicated. As it pertains to Arsenal, when you have so many top forwards to pick between, how do you make sure you land on the right combination, for the right challenge? That is what Slegers is having to think about more than ever before.

Arsenal don't exactly go into Sunday's huge league game against Chelsea with any real feeling of momentum, even after that late winner on Tuesday. This is a huge game, too. If the Gunners lose it, they'd be five points behind the Blues and likely seven behind league leaders Man City, who will be heavily favoured to beat newly-promoted Charlton Athletic on Saturday.

There is a feeling that the WSL will throw up more surprise results this season, so perhaps the margin for error will be greater in this title race, but Arsenal know all too well how costly these slow starts can be. Just last season, the Gunners finished four points off champions City after dropping seven points in their opening five games.

And until Arsenal get into their groove, questions about Slegers' ability to manage this squad will linger, too.

How a win against Chelsea on Sunday would quieten all that noise, then. While the Gunners continue to misfire and panic in front of goal, and seemingly lack confidence, a victory over the Blues - their London rivals as well as their title rivals - would wrestle back some real momentum ahead of another big week of action, with a Champions League clash against a plucky Paris FC team to come before the trip to Manchester.

There's no doubt that this Arsenal team has the potential to be something special, but if they don't nip this poor run of form in the bud soon, it could come back to haunt them once again.

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