Arsenal in fine form, but Arsene Wenger’s men have an Achilles’ heel around their head

As Arsenal have been the form club in the Premier League since the New Year, their rising points total has masked a dangerous deficiency in the air.

Swansea City's Bafetimbi Gomis scores the winning goal against Arsenal from a header over Laurent Koscielny in the Premier League on Monday. Gerry Penny / EPA / May 11, 2015

Arsenal's defeat to Swansea City ended an 11 game unbeaten run in the Premier League for Arsene Wenger's side, and, although the club have been in blistering form in 2015, the method of their capitulation had a familiar feel to it.

Bafetimbi Gomis’s 85th minute strike was the 12th headed goal that Arsene Wenger’s side have conceded this season, meaning they are the only top flight club to have conceded more than a third of their league goals (35.3 per cent) from headers.

With the art of heading perhaps losing ground in the attacking fashion stakes to Barcelona’s brand of tiki-taka football in recent years, let us look at which Premier League teams still practice a more agricultural approach.

Arsenal’s weakness at defending aerial balls is clearly not lost on opposition managers, with nearly one in five (19.5 per cent) efforts at David Ospina in the Arsenal goal coming from the head of an opposing player – the second highest share in the division.

If Arsenal needed any advice on how to effectively deal with high balls, they should scout Southampton’s approach. Ronald Koeman’s men have conceded just two headers all season long – by far the fewest in the league and representing just 6.7 per cent of their goals conceded, yet the club are a curious case.

Despite their defence coping admirably with anything nodded their way, their attack has netted just three times with headers this season – the fewest in the league. While Jose Fonte and company have been the envy of most clubs for large parts of this campaign, perhaps adding a different attacking dimension in the summer should be the centre of Koeman’s focus.

Going from one extreme to another, West Bromwich Albion are – literally, you may argue – head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to heading prowess. West Brom, alongside West Ham United, have scored with 15 of their headed efforts this season, the most in the Premier League. The difference between these two clubs, however, is their conversion rate. West Ham have taken a quite staggering 118 shots from headers this season – nearly 50 more than the average top flight side – but have converted just 12.7 per cent of them; West Brom have converted 22.7 per cent of their headed efforts – a league high.

If Arsene Wenger’s priority over the close season should be to address the worrying number of headers his side concede, the same could be said of Burnley. Sean Dyche may determine he has other priorities to deal with over the summer in the wake of relegation, but one of their downfalls has been the ease at which opponents have beaten them in the air. Seventeen goals have been conceded to headers by Burnley – the most in the league and four more than the next most vulnerable team – accounting for 23.1 per cent of their overall goals; only Arsenal have conceded a higher share this way.

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