diff --git a/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx b/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx
index 08eb23d1c..ba6e3af04 100644
--- a/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx
+++ b/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# cython: profile=True
+# cython: cdivision=True
+# cython: infer_types=True
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import ctypes
@@ -155,7 +158,18 @@ cdef class Reduce:
 
     @staticmethod
     cdef inline weight_t move_cost(StateClass st, const GoldParseC* gold) nogil:
-        return pop_cost(st, gold, st.S(0))
+        cost = pop_cost(st, gold, st.S(0))
+        if not st.has_head(st.S(0)):
+            # Decrement cost for the arcs e save
+            for i in range(1, st.stack_depth()):
+                S_i = st.S(i)
+                if gold.heads[st.S(0)] == S_i:
+                    cost -= 1
+                if gold.heads[S_i] == st.S(0):
+                    cost -= 1
+            if Break.is_valid(st.c, -1) and Break.move_cost(st, gold) == 0:
+                cost -= 1
+        return cost
 
     @staticmethod
     cdef inline weight_t label_cost(StateClass s, const GoldParseC* gold, int label) nogil:
@@ -181,7 +195,8 @@ cdef class LeftArc:
     cdef inline weight_t move_cost(StateClass s, const GoldParseC* gold) nogil:
         cdef weight_t cost = 0
         if arc_is_gold(gold, s.B(0), s.S(0)):
-            return 0
+            # Have a negative cost if we 'recover' from the wrong dependency
+            return 0 if not s.has_head(s.S(0)) else -1
         else:
             # Account for deps we might lose between S0 and stack
             if not s.has_head(s.S(0)):
@@ -281,7 +296,7 @@ cdef int _get_root(int word, const GoldParseC* gold) nogil:
 cdef class ArcEager(TransitionSystem):
     @classmethod
     def get_actions(cls, **kwargs):
-        actions = kwargs.get('actions', 
+        actions = kwargs.get('actions',
                     {
                         SHIFT: {'': True},
                         REDUCE: {'': True},
@@ -294,7 +309,7 @@ cdef class ArcEager(TransitionSystem):
         for label in kwargs.get('right_labels', []):
             if label.upper() != 'ROOT':
                 actions[RIGHT][label] = True
- 
+
         for raw_text, sents in kwargs.get('gold_parses', []):
             for (ids, words, tags, heads, labels, iob), ctnts in sents:
                 for child, head, label in zip(ids, heads, labels):
@@ -407,14 +422,14 @@ cdef class ArcEager(TransitionSystem):
         for i in range(self.n_moves):
             output[i] = is_valid[self.c[i].move]
 
-    cdef int set_costs(self, int* is_valid, weight_t* costs, 
+    cdef int set_costs(self, int* is_valid, weight_t* costs,
                        StateClass stcls, GoldParse gold) except -1:
         cdef int i, move, label
         cdef label_cost_func_t[N_MOVES] label_cost_funcs
         cdef move_cost_func_t[N_MOVES] move_cost_funcs
         cdef weight_t[N_MOVES] move_costs
         for i in range(N_MOVES):
-            move_costs[i] = -1
+            move_costs[i] = 9000
         move_cost_funcs[SHIFT] = Shift.move_cost
         move_cost_funcs[REDUCE] = Reduce.move_cost
         move_cost_funcs[LEFT] = LeftArc.move_cost
@@ -436,14 +451,14 @@ cdef class ArcEager(TransitionSystem):
                 is_valid[i] = True
                 move = self.c[i].move
                 label = self.c[i].label
-                if move_costs[move] == -1:
+                if move_costs[move] == 9000:
                     move_costs[move] = move_cost_funcs[move](stcls, &gold.c)
                 costs[i] = move_costs[move] + label_cost_funcs[move](stcls, &gold.c, label)
                 n_gold += costs[i] <= 0
             else:
                 is_valid[i] = False
                 costs[i] = 9000
-        if n_gold == 0:
+        if n_gold < 1:
             # Check projectivity --- leading cause
             if is_nonproj_tree(gold.heads):
                 raise ValueError(
@@ -463,7 +478,7 @@ cdef class ArcEager(TransitionSystem):
                     "Could not find a gold-standard action to supervise the dependency "
                     "parser.\n"
                     "The GoldParse was projective.\n"
-                    "The transition system has %d actions.\n" 
+                    "The transition system has %d actions.\n"
                     "State at failure:\n"
                     "%s" % (self.n_moves, stcls.print_state(gold.words)))
         assert n_gold >= 1