Thirty  times they shot. About 14 times they were on target. Number of goals - zero. What does this suggest about Arsenal? People would have different opinions. Mine would be that  they currently have no real strikers, and their players can't cross.

So why am I saying Arsenal don't have strikers, when Emmanuel Adebayor started against West Ham, and Jeremie Aliadiere and Julio Baptista came on later? Easy. Just recall the areas that trio spent most of their time in. All three of them were busy impersonating Thierry Henry, as they stubbornly stayed on the flanks and tried to dribble through the whole West Ham defence, when Adebayor and Baptista could have done more damage had they stayed up front. The two have the physique to be winning and scoring headers, but they chose to let Gilberto Silva do the job they should have done, and could have done better.

The formation for the match could easily have been 4-6-0, as both strikers were on the wings all the time. Well, we cannot blame Freddie Ljungberg for drifting out -- but Adebayor?

Another thing I want to highlight is how weak Arsenal players are when they enter the opponents' penalty area. They missed almost every shot they  took, and in many instances they even passed the ball around, when they could have simply taken a shot. They could easily have scored have if they did. This shows their obsession with making every goal they score a contender for Goal of the Season, and that they don't know how to shoot if they haven't dribbled past the goalkeeper.

Aleskander Hleb was most guilty of passing when he could have scored if he had shot. Full credit to him, he's a good player, but he and every Arsenal player should learn to shoot when they have the chance, and not to spurn it in the most absurd manner: by passing to a team-mate in a penalty area full of  opposition defenders.

I will not blame everything on the injury problems Arsenal are facing, but the fact is that all the real strikers Arsenal have are all out injured. People like Henry and Robin van Persie. OK, maybe Henry is not an out-and-out striker, but there's no denying his goalscoring skills. We Arsenal fans can only pray that they play every match and stay injury-free next season, for us to have a chance at the trophy.

The second point is that Arsenal players, wingers escpecially, cannot cross. This has caused problems for both attack and defence. In attack, the lack of good crosses results in the lack of supply for 'post' players like Adebayor and Baptista, though one may argue that the two are better with their legs.

In defence, the problem comes during training. As they cannot cross, Arsenal defenders possibly do not get to train well in defending crosses, which results in them being at a loss when dealing with crosses from people like Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo. Most of the goals conceded by Arsenal come from set-pieces from the wings, and from crosses, which made it  kind of natural for me to suggest that Arsenal defenders lack good training in handling crosses because there is almost nothing for them to train on.

This could be improved if Arsene Wenger realises the importance of good crosses, and places greater emphasis on training wingers in that aspect, or decides to use the extra money they have now to get good and experienced wingers like Vicente or Joaquin. Just look at how they caused so many problems for Chelsea in their Champions League match!

How can Arsenal get back to winning ways? Let Sportingo have your views.