11 – Position on the Premier League Table
9 – Goals scored in 9 matches played
10 – Goals allowed in 9 matches played
10 – Expected goals scored in 9 matches
12.5 – Expected goals against in 9 matches
13 – Place on the League table sorted by expected goals for
14 – Place on the League table sorted by expected goals against
13 – Place on the League table sorted by expected goals difference
16th – Shot creating actions per 90
2.73 – Shot creating actions per90 by Dani Ceballos (leads Arsenal)
2.42 – Shot creating actions per90 by Willian
0.96 – Shot creating actions per90 by Pepe
3 – Total number of shot creating actions this season by Pepe
1 – Number of those that came from open play
12th – Progressive distance passed this season
14th – Key passes
10th – Expected assists
9th – Final third passes completed
13th – Passes into the penalty area
11th – Crosses into the penalty area
12th – Progressive passes
4th – Progressive distance carried! (YAY!!!)
4th – Fewest miscontrols! (YAY!!!)
6th – Fewest dispossessed! (YAY!!!)
5th – Best targeted reception rate (WOO HOO!!!)
17th – Attempted dribbles
17th – Dribbles won
13th – Touches in the final third
14th – Touches in the opposition penalty box
But we are good at defense! (NOOOOT)
6th – Most touches by the opposition in our final third
7th – Most touches by the opposition in our penalty box
5th – Worst in Progressive passing allowed
4th – Worst in Key Passes allowed
7th – Worst in expected assists allowed
7th – Worst in final third passes allowed
6th – Worst in Passes into the penalty area allowed
5th – Worst in passes allowed
6th – Worst in passes completed against
5th – Worst in shots allowed
7th – Worst in shots on target allowed
3rd – Fewest tackles won
1st – Worst in the League in tackles attempted
5th – Worst in pressures attempted
6th – Worst in pressures won
6th – Worst in pressures in the opposition final third
3rd – Worst in most blocks needed
4th – Worst in most blocked shots
3rd – Worst in most errors committed in defense (oh, you thought that was gone?)
2.5 – Expected goals for Leeds
0.9 – Expected goals for Arsenal
0.3 – Expected goals for Bukayo Saka on his one shot
91 – Pressures by Arsenal against Leeds
142 – Pressures by Leeds
25 – Shots by Leeds
9 – Shots by Arsenal
But hey, it was Pepe who let the team down.
Anyway, folks, I’m not going to dip into the comments because I’m done arguing about Arsenal. We suck. We have sucked for years and Arteta has made us worse.
The good news is that at least we didn’t lose yesterday. Arsenal football club, one of the richest clubs in world football, went to the home ground of a newly promoted side – who has spent jack shit on their team this year! – and played for a fucking draw. We played low block Sam Allardyce football from the 10th minute on against Leeds.
You can blame “the players” all you like. But you can’t look me in the face and say that the 10 teams above us in the table all have better teams than we do. You can’t say that Leeds have a better team than Arsenal. And you can’t say that we haven’t spent money: we have spent more money than most of the teams above us and our salary is top six.
The cold fact is that Arteta has us playing George Graham football. Some folks wanted their “Arsenal back” and they got it. Congratulations! At the rate we are going we will finish 14th in the League but because of the system we play, we might even go on to win the Europa League. And that makes some folks happy. We didn’t lose yesterday and that also makes some folks happy.
We play low block football, the most basic form of football imaginable. If your argument is that we have to do this because the players suck then it’s going to be probably 4 years before we can get out from under the contracts of Willian, Xhaka, Pepe, Mustafi, Ozil, Sokratis, Runnarson, Soares, Kolasinac, David Luiz, Mari, Torreira, Guendouzi, and Mavropanos and start playing something resembling good football.
So, no sense in responding to me. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves but I’m pretty much done talking about Arsenal until I see something like a change of direction in the team’s approach. Until then, there’s nothing to talk about, really.
This team is in unacceptable condition.
UNACCEPTABLE.
Willian. 10,000 years dungeon.
Pepe. 10,000 years dungeon.
Arteta’s low block. 1 MILLION YEARS DUNGEON.
hahahahah
perfect
agreed. that was cute.
