I see that other Arsenal supporters are finally attuned to the fact that Arsenal’s away form is a problem. But you know what’s really wild? Wilder than Arsenal playing like jellyfish against Everton yesterday? It’s that this has been a problem since February 2017.
Since I am the “stats guy” let me give you some stats.
From August 13, 2016 – December 31, 2016 – Arsenal were the 4th best team in the League in away games.
- They played 9, won 5, drawn 2, and lost 2
- They scored 20 goals (2.2 goals per game)
- They conceded 9 (1 goal per game)
- They picked up 17 points (1.89 per game).
- Their xG is 1.8 per game
- Their xGA is an awesome 0.94
- Their expected points is 1.9 per game
- But winter is coming.
From January 3rd on, Arsenal’s away form goes down the bog quicker than a vindaloo pizza. If you recall, Arsenal played Bournemouth on 3 January and they give up 3 goals in the first half. There’s a barnstorming 2nd half comeback but the manner of Arsenal’s capitulation is shocking. Bournemouth tore us apart and it should have set alarm bells ringing at Arsenal. It didn’t. At least not for the players, it seemed to alert the opposition.
Arsenal kicked off the month of February with a 3-1 loss to Chelsea away, 10-2 loss on aggregate to Bayern Munich, Koscielny’s achilles injury started to flare up, he also gets a red card.
Fan unrest is now growing to a head. They are showing up to matches with signs begging for Wenger to be fired at the end of the season. Wenger benches Alexis for his public outbursts, and Arsenal kick off the month of March with a 3-1 away loss to Liverpool, and the hammer blow 3-1 away loss to West Brom.
For the rest of the season, Arsenal only lose two more away games, Crystal Palace 3-0 and Tottenham 2-0. The latter could have been much worse. That was one of those games where you could see that Tottenham “wanted it more”. We are often treated to that little idiom whenever someone wants to criticize the team’s effort but there are only a handful of times that I can remember watching Arsenal where you could see it in action: that was one of them.
Arsenal win the FA Cup, Arsenal renew Wenger’s contract, and stuff really starts to spin out of control after that. From January 2017 to present, Arsenal’s away record has been abyssal. In that time, only counting Premier League away games:
- Arsenal have won 13 of their last 44 Premier League away games
- Arsenal have scored 64 goals (average 1.45 per game)
- Arsenal have conceded 78 goals (average 1.77 per game)
- Arsenal have taken just 48 points, 1.09 points per game in away games since January 2017
- Arsenal have an expected goals of 56.7 (1.29 per game)
- Arsenal have an expected goals against of 71.06 (1.62)
- And Arsenal have an expected points of 53.09 (1.21 per game)
Here’s the deal, folks, Arsenal are a mid-table team in away games. They are not over nor under performing. They are performing exactly as expected in away games.
This spans multiple managers, players leaving, new players coming in, retirement, injuries, and about 200 different lineup changes. So, what is it then?
Well, I think there are a few things going on here. The first is that Arsenal are (this season) overperforming at home. Arsenal are +12 on expected points (32 xP versus 44 actual points) at home this season thanks to Bernd Leno’s miraculous saves percentages at the Emirates (Arsenal are +8 goals defensively, that’s-xGA 20, actual goals allowed 12).
I know that I promised not to go negative and I’m keeping that promise. I don’t see this as anything other than facts.
But my analysis of those facts is that Arsenal are simply an upper-mid-table team. And I mean that in terms of the overall quality of the squad. I like some of the individual players, some aren’t so great, but overall squad quality is fairly ok, but not near the top teams.
What happens in those cases is that teams like Watford, Everton, Leicester, etc. don’t feel like Arsenal are significantly better than them. If you’ve played football, any sport, you know what I mean. There are times in your sporting life where you face opponents who are just better than you. You know it. You may put in a brave performance, but in the end, the opposition win and you just shake their hand and move on.
What’s really worrying about this is that teams will start thinking that they can get something from Arsenal at home. I think this process has already started. Teams are much more aggressively attacking Arsenal at home, that’s why we have allowed so many shots and why Arsenal have relied so heavily on outstanding keeping to save them at home this season.
