Those who do not learn from their history are condemned to repeat it. This exhaustive statement fits Arenas like a glove, suffering from a bad … endemic this season every time he plays away from his fiefdom. And the beginnings of the game have been choking on history with a worrying repetition. Something that, together with the difficulty they are finding in scoring at home, has made them the worst visiting team in the group for weeks now. A label that they are unable to shake off.
The data is as cold as it is revealing. As a visitor, Arenas is also the second least scoring team. Their meager four goals are only worsened by the affiliates of Betis and Sevilla, who have only scored three. Similarly, Arenas is the second team that receives the most when playing away from Gobela. Jon Erice’s men have conceded 17 goals, only surpassed by Castilla, whom they beat last week (18).
The most extreme case of early goals conceded by Arenas was experienced this weekend at Príncipe Felipe against Cacereño. Twenty seconds into the game, the Extremaduran team had already managed to lodge the ball in the goal defended on this occasion by Oier Gastesi, who also had his share of negative protagonism by committing an innocent penalty after a serious error.
Too many precedents
If it were an isolated case, a thick veil could be drawn and the slate wiped clean. But it is not. In fact, it is almost a constant in every historic away game. It fits very quickly. And if it is not at the start of the game, it is the start of the second period. He receives goals that force him to row against, rarely successfully.
Looking back on this course, there are a few examples. Too many. Without going any further, on the third matchday, the first that Arenas played as a visitor, Barakaldo scored against them in the 47th minute. In addition, he repeated nine minutes later. A week later, in Balaídos, Celta Fortuna scored after thirty seconds.
There is more. Against Mérida, we had to wait a little longer since the Extremadurans’ first goal came after a quarter of an hour. Not so in the visit to Racing de Ferrol, which ended the game in nineteen minutes. By then, they were already winning 3-0. In Pontevedra, a little more of the same, thanks to Cuesta’s goal in the seventh minute. What happened in Cáceres this past Sunday is one more on this long list.
«We started the game, in the zero minute, with a shot from the goalkeeper, they won, cross and goal. That’s the ability to concentrate. It has nothing to do with the field, the dimensions, the stage or anything. “You have to be self-critical,” said Jon Erice, somewhere between resigned and angry. “The goal was very simple, it is no coincidence that it happened to us, because it has already happened to us during the year,” he recalled.
«After a victory that was too flattering or too much like that of Castilla, it is no coincidence that we started the game like this. “We get a little confused when they flatter us,” said the head of the Gobela bench. “It always happens to us after a great game and a great result.”
Erice is clear that “this slap is going to make us very alert in Pamplona” -Arenas repeats as a visitor this coming weekend-. «The positive part is that it is the first day of the second round. The negative part is that we lose the golaverage with Cacereño,” the Navarrese valued.