We play so terribly all the time these days that I find myself hardly able to watch full matches, or sometimes I’ll have them on but I’ll do something else like cook dinner or watch paint dry, which means I often have little to say here about the games themselves. In recent years I’ve begun to enjoy following the followers of Arsenal more than Arsenal itself. For instance, I enjoy reading the blogs, listening to the podcasts, and interacting with folks here, and I think that’s primarily how I follow the club now (if you can call that ‘following’).
I don’t know what has gone so wrong lately, though. I mean, this is the same manager that won the FA Cup in his first season in charge, and has also helped us improve results against the bigger sides. Part of it, though, must be a result of the league being much more competitive than it used to be. There just isn’t the same gap in quality that used to be there when I first started watching the PL, and so to say that many of the teams above us are worse than us on paper (and thus that we should be truly appalled at how poorly we’re doing in relation) doesn’t have quite the same rhetorical force as it once did.
Tim, is this post an indication that you are now firmly in the #ArtetaOut camp? I’m not there (not yet anyway), but I’m also aware that my position may be based both on my waning attentiveness to the games / club and, perhaps paradoxically, my desire to see Arteta himself do well. I’ve just always liked him.
I’m in the “I don’t care” camp. If we fire him, I’m not sure we will get better. If we keep him, I’m not sure we will get better. Maybe Poch would make us better but he had Harry Kane and Kane is (this is gross to say) one of the best footballers in the League. So, I’m not sure what even Poch would do with us. Who else is available? Allegri has already turned us down (he demanded money for transfers) and any big name coach would be absolutely stupid to take on this team with these clowns in charge. The only way that Arteta goes is if the players start freaking out on him. Which could happen. Not sure. Anyway, what we are doing with the value of the players at this club (I think Arteta is destroying a lot of value with his style of play) would make a normal owner fire that coach very quickly but… Did you see the fluff piece in the Athletic on how great the Kroenke’s are? I’m going to read it (I downloaded it) but it’s 70 pages and man that’s a huge article about how great the Kroenke’s are.
As for our style of play I used George Graham intentionally up there to describe our football because that’s what Arteta is playing: very hard to beat football (low block) is good for cups and knockout tournaments and not great for League play. To win in the League, you MUST play attacking football. It can be counter attacking, that works for Jose and Leicester, but there has to be a point and method for getting forward. We have neither and seem to be getting worse at progressing the ball. It’s astonishing, really. I have no idea what we are practicing as a team any more. We can’t even take throw ins FFS.
Anyway, sandwiches. Maybe write some dumb short stories. But I don’t think we will be talking about Arsenal much around here for a while.
…and that would be totally fine with me!
That’s something I was also thinking about recently. (I know this is a bit weird)
You’re writing is so good, and your non Arsenal writing is so enjoyable and expressive (and we all love it) that sometime it feels like there’s only so much room to express that skill within the realms of writing about the current arsenal set up.
Like others have said, I’d still tune in to read your thoughts on other things like nature and birds and books and bread and whatever else you’d like to write about. If there was less Arsenal stuff I certainly wouldn’t complain. And honestly, it might be good for you and your writing to allow yourself to write about more of the things that you actually want to talk and write about.
A bit unfair on George Graham, Tim.
Yes they defended like their lives depended on it, but there was somehow a perverse pleasure in it. The determination and commitment. The pure bloody mindedness. You could never, ever accuse an Arsenal player of that era being a slacker. Willian? Ozil? Don’t make me laugh! What was also pleasing is that he didn’t get the results he got, by “buying them”. Bould, Winterburn, Dixon all cost peanuts from what was then the 2nd division. When it came to wages, Arsenal in those days were notoriously bad payers.
What they did do was move the ball forwards! Don’t run away with the idea that we parked the bus, because we didn’t.
Alan Smith was a brilliant target man, and Ian Wright up front was like a hyperactive kid from a Brockley council estate, which was basically what he was. A nightmare to mark. Think Jamie Vardy. When I watch Laca and company in comparison, I wince with embarrassment.
The main thing was, they created an atmosphere. Going to Arsenal games at Highbury during that era was great. I couldn’t wait for the weekends to come round. Worth remembering they almost went a whole season undefeated.
If the issue is greater league competitiveness, then why are we the only Big 6 that can’t stay in the top 6?