But the second part of my analysis is that there’s a slightly more worrying problem, which is best illustrated by Troy Deeney’s comments from October 2017:
“I’ve heard Wenger’s already blaming [the penalty] as the reason for why they lost. Well, I’m not going to be one to tell Mr Wenger about himself, but there’s a reason that they lost and it wasn’t because of one penalty.
“I have to watch what I say, but it’s [having] a bit of cojones, is what I’ll say. Whenever I play against Arsenal, I’ll go up and think ‘let me whack the first one and see who wants it.’
“I came on today and jumped up with Mertesacker — I didn’t even have to jump, actually — I nodded it down, the crowd gets up: ‘Yeah we’ve got somebody who can win it’, and they all just backed off.
“For me as a player, I just think ‘happy days’. That’s my strength — if you’re going to let me do my strength against you, you’re going to have a tough afternoon.
“I just think personally there’s an element of that being an equaliser for me. I know I’m not technically gifted like they are, not as quick, but if you want to fight with me, I’m gonna beat you all day. If you want to come into my world and do that, you can do that, but you’ve got to be at a level where your excellence of keeping the ball, being fast and getting in the right positions are all 10/10 because my equaliser is I’m big, strong, and I do all the ugly stuff you don’t wanna do, and I’m going to make it horrible for you.” (Emphasis mine)
Troy Deeney’s comments were ridiculed at the time (and since, every time we win or take a point and every time they lose we mock him for the “cojones” bit) and they are a bit funny because they are so.. agricultural.
But the point at the end is the key – Arsenal seem to me like a team that is caught between two worlds. We aren’t quite technically good enough to pass rings around others and we also aren’t quite robust enough to kick lumps out of others. That lack of technical quality becomes exacerbated by injuries. Once we start digging in to third string players, we shouldn’t be surprised that Everton can press them off the ball.
Similarly, I’m not going to say any names to blame and shame but that lack of fight is also evident the further you get down the pecking order. I can’t question Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette’s commitment. Sokratis also seems like a guy willing to mix things up (even if it means he stupidly picks up a yellow card, knocking him out for the next two matches). But there is a lack of fight in a lot of the players in this team.
I will also say that what’s frustrating about all of this is that even if you’re not a really good technical team, you can at least do certain things to combat your opponent. Pressing for example. Why aren’t we pressing more? Especially in away games. This team seems custom built to be a counter attacking team. And against Tottenham earlier this season (albeit at home), we had a prime example of how we can play football in away games that will terrify opponents. Not only will be look better, but come on, that was fun to watch!
I’ve dedicated a lot of words to some pretty simple concepts so I’ll just wrap up here. I’m not having an existential crisis over Arsenal. I’m not even upset that we lost to Everton, I knew we were going to lose to Everton. I’m not mad at the players, I don’t want Emery fired, and I’m not even at all negative about this team. I’m not privy to Emery’s plans and so all I can do is armchair blaarg about what I see – just like everyone else. And I just see us as a team that still thinks it’s a technical team, but really isn’t and in the absence of that overwhelming technical quality also doesn’t have the sort of tooth and nail fight that teams like us need.
Torreira is a big miss there for sure. Sokratis will be a miss for the next two games as well. And lord only know what we are going to do when Aaron Ramsey leaves us this summer.
Well when Ramsey leaves, we buy a replacement. If the Kroenkes claim broke, a club with a substantial following should not toy with the most important aspect of its brand. So they better deal with it or supporters will turn against them at some point.
The idea of a clear out of players or deadwood was mentioned on the Arsenal blogosphere before Wenger left. I think now is the right time for the club hierarchy to sell complacent players and bring in mental strong players who do not have memories of collapsing under the previous manager.
Thank you Tim for the write up. Always incisive and enlightening, so keep up the good work. I must say the game yesterday did upset me a bit because my hopes were raised by recent performances, especially the games against sp*rs and ManU. But it didn’t take long for me to come back to reality when I remembered that you’ve said countless times, that we’re a mid table team. As sad and hard as it is to take, it helps to accept the reality of it. At no point in the game yesterday that I actually thought we will score and that in itself is sad because I remember whenever we used to lose to teams like this in the past, it’s usually because their goalkeeper put in a string of fantastic saves. I wish we had more players like Lacazette, Sokratis and Leno in our team. Players that are ready for physical challenges and don’t hide.
