Alexander Isak highlights Arsenal's worrying new Premier League trend in Newcastle defeat

Alexander Isak scoring against Arsenal at St James' Park means Mikel Arteta's have failed to keep a clean sheet in six consecutive matches.

After not conceding in three of the opening four games this season, every opponent since has breached their defence. That streak is already double the longest stretch in the league without one across all last season.

To find a longer Arsenal run without a clean sheet, you must return to the final few months of the 2022/23 campaign. That coincided with 's absence from the team with the back injury that curtailed his season.

The difference between these two droughts is that all the league games in22/23 came simultaneously, but the Gunners have kept clean sheets between their league fixtures in cup competitions this time.

Their last league clean sheet came in the , which won 1-0 at the . Thanks to a penalty save, they kept another in their next fixture against Atalanta in the .

However, over the course of September, they conceded five goals in three games with , and . Arsenal then tightened up in their next match, winning 2-0 against .

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and followed that up by scoring three goals against the Gunners across two goals, on either side of the international break. The narrow 1-0 win over ended that run at the before fired in two only five days later.

Another cup tie brought about another clean sheet, but conceding early against means the league run goes on. That throws up the quirk that Arsenal have conceded just one goal in five fixtures across the Champions League and while letting in 11 across ten Premier League matches.