I didn’t say it was the issue. I said it was part of it, and clearly we’re not doing as good a job as we should to stay competitive in a very competitive league.
Understood. We were already declining under Wenger but it is hard to imagine that things would have gotten this bad with him, where Arsenal is now often thoroughly outplayed by lower and mid table teams. What have Arteta and Emery changed about the team that has caused this inadvertent decline? Am I naive to say that our system was fine under Wenger, we just needed better and faster defenders and a holding midfielder to cover the big gaps that were the norm under that style of play?
Yeah, I don’t know.
(I’m like those people who write “I don’t know” in response to product questions on Amazon.)
There are a few folks here who still pine for Wenger a bit. I’m in “the rot started with late Wenger and it has been exacerbated by some bad decisions from the club’s leadership” camp, though, like I say, I still have time for Arteta (i.e., that appointment might actually turn out to be a good decision).
I was very happy when they hired Arteta because I assumed that the team would play like Guardiola’s teams, given that Arteta’s only coaching experience was under Guardiola. That’s looking way off so far.
Under Wenger we’d have like 15 midfielders. Now we have something like 11 defenders.
We lost Cazorla, Wilshere and Rambo within 12 months. The moment Emery overplayed Rambo and he got injured in that run for top 4 in his first season, is the reason we didn’t make top 4 and it’s also the reason we tanked in the EL final.
Cazorla, Wilshere and Rambo were all prone to injuries but we’ve never replaced them and our brand of football, results and league position have all suffered as a result.
Wenger should have resigned/been fired summer of 2016.
We needed to get rid of Granit fucking Xhaka and buy Thomas Partey 4 years ago. We need an owner who wants to win, not just wants to collect interest on his investment. This is what happens when you have an absentee owner whose idea of participation is “greelighting” purchases from 3,000 miles away.
Mauro.
Right now we are tied with ManU and Man City is 13th
Yes but they both have a game in hand and their underlying performance metrics are not as bad as what Tim just listed for Arsenal.
actually…
Man City are a mid-table team statistically. The question with them is whether they have the personnel and manager to turn that around and make a challenge for top 6. My guess is that they do.
For me, the shock is looking at where are now vs. my expectations after the F.A. Cup and Community Shield. This team couldn’t win either of those today and it’s only been 3 months.
WTF?
Arteta is in for a shorter reign than Emery if this continues and that’s the likely trajectory unless someone’s got some pixie dust they can distribute to dramatically improve our fortunes.
Let’s talk sandwiches! Why is it called a grilled cheese s/w? I mean, you’re not actually grilling the cheese. You’re toasting or grilling the bread to make the shredded cheese filling all gooey and gooey. I like to make mine with a thin layer of Nando’s Peri-Peri garlic sauce, using low-fat marble cheddar. Balderson’s here in Ontario is only 7% MF but provides a creaminess and sharpness that belies its fat content. I don’t bake bread, and I wish I could and & 7 am has inspired me to give it serious thought, but I use Ace Bakery Harvest Grain Loaf.
That, with some fresh salad on the side and a tangy tomato soup – Son and Daughter of 1-Nil – swirl around me like kittens when I’m making it.
‘Cause it’s a cheese sandwich that happens to be grilled!
Grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup is one of the best soup-and-sandwich combinations of all time. I also gotta have a dill pickle with it.
Where I come from, it’s called a “Welsh Rarebit”.
No idea why, as I don’t think it’s anything particular to Wales.
How’s a 4 week amnesty sound? No football just talk sandwiches 😋
“He deals the cards to find the answer.
The sacred geometry of chance;
The hidden law of a probable outcome;
The numbers lead a dance.”
— Sting (‘Shape of My Heart’ / Ten Summoners Tales)
Arsenal pretty much have two left feet right now, but, if Arteta can find some vodka and champagne, we might yet dance…a boy can dream.
I was just listening to the latest Hardcore History and in it Carlin quotes a general as saying “tactics are for amateurs, logistics are for professionals”. Then I watched our game.
I was hard on Wenger at the end for failing to make tactical adjustments and naively holding onto the idea that he should just worry about Arsenal playing our football, but maybe his failing in the end was logistical – the wrong coaching staff, the wrong back room setups, antiquated training methods, etc. – but perhaps he was right to focus on a vision. Arteta is getting bogged down in minutiae, constantly micro-managing from the sidelines, ignoring a bigger picture vision. I think the team will turn on him fairly soon – players only put up with a loss of autonomy when the results are there.