Wenger made us a technical team and we lost that identity before he left. That was the reason why we were superb for years.
But our midfield wizards began to dry up in supply and when Cazorla the last magician got injured, our midfield went to ruins.
The latest crop of midfielders excluding Ramsey who was consistently fulfilling the manager’s instructions, Guendouzi and Torreira, namely Messrs Elneny and Xhaka would be squad players in the early Wenger years.
So, we are in a transition. If we had a technical director responsible for maintaining the tradition of technical midfielders then we would rest easy, but all we can say now is the team will morph into a Barce-Sevilla lite version, with the current leadership.
that’s not exactly what a technical director does, but i do understand your idea of the club assigning an individual responsible for ensuring the level of technical excellence is maintained. as far as i know, it’s not a real thing; that comes down to the manager and the person responsible with player recruitment being on the same page.
I understand you, but a technical director using Monchi at Roma, as an example is meant to recruit players fit for the style of the coach or manager.
It was one of Arsene’s mistakes, towards the end of his reign. Santi’s injury was a major loss. There was no recruitment of a similar profile craftsman to replace him. Alexis Sanchez was replaced by Mhkitaryan and Aubameyang, goals and wing play. However, we are yet to get a game-changing dribbler, who can seize the moment and create something out of nothing.
If a technical director or football director could lay hold of the template Arsene used to create the “Project Youth” team of 2007-9, with midfielders such as Fabregas, Nasri, Hleb, Rosicky, Diaby, Song, Flamini and Denilson; we would be a better off.
And to give Arsene some credit, his work is worth studying now, because he created a technical midfield enigma, which died with Wilshere and Ramsey. As Cryuff and Ajax have a philosophy, I think Wenger’s project youth philosophy which almost won a trophy is admirable, because it always kept us in the Champion’s league.
So, a technical director can do well enough to serve as head of recruitment, or to serve as a preserver of sporting traditions.
“And I just see us as a
team that still thinks it’s a technical team, but
really isn’t and in the absence of that overwhelming technical quality also doesn’t
have the sort of tooth and nail fight that teams
like us need.”
This perfectly sums us up Tim, we need to wake up to the fact that we are’t technical enough. We are still in denial, both the fans and players. As for the management team, i don’t know if they are aware of this.
I had us winning against Everton, but losing to Watford and Wolves. Maybe this means I just got the universe’s foretelling signals switched around, and so we win against Watford and Wolves?
One can only hope that teams like Leicester, Wolves, and Watford run low on motivation as the season winds down and there is, effectively, nothing to play for (apart from Watford’s FA Cup final). Burnley, too, should be safe by the time they play us. But this is wishful thinking. After what we served up against Everton, I don’t feel confident of taking anything from any of our remaining away fixtures.
Turning to the Europa League, I was encouraged to read that Napoli are experiencing related troubles of their own at the moment. This, from Paolo Bandini today:
“How worried should Napoli be, ahead of their visit to Arsenal? Carlo Ancelotti’s team followed up Wednesday’s loss to Empoli with a draw at home to Genoa on Sunday despite playing with an extra man from the 28th minute. The manager had declared himself unfazed by the first of those results but acknowledged at the weekend that: “If we defend like this in London it’s going to get difficult.” Napoli have not kept a clean sheet in six games.”
I don’t think Napoli should be worried about Arsenal, though! Just wait until the second leg.
“Napoli have not kept a clean sheet in six games”
I’ve observed a bit of a trend over the last decade or so – the kind of trend you only think happens to your own team because you don’t care as much about the other teams – that has led me to label us Hope Of The Hopeless FC. Fernando Torres (and a legion of other bad strikers or even non-strikers) is on a goalless streak? Play Arsenal. No Premier League game has ever seen one side blow a 4-goal lead? Play Arsenal. And on and on. So every time I see a fact stated like this about a future opponent, I get a case of The Fear – it’s going to happen again, isn’t it?
[That said, as we’re at home first, more important to not concede than to actually score. But with our away form (also quite poxy in Europe) you’d ideally want us to score and not concede. Let’s see…]
Excellent, and sobering, Tim. I think we are midtable. Our offensive firepower seems to have dried up. We had 3 big chances, supposedly. Hard to remember any of them. We aren’t getting shots the way we used to.
I suspect a lot of us had the same reaction when we saw Guen/Elneny starting midfield. Uh-oh. I realize Emery was backed into a corner by injury and suspension, but when I consider Guen-Elneny-Mkhi-Ozil-Laca, I immediately see one glaring problem: Pace. No one really will outrun defenders. No attacking player can carry the ball or take the top off the defense. And that grouping isn’t technically or physically strong enough to maintain possession. With those 2 midfielders, we needed a ball carrier desperately. If Ramsey couldn’t start, there was no excuse for Iwobi not playing. It’s not surprising to me that the only momentary glimpses of positive play were when Ramsey came on, and later, when Iwobi joined in. Auba brought pace, but we had no one to get him the ball, except when he came back deep, and he’s useless with the ball deep.
They let us make the first pass from the back, then jumped on whomever Guen played the ball (because Elneny never plays forward, ffs). Mkhi and Ozil were either dispossessed or stonewalled, forcing us to play back. We had no one who could get open, receive the ball at pace, and make the next pass. Ozil was a partciularly bad choice in this game (and I love me some Ozil.) And despite all of Laca’s fire and passion and effort – which I love – I think Auba playing with Iwobi and Mkhi with Ramsey behind them would have given us a much better chance.
Yes, we have a larger away form issue. But for once the lineup and the tactical choice were in big part to blame. Not sure we win with Iwobi starting, but we play better. We were set up to lose. I put this one on Emery as much as the players.
I had the exact same thought about choosing El-Neny over Iwobi. It was clear when Iwobi came on we were able to move the ball more effectively into their third. I also questioned why Emery made that personnel choice. I don’t know if Auba or Laca would’ve been better, but it’s a null question if we can’t move the ball into their third.
It’s criminal that we are letting Ramsey go, that’s the most disappointing thing about this season for me. He’s our most complete midfielder by a long shot and really drives the team forward. He seems to have really come into his own this year.
Mkhi is very inconsistent, and honestly who even knows whats going on with Ozil anymore. Our midfield yesterday was so lightweight and slow it was there for the taking. Fair play to Everton though they pressed well.
I always think back to the later years Fergie Utd teams who had workman like central midfielders (They won the league with Carrick, Fletcher midfield paring. Carrick was an immense regista though but I digress..) but pacey weapons on the wing and going forward. We badly lack pace on the wings, I think our first priority this summer should be getting some actual wingers in the team. We have nothing that compares to Mane, Sterling, Sane, Son, Richarlison etc.
The good news is we have Laca and Auba in their prime, we just need to create the right platform for them to thrive IMO.
Mate your stats, as always, are excellent; but to get the best out of any venture you need to control the emotion that moves the genius…
It is obvious Arsenal are UNDERperforming away from home. Just think about it. The team have proven they can “do it” at home. They just have to “do it” away. We both know why Troy Deaney made those comments: “headlines”. How much attention has he got by saying that. Who was chatting about him before
that. Please Tim run the stats on Deaney media invites pre- and post cojones-gate. I am not criticising Deaney. The football career is short…they need to do whatever to put themselves in the shop window for media once the career is over. How better way than feeding the Arsenal media narrative. Its funny Liverpool have been under-performing for years but silence, Tottenham no troohies:silence; but everyone can tell you how long Arsenal went without a Trophy. Liverpool fans, like Wenger pointed out, are special. They will criticise their club but if anyone else from outside does so, especially if they do so out of all proportion, the fans are fiercely defensive of the club. Arsenal fans simply join in with the critics. The interesting thing is, history will record that Mustafi, Mertesacker and Ozil ALL ARE world cup winners. History wont record the sustained unwarranted political distorted melodramatic criticisms of these 3 guys our own 3 players.