A great coach gets teams to overachieve, become greater than the sum of its parts. Bielsa is a great coach. Klopp. Simeone. Pocchetino. By contrast a poor coach gets less than the sum of its parts. Arteta has to rescue this soon or he’ll be regarded as a poor coach.
I enjoy Hardcore History too (including the latest episode), but Dan Carlin takes liberties, at times, with his recounting that might obscure the larger (or, in this case, narrower point). Here’s the full quote with attribution:
“Amateurs talk about strategy and tactics. Professionals talk about logistics and sustainability in warfare” — Robert Hilliard Barrow (1922-2008), United States Marine Corps four-star general. (h/t Quora)
Gen. Omar Bradley and Caesar both understood that an army “fights on its stomach”; that the mundane, boring matters such as ensuring you have enough beans, butter, and bullets (as well has the gasoline or horses to move such material from point to point) was much more vital to winning a war than grand strategy.
To that extent, I’m not sure that quote (or sentiment) advances your larger point.
Thanks. You’re right – the full quote perhaps doesn’t support my argument, considering the “grand strategy” is lumped together with tactics. I got stuck on the idea that perhaps focusing on the details of tactical adjustments is something lesser talents focus on when they can’t motivate people to express themselves in a bigger framework. Cheers
No, thank you. When I reread my post, I feared it was a bit caustic. Many thanks for realizing no cynicism or shade was intended.
I remain a big fan of Dan Carlin and his Harcore History offerings (Common Sense… eh, not so much). His HH series “Ghosts of the Ostfront” is a must listen.
Arteta yelling at players on the sideline is one of his worst habits. I’m really struggling to understand what, exactly, he’s teaching them in training. They seem to be lost as to how to play the ball when they have it and he’s constantly telling them how to play. A year into a coaching tenure, the coach shouldn’t need to be barking orders on the sideline for 90 minutes.
I almost never see Klopp directing traffic from the sideline. Sarri sits there and has a smoke. Bielsa squats in mostly silence like he’s preparing for a bowel movement. Even Guardiola isn’t constantly nattering at his players. It’s paralyzing for a player – I’ve played under micromanaging coaches and hated it because I felt diminished, not empowered. It becomes all about the coach. Like I said, Arteta is going to sour the team on him pretty soon.
I hate to agree with you about this , but I believe it as well. If the results don’t come, they’ll stop playing for him just like with Emery . As soon as I realized how much Arteta constantly barks at the players, I started to cringe. If the players were allowed to improvise or given a bit of free reign it would be different, but Arteta’s ‘system’ seems to be the antithesis of improvisation AND he’s yelling at them all the time as well. With Emery there was a sense of headless micromanaging or something, Arteta seems to have an rigid idea he wants to employ, but it isn’t working at all.
“Paralysis by Analysis”
Wenger always said it was a waste of time, as during a game the players simply aren’t geared in to listening.
It’s really weird because when Ceballos came on yesterday I could almost immediately hear Arteta yelling “DANI! FORWARD!”
i was flummoxed, does he really have to yell at Ceballos to get forward? Then I noticed Ceb kept dropping deeper and deeper to collect the ball and get us going forward and I was even more confused. Was he telling Dani to go forward, look forward… ?? Oh my god. What is even going on?
I guess we don’t really need to understand things.
Bielsa had a poor world cup with Argentina, if you were to judge him then…
You know who is available and also a great coach? Sarri. Guarantee you we would enjoy watching his stamp on this team.
I would. I think most Arsenal fans wouldn’t. He’d buy Jorginho and this summer when we were linked to Jorg, the Arsenal supporters basically lost their collective shit.
I actually think Sarri would know how to get the most out of Lacazette and Pepe would be a new version of Dries Merten. It’s all pointless fantasy though – Arteta is here to stay for 2-3 years at least.
Yepp, sort of losing interest in football. Don’t know why. Is it poor play, no audience, a combination, age?
I don’t know but I find myself more and more stop watching, turn to something else, go outdoors. It’s just not that fun anymore😳.