I didn’t criticize the team. My emotions are in check.
Thanks.
Have a nice day.
Thanks mate, you too. You always provide solid food for thought…
Tim, when we had that great away form I think conversely our home form was not so great. Am I remembering correctly?
Spot on, Tim. So much of sport is psychological. Smaller teams no longer view us as a dominant club. Unless we make significant changes in personnel and team vision, it’s only a matter of time before the Emirates “citadel” is found out as well.
I’m a recovering Dallas Cowboys fan. When I recall the ’93, ’94, and ’96 Super Bowl winning teams (Aikman, Smith, Irvin), I remember it felt like opposing teams just knew what was coming and were powerless to stop it. John Madden used to say, “They (the Cowboys) are gonna run the ball until you make them stop.” I loved that team. They KNEW they were better than you, and they knew YOU knew it, too.
Arsenal have to find a way to reclaim the intimidating aura it once had. Winter is coming…
Fellow recovering cowboys fan. I grew up watching the 90s cowboys, and you’re right, they definitely had that intimidating aura that could practically beat teams before the game even started. Like the Invincibles, or Fergie’s best United teams. We haven’t had that air of excellence for a long time.
Indeed. Honestly, that aura is why I hate the Patriots so much. Brady is great. He makes everyone else on that offense better (and that challenges the defense to keep up). Consequently, the Pats know they are better than you, and they know you know they are better. Not sure how the Eagles won…
So true, also, regarding the Invincibles. Alan Davies recounts a run-in he had with Pat Rice where Pat explained how opposing teams often felt in the tunnel lining up against the squad, “…you had Henry who was 6’3”, then Gilberto was 6’2”, and you had Dennis who was 6’1″…and the boys were like ‘oh we don’t fancy this much…'”
I hate to admit it, but yeah, that’s a big reason why I hate the Pats. Brady and Belichick are ruthlessly excellent and they know it, and we know it.
Question: can such ‘auras,’ for lack of a better word, be intentionally built or cultivated by an organization? Or is it more a function of an organization obtaining uniquely excellent individuals?
I believe “auras” are definitely cultivated. It’s conscious myth-making. From Sun Tzu to the Spartans to the All Blacks, the results on the “battlefield” come from a series of specific choices and narratives designed to win the battle before the fight commences.
It all works until, as far as Sparta was concerned, it doesn’t.
I grew up watching the 70’s Cowboys, whose trajectory is much like Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal.
Interesting. Those were the Landry years, yeah?
Very fair point, Tim. I “grew up” watching the 80s ‘boys – bit too young to remember the ’78 team (rumor has it that D. Pearson is a distant relation), but those were lean years, so I focused on the triplets… 🙂
I predict a semi-collapse. Sorry, not sorry. 8 points from the remaining 6 games.
Napoli (H) = win
Watford (A) = loss
Napoli (A) = loss
Crystal Palace (H) = win
Wolves (A) = draw
Leicester (A) = draw
Brighton (H) = win
Burnley (A) = loss
My theory is that, going back to Wenger days post-Highbury, the mental weakness is related to the comfort of surroundings… the Emirates, Colney – too nice, too comfortable. As soon as these players have to go to older, cramped, less comfortable surroundings they tend to go fetal. Napoli is an old, decrepit stadium with a very passionate crowd. I predict a bad loss there, maybe we’ll have enough from the first leg to survive, but I’d be surprised. The fact that our remaining home games are away at smaller, older fields doesn’t fill me with hope.
It was a good run but we really should have taken it to Everton yesterday like the world was at stake. When we didn’t, when we showed so much meekness going forward, that told me we probably won’t make it over the finish line. 5th.
I will stake $10 this prediction will not happen as you predicted.
That’s easy to just say it won’t happen. What do you think will happen?
Haha, I don’t predict anything about Arsenal so that I don’t jinx the club. But I’ll say that I’m a optimistic we will qualify for the Champions League.
Over the course of a 38 game season, the table does not lie.
We are NOT a mid-table team (upper or not), because that’s not where we are in the table. Yes, we have problems, some of them big ones. But gooners can’t flay us when we finish 6th, and by the same token dismiss our current placement. If 5 weeks or so from now we slip to 6th or 7th, fine. But we are a Top 4 team, unless the table decides otherwise.
Our overall results against the other team in the Top 6 (except for City both games and Liverpool away), show that our current position, 4th, is an accurate reflection of were we are, relative to the other teams in the league.
However, very true that we are not as technical as we used to be. But that has been the case for a while now, since we started buying players like OX and fewer Van Persies.
Of course the league table lies. Last season Man U finished 2nd and they were utter trash fire.
So was everyone else below them, including us. They finished 2nd because they were the 2nd best team over the course the English Premier league season. The rest apart from City were just crapper than they were. And oh, theyd won the Europa league end of the previous season.
Because of de Gea’s Ludacris saves percentage. That reminds me of the old joke, Jesus saves, Ludacris withdrawals.
It’s possible to irrationally overperform. Stocks do it all the time. People do it all the time. It’s completely normal in the stats world (the real world) to have outliers.
That’s why they bumped back down to earth and why signing OGS looks like the dumbest piece of business they have done in the last three years.
I’d like to learn more about stats. Aside from an introductory college course a decade ago, I’m pretty naive about the field. Any recommendations for a good starting point to learn more?
Can you explain more regarding OGS being bad business? Not sure I follow. It seems like a reasonable choice to me…then again, I thought Arteta was the man for the job.
Two words: Santi Carzola. Teams do not “press” Arsenal so much as they sprint into (and through) tackles. When they tried that with Santi, most of the time he would embarrass them. There has been nobody since Santi who can do that, so, at home, with already lenient referee, teams can go full throttle.
We miss the little magician tremendously. He was simply impossible to get the ball off of. The harder opponents tried to dispossess him, the more he made them pay for it.
Mics knows…
Speaking of.. he’s been in great form for Villareal. He looked crushed to miss a last minute penalty that would’ve netted them a draw.
We really miss him-though any player with some ability to dribble through the middle would do-Wijnauldum has been a revelation for Liverpool and Dembele didn’t he same job adequately for Spurs though neither approached Santi’s level of skill.
Has anyone been following the Academy? Arsenal U-18s are on the cusp of winning the league title with the latest Henry-in-the-making, Folarin Balogun who is one of the best young strikers in England.
If Medley, Smith-Rowe and some of these other kids come good, it will be happy days. Mertesacker knows best…
So..not that it much matters, but I’m back.. and read through some of the blogs I’d missed.
To the Joan Jett song..A suggestion.
I love Arsenal. We’re gunning for the top, gonna get that trophy.
I love Arsenal. Fighting for the cause with Emery.
I understand and agree with the idea that we’re stuck between identities. I disagree with the suggestion that we ought to accept that we’re midtable and look to make up for a lack of technical excellence with some physicality. Once that happens, I fear we’re never going to be anything other than midtable. We’re not going to spend our way out of this, clearly. So if we’re ever to rise back up we need to keep playing with the attitude that we aim to be the best. Of course even the best need to be able to mix it up occasionally, but I wouldn’t accept that as the plan.
It is a mental issue. I think it kind of got out of hand at the beginning of last season after a few questionable ref decisions left us starting off the season with away losses. It then became a thing among the media and the fans, and the players couldn’t lift themselves out of it. This season the atmosphere around the club is better (except for the self inflicted Ozil drama) we have a better squad than last season, and two strikers who were killing it earlier but the away woes remain. Even the refs aren’t as bad (they’re still bad)
The fresh start with a new manager should help but maybe Emery is too analytical about the preparation. Sometimes the best way out of a funk is to just say f*** it let’s just play, instead of focusing on all the things you are supposed to do. But hey, before anyone jumps on me, this is just a guess.
Nice song suggestion!
Nice work, Shard!
Great post, Tim, and great point about how psychological armor helps (or hurts) performance.