Me too. I actually sometimes forget there is a game on. Unheard of.
That could be old age of course.
“Now, where was I ?”
It’s frustrating. There have been a few times where I thought I saw some positivity in the way Arteta intended to play. But it’s getting to be pretty far between. Maybe if we get Partey back and start Willock/Saka/Nelson instead of Pepe and Willian. And we do it for a few matches so they get used to each other.
Short of that, this is a shambles. The amount of money we’ve wasted in bad business is staggering. Ozil, Willian, Pepe, Mustafi, Mari. We can only hope Auba doesn’t become a part of that list.
For the first time in quite a while, I’m starting to worry about relegation. What was the quote? “We’re a Europa League team on a CL budget”. Well, lately we’ve looked like a Championship team on a Champions League budget.
I can’t imagine that anyone would disagree with the idea that the league is much more competitive from top to bottom right now then any time since the turn of the century
Sh1t, those are dismal stats. Worse than we imagined. And they absolutely dismantle the argument that we are bad at the front because we are more defensively secure at the back. The word that sums those stats up is “passivity.” We dont attack much. We dont tackle much. We dont close down much. We dont fight to win the ball much. We dont pass much. The interpretation of those figures is that we are a team waiting for things to happen. We are not, as Unai would say, “protagonists.”
Our winters of woe are usually from Christmas to start of Feb. Maybe Mikel is getting the bad stuff out of way early.
I expect Arsenal to get much worse. As soon as we start leaking goals (and that will happen) the whole charade will be exposed.
This is just bad football, folks. It’s bad tactics. It’s terrible set-up. It’s easy to coach. It doesn’t even require research into what your opponent does. Just set them out to control space. Imean, when your game plan is to go to Leeds and concede possession and collapse into a line of five to nine dudes on the 18 yard line, and expect Auba to make 90 yard sprints 15 times a game against 4 defenders, I’m afraid that you might not be a very good coach.
I feel like I could fucking coach this shit.
Mikel Artetadyce.
I really enjoyed that game in a ‘holy shit how did we not lose?’ kind of way. I just laughed when Pepe got sent off. I’m not even angry, I’m past the point where I hope for good football, I’m now just in it out of curiosity to see where all this ends.
Leno and the back line are holding things together but it’s all hanging by a thread.
Leeds were fantastic.
It’s really quite dire isn’t it. We’ve given up the shitty Emery overlap with low crosses to…..? for a team that does a lot of standing and shuffling. I am actually not sure what the ‘attacking’ philosophy is beyond lump it into the space and hope for magic.
I guess the proactive question is….can this squad be salvaged can Arsenal attract anyone capable of doing so? Part of me would love to see the Bielsa meltdowns. You want non-negotiables hot damn does he have those in spades. But we’re coming up on 18ish months of Arteta management and the chore of watching Arsenal over the last 3 to 4 years in the Prem is becoming tiresome.
Evening all. Tim got to pull you up comparing MA to GG. When we won the league in 91 we lost only 1 game (away to cfc shouldn’t have lost but were only allowed 1 sub and another player of ours got injured so we played with 10 most of the match) Afc were top scorers and conceded only 18 ( 42 match season btw bettered only by Lfc (16/42) . We played on the front foot all season and had dogs of war all over the pitch. Some1 somewhere hit the nail on the head the other day. MA has Steve Round as his assistant coach who was coach to big Sam and D Moyse and the other chap we have (name escapes me) was coach to non other than Van Gaal at Utd. Enough said. Goodnight from across the pond y’all
Quite agree, Tony. I made more or less the same point earlier on in the thread.
Arteta has made us quite good at preventing the opposition from scoring goals and that has been the strength of our team since he took over. The reason we are struggling now is no one on our squad is scoring even when we create some decent chances on the counter attack. Auba has not been scoring and we don’t have anyone else that we expect to score. Teams who have mid table or lower talent levels but outperform expectations almost always do it by playing good defense and making themselves difficult to beat and finding ways to score goals either on counter attacks or set pieces. That’s where this squad is right now.
“Arteta has made us quite good at preventing the opposition from scoring goals…”
The stats of the season so far show that that’s not true …
“6th – Most touches by the opposition in our final third
7th – Most touches by the opposition in our penalty box
5th – Worst in Progressive passing allowed
4th – Worst in Key Passes allowed
7th – Worst in expected assists allowed
7th – Worst in final third passes allowed
6th – Worst in Passes into the penalty area allowed…”
There’s more (sorry if Im effectively rewriting Tim’s blog)
10 – Goals allowed in 9 matches played
10 – Expected goals scored in 9 matches
12.5 – Expected goals against in 9 matches
13 – Place on the League table sorted by expected goals for
14 – Place on the League table sorted by expected goals against
13 – Place on the League table sorted by expected goals difference
Yes, 10 goals in 9 matches look decent, but look at the frickin activity in our box, and the resultant xG against. Leeds might have scored 3 yesterday. Other teams are not going to be that inefficient. If we keep playing like we do, someone is going to give us a hiding. 9 games is a significant sample size, a shade under 25% of the season.
We are playing badly all over the pitch.
Might have scored 3? That’s being generous!
And the rest.
Well one stat you didn’t include was the fact we are tied for third on goals against.
Was that deliberate?
FFS – we all knew when MA8 was hired that he would need few years/transfer
periods to get the team he wanted.
It seems you and a few others have forgotten that.
The defence has improved a lot.
Next (I hope) the attack will improve. Baby steps. Nobody can improve all aspects of the team immediately with limited changes in personnel. Be happy we are one of the best in defence. I’m sure the midfield and attack will improve with better players we will bring in. That depends on Kroenkes.
Yeah – I know there are bad decisions (Willian- wtf were they thinking?)
We will get better. (Everyone else has) It will take time.
I’ve been an AFC fan for 60+ years. We are an institution admired around the world. We are going through a rebuilding stage.
Be a fan – or don’t sprain your ankle jumping off the bandwagon.
2nd. We are 2nd in goals allowed.
I’ve been saying that it will take years to fix this team for… well for years. Either you don’t follow my blog or you’ve forgotten.
I’ve been an Arsenal fan for 20 years. I don’t know, does that make my opinion less valid? Anyway, this is a blog where I write what I think about a variety of topics. I don’t charge money. I don’t even have ads. I’m not trying to make myself famous. I’m not angling for a job anywhere. It’s just my unvarnished opinion on things. Take it or leave it.
I really hate this pious attitude some Arsenal fans have toward others when they disagree. “Be the right kind of fan”. You know that what you supported 60 years ago and what you support now are absolutely nothing alike. What you are telling me to unflinchingly support is an investment vehicle for a billionaire. You might as well tell me to “not break my ankle jumping off the bandwagon” of a mutual fund.
I know what Arsenal used to mean: my first ever match was at Highbury, I saw the worn steps where millions of fans had gone before me. We aren’t that club anymore. We are a money making scheme, an investment vehicle, owned by a guy who just wants to watch his investment grow without really putting too much effort into it.
You are right, everybody is entitled to their opinion and people don’t have to fight if disagree. I am not on Arteta Out bandwagon yet, but I enjoy reading your thoughts and stats collected.
The biggest difference between supporting Arsenal 60 years ago and supporting them now is really one of “identity”.
Being an Arsenal player meant something, not just to the fans but the actual players themselves. It came across in the way they played and conducted themselves, even during the lean years. Once an Arsenal man, always an Arsenal man.
Likewise the owners were very much “Arsenal men”, going back to generations of the Hill-Woods and more recently David Dein. You couldn’t possibly imagine them being involved with any other club. It was in their blood.
Arsenal fans took a great pride in that and identified with it completely.
A non-negotiable.
A lot of that has been lost. At the moment, Arsenal feels like “just another team”. A franchise.
That’s a massive loss.
I hope everyone who participated in chasing Wenger out, even if only by failing to defend him, is happy with our ‘pragmatic’ football and our ‘ruthless’ front office.
I believe the English phrase is, “Be careful what you wish for”.
In case you forgot what it was like when football was an art
https://youtu.be/G-h8ZMV62_M
Wow now that was beautiful. Thank you
I love Wenger. I even have a column I write here about Wenger’s philosophy. And Wenger had to retire eventually. It’s silly to think he shouldn’t have left. The problem isn’t that he was replaced it’s the front office and their complete inability to replace him.