As to the point about not being tough, or technical enough, I wonder when we lost our status as a team that could pass its way out of trouble? I don’t recall any season in recent memory when we weren’t vulnerable to a press. I guess with Santi we had a player who could break the lines but I can’t think of anyone else.
We had wilshere who sadly got injured way too often. Before that we had fabregas who was excellent in ball retention. Nasri, arshavin…
Its down to recruitment in the last years of Wenger that we have become shifty faced.
I disagree completely. If arsenal qualify for champions league, remove the deadwood and make 5 top class signings, we’ll finish 1st or 2nd next season. We’re not far off the top.
I used to think this way….not to besmirch. Having supported the team for a fair number of years, and seen the same scenes replayed, I know we are not not far from the top.
Perhaps, but when was the last time we signed five top class players in a single transfer window? I mean, if Everton or Wolves make five world class signings this summer, they’ll compete too. Hell, those teams might be more likely than us to actually spend the cash needed to bring in those five top players this summer.
I’m more likely to sign a world class player than Arsenal…
I once attended a conference dedicated to some esoteric topic, I forgot which exactly. The host had a guy come on stage and asked him to extend his arms laterally and to carry two dictionaries, one per hand. He asked him to stay as long as he could with his arms extended while the host was timing the performance. After a minute or so, the guy cracked and his arms went down. The host then asked him to do it again but also asked the audience to really support the guy mentally, even vocally if they wanted. We really had to root for him. As a result, the guy, still tired from the first attempt, beat is previous time by more than 50%. That is when I understood why home teams tend to win. Until then it had always been a bit of a surprise to me that this home advantage was so powerful. (In my playing days, we had 20 spectators max! Never truly experienced a massive support.) There must be ways to fight this home advantage. I wonder if the science of sport addresses this, mental preparation, filtering the sounds, ignoring them, hypnosis, develop an ability to “carry” your home support away from home…
…his previous time… Sorry!
Further on Lonestar Gooner’s point on cultivating auras. I think it is underrated how great a job was done by Arsenal and Wenger to maintain Arsenal as a big club, with a growing following and brand name, even under the negative, often malicious, narrative promoted by the media.
It is part of the reason why they had my full support throughout. It is also partly why I oppose the betrayal of Arsenal’s values under the guise of change. Included in those values is a commitment to playing technical, attack minded football, rather than Troy Deeney’s brand.
Fair points, Shard.
The away form is very concerning. I don’t think the lads are quite going to make top 4. We have 3 away games against newly reformed Leicester under Brendan Rogers, Wolves and Watford. All those teams are playing for a top 6 place. The way Arsenal played against Everton didn’t do anything to settle the nerves. So here’s hoping for a good first leg against Napoli.
arsenal’s away form has been downright atrocious! with that, i’m not too concerned that arsenal lost on sunday. it’s been tough with injuries. ramsey came on and helped turn the game but he wasn’t fit to play from the start. emery’s choice was to sit an injured ramsey for everton and possibly have him for the rest of the season or play an unfit ramsey for everton and possibly lose him for the rest of the season. for me, that’s an easy choice; you sit ramsey. wenger, however, probably would have played ramsey from the start.
also, emery has to manage elneny. for elneny to be fully fit and know that ramsey isn’t fit but the boss still chooses to play ramsey, or an out of position iwobi, over him would be a gut punch to elneny’s confidence. arsenal still needs elneny to be a fully engaged member of the team, in training, in the locker room, and potentially on the pitch on match day. considering elneny hasn’t played much this season, to get the start alongside a youngster and at goodison park, i thought he did okay. that was a tough assignment. emery’s decision to play elneny from the start was sound from a management perspective.
I don’t necessarily disagree. I certainly didn’t have a particular problem with the starting lineup when it was announced. But it just didn’t work. We couldn’t get the ball up to the forwards. It might have been better to play Suarez maybe as one of the CMs? Or go with 4 at the back? Play AMN in the middle?
What I mean to say is that the coach still had options. The option he chose didn’t work.
Elneny has started what, 2 PL games? I like the guy, and I think squad players like him are needed. But man, he’s not been used. This game hardly makes it keeping him involved. I get what you are saying, but I doubt it makes much difference either way at this point.