This feels like centuries ago. The Giroud pass for Wilsheres goal against norwich, oof…. sumptuous
Tim
Longevity of being an Arsenal fan does not by itself improve opinions , but being critical helps to locate shortcomings. Anxiously await your posts and of a few other posters on this blog as well. Guess you do attract the inteligencia as well. Hope you do keep writing about Arsenal too. It is bit painful to keep on repeating when the same deficiencies keep on repeating. Conscience should not take a break. Very few can put it up in numbers as well as you do
Claude
We are second in the league in goals allowed this season. Since the start of 2020 we have conceded only 30 goals in 33 games if you include the league games and last years FA cup run. The record would look even better if you included Europa league, community shield and the EFL cup games earlier this year. We have a large enough sample size to draw some conclusions and no one can dispute the fact that we have been very good at preventing the opposition from scoring goals since Arteta took over.
I think Tim basically wins the argument (not an argument) about stats and passivity I was having with him the other day.
I’m still not angry about any of it, and I wish peace and calm and homemade reuben sandwiches on anybody who is.
And continued thanks to Tim for his patience and fortitude
Enjoy this site, it is amazing really.
Your site, write about whatever you wish, whenever and however.
Do NOT agree with some that is said here, agree with much, and reflect upon almost all the ideas represented.
The data is straightforward, telling, and does not seem to be narrative driven, the stats drive the narrative, and the data is some of the best there is.
AFC sucks right now, but man oh man that “Elvis sandwich” can’t wait to try one sitting in my hut at waters edge pondering the infinite.
Just keep writing….
I understand that our defensive stats (other then goals conceded) are concerning. However, I don’t understand how you can have a discussion about the effectiveness of our team defense and ignore the fact that we have been one of the best if not the best in the league at preventing the opposition from scoring goals since Arteta arrived.
no one is ignoring anything. we’re simply not dismissing what our eyes are telling us when we watch arsenal; the fairly decent goals against record this season is not because arsenal are playing great football. that’s what’s plain to see…and is what everyone else here is talking about: the quality of the football. the question is what are you talking about?
the most frustrating factor in talking with you is that you’ll say something based on a sliver of evidence that will be factual, which you will try to turn it into a legit talking point. simply stating something factual doesn’t make it legitimate. you have to look at the whole picture, not just a small segment that supports an argument.
likewise, you have to open your to the idea that you may be wrong or may have missed something in your initial assessment. that’s the nature of most of the folks that tend to post here. while we all act like we know everything, we come here to learn stuff from each other; it’s not just about being right or winning an argument. you, however, never seem to do that; you only seem to care to make your point and all other points be damned. what’s worse is that your posts tend to be redundant.
for instance, arsenal kept a clean sheet on sunday but everyone who saw the game will know it’s not because they played better than leeds. what’s significant is not the clean sheet but the fact that arsenal got absolutely slapped by a newly-promoted side. that’s not supposed to happen, ever! that’s why tim has aptly titled the thread “unacceptable”! however, you’ll harp on about how arteta’s team kept another clean sheet. everyone else is like “dude, how are we going to get this elephant that just shat on the coffee table from in front of the tv?”
All true but unfortunately it will always fall on deaf ears
did you see Bill’s response? it’s amazing. I’ve been doing this for 12 years, I’ve never seen someone so bloody single-minded.
You know what? this is bad form on my part. we need to be addressing the ideas and not the person. I apologize, Bill.
Yes, Arsenal have been very lucky at preventing the other team from scoring goals (by completely eviscerating their offense and playing the worst, most basic, football imaginable).
Where I disagree is that this is sustainable. But hey, we shall see.
After weeks I went for a run, ahead of the game. During the 2nd half of the game, I was helping the kids with some homework.
I was a satisfied man at the end of the day.
A combination of watching this Arsenal team and the insight provide by Tim of how so far we have managed to scrape some points, has reduced my enthusiasm. Maybe I’m a glory hunter. Personally, I think I’ve been spoilt watching Wenger-ball. 1-2 touch football, even with the likes of Denilson, Chamakh, Vela!
Ofcourse, Wenger stayed beyond his time.
Josh
No one is suggesting we are playing great football. However, we have a reasonably large sample size now and its not been eye pleasing but there can be no disputing the way we have been playing has been effective very effective at preventing the other team from scoring goals
Hi all.
Long-time reader, extremely-rare commenter.
Some of you may be interested in this: Arsene Wenger on the BBC’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ radio program. A conversation about his life and career, accompanied by pieces of music he chose as being important or significant to him.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000plw9
(Spoiler alert: First one is Bob Marley and the Wailers ‘Could You Be Loved’.)
I feel your pain, couldn’t imagine having to write about this circus as much as you have.
I use to throw my two cents in more frequently when I had faith to some degree. That, disappeared some time ago and allowed me to put more time into things that make me happy. My boys, art, music, women (just the one), skating, walks etc…
Especially in this time, this year has been good to me, spent most of it tying up loose ends, and having fun.
Mikel started off well but it seems his ego is bigger than I could ever imagine. Shades of Wenger is turning my stomach, like for real? You say you’re all about arsenal but clearly it’s all about you.
Transfers have improved at least and I’m prepared to wait till he has a few more pieces before it’s Mikel out. I actually thought he was intelligent, I’m not so sure now.
It’s a bit sad to see lot of people whose opinion I value getting so emotional about Arteta. And it’s been just 9 games in the season. We are already fantasising about potential replacements. Usually, I am pretty frustrated with Bill but I feel this tome he does have a point about us defending better..
I can see the stats maybe don’t back it up. But overall the system does inculcate a better mindset. The same style won us FA cup Abd we were all gushing over Arteta and his coaching methods. The constant coaching from sideline was applauded as being involved and being so refreshing from Wenger’s hands-off approach. Now it is unbearable for the fans.
So what changed? Basically, we can’t seem to score. If we were more fluid in attack, I don’t think we would be having this conversation. Poor Emery was similarly hounded off. Look at his team right now in La Liga. I don’t know if Arteta is a good manager or not. I hope he turns out to be brilliant. But such bumps were expected. He is a rookie and he needs to experience these tough moments to ultimately bring his team and himself to a better level. If he succeeds, great. If not, then we will know that we backed the wrong coach. Either way, he will have my support.
Also, I don’t think I can fault Kroenkes much for what they have done for last few years. They have consistently bought big money players since Ozil moved from Madrid. They entrusted the club to experienced football people. Wenger, Raul, Edu have all got experience and been given responsibility to run the club. We can’t blame the owners for bad purchases made by these football people.
A quick note on Villareal:
La Liga is a disaster right now. I’ve watched Barcelona play and they are a shell of their former selves. Same with Real Madrid. It’s nuts over there right now.
That said, Emery’s trick right now is that his team have won the 2nd most pens in the league. When you look at non-pen xG they drop down to 6th. Now, he does have the 4th best xGA so his rep as a defensive coach is showing up there.
That said, they are protagonists (as Emery would say) which he absolutely was not while he was in charge of Arsenal. They lead la liga in progressive distance passing and are upper echelon in a number of other progressive stats. His key passes numbers are a bit worrying but all together, Villareal is a side which progresses the ball very well and gets into the opposition penalty area.
They are, however, still a very passive defensive side. And as soon as teams realize that his team won’t mix it up with them, they will start bossing them around. In fact, the most worrying stat I see is that Villareal are 3rd in high pressures applied against them and 2nd in being tackled in the final 3rd. Once opponents figure out that they can and should just press his team high up the pitch his entire house of cards will crumble.
Which is exactly what happened at Arsenal.
The team that’s most interesting from a stats standpoint is Real Sociedad. They do all the stats right as far as I’m concerned. They have 4th most touches in the opp. final third, and 4th fewest opp. touches in their own final third. 4th least progressive distance carried against them, 6th in progressive carries.
They are third in high pressures, and 5th in being pressed high. They are the 2nd best team in terms of preventing SCA90 with just 11. Arsenal are 6th worst in the Premiership with 20.67 per90.
Will Nacho Monreal win la Liga? I feel that’s a bit too much but man they are really playing some good football right now. Very front-foot stuff.
nacho!!!great signing for them…and he only cost sociedad a hot dog and small bag of potato chips.
They have Monreal and David Silva. I saw them play a bit the other day, they look really good too.
It’s such a weird leage.
ugh, diego armando…r.i.p.
…second only to messi.