Lol.. do you think Arteta reads my blog?
Me yesterday:
“You remember how I warned you about Arsenal’s defense being on the verge of collapse? Well, it has collapsed, just not in the way that I said they would.
Instead of conceding goals the normal way, by conceding a bunch of good chances for the opposition, we’ve gone back to conceding goals through ill discipline and errors. We have actually tightened up the defense from a “shots” perspective which should be good.
Meanwhile… up front, the place where most folks want to see Arsenal improve, has improved in the last 4 games! But there, again, indiscipline has cost Arsenal dearly: Xhaka’s sending-off has cost us 3 points, at least.
All of which is to say that even the best plans are undone by two own goals and two red cards!
If you need math to show the difference: based on shot positions for and against, Arsenal had a 65% chance of winning against Burnley, the Own Goal reduced that to just 37%. Against Everton, we had a 55% chance of victory which was reduced to just 18% with the Own Goal. Ugh.
But results are king in football. No one wins promotion on expected goals or probability alone, you need to get actual goals, actual points, and actual wins.”
Arteta today:
“When you talk about the dressing room and the atmosphere at the club, the atmosphere is good, as good as it can be when we are all hurting because results in the Premier League are hurting us. Everyone is worried and everybody is suffering because we want much more. We are working to get much more. In the dressing room when you are losing football matches it is difficult because they suffer as well because they care, because they want more, because the confidence level starts to go, but the unity is there.
“Is there 100 per cent unity around the club? It is impossible in any club even when you win because when players are not participating, it is more difficult but when you look at the perspective about how we are losing football matches and how we are where we are, it is pretty incredible.
“Last year we won the game against Everton with a 25 per cent chance of winning, you win 3-2. Last weekend, it was a 67 per cent chance of winning, and a nine per cent chance of losing, and you lose. Three per cent against Burnley and you lose, seven per cent against Spurs, and you lose.
“There is something else apart from that it is not just the performance on the pitch, it is something else that needs to go our way and at the moment it doesn’t. Saying that, it doesn’t care and you lose, and the only thing that anyone cares is that you lose a football match.”
(quote via www.arsenal.com)
We talked about irony (and apples) yesterday and today’s word is coincidence. By the way, most of the ironic things in Alanis Morissette’s song are actually just coincidences. Like rain on a wedding day, that’s not ironic, that’s just weather. Divorce on a wedding day would be ironic. And especially so if the audience knew that the bride had already filed for divorce but the groom didn’t know. That would even be dramatic irony.
Anyway, people are jumping on Mikel for this quote but most of the criticism comes from folks only seeing the penultimate paragraph. He’s answering a question about the squad’s mood after all these losses and I think one can gather from the reply that he is aiming this at the players – suggesting that they need to hold their nerve – rather than as something he firmly believes. He’s a smart guy, he knows that dropping two own goals and two red cards drastically changed the expected win %. What he means here is that we are creating chances and limiting our opponents. Which is exactly what I said yesterday, coincidentally.
Happy holidays!
Happy holidays!
Our last three opponents in the league have conceded possession hence why our possession and chance creation numbers are up. I think you’ll see the opposite against Chelsea. I think teams have figured we’re toothless in attack, prone to errors and if pushed prone to ill discipline. Just let us have the ball and watch us pass it sideways or backwards until we lose concentration. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure a gameplan which beats us.
His communication today was another clumsy public interview. He could have just said we were dumb and a little unlucky. Once you’re quoting XG as a defence you’re in bald men fighting over a comb territory (Ha!)
we’re not creating good chances so they shouldn’t really count as chances created. except for the penalty, how many good chances did arsenal create against everton? there were a few hopeful chances but not any good ones…and that’s bad soccer.
There was one great cross across the goal from the right late in the match. Perfect opportunity. But there were no Arsenal players making runs towards the goal mouth. Not even within 2 meters. Does that count as a good chance?
Once again I missed Giroud, as he loves meeting those at the near post. Last season Auba probably would have gotten it as well. This season…well, that doesn’t even register as a shot.
lol, Giroud isnt your man to meet crosses whipped across the face of the goal. Ozil would be out of sight on the assists record if OG had been a halfway competent finisher in Leicester’s championship season.
That said, he is a pretty good goalscorer, albeit not one who hares into the box and bundles in grasscutters. He’d be pretty useful for us now as a ball-playing classic CF, surrounded by runners and movers in Auba, Laca, Eddie and Pepe.
We were using Giroud wrong. Deschamps surrounds him with Mbappe, Grizemann and other fleet-footed strikers. He did not get a single goal in the last world cup, but was absolutely pivotal to how they played.
In that much hyped Wilshere goal against Norwich — one of the best Arsenal goals of the modern era — Santi started the party, but Giroud was the deejay. That side had everything Arteta’s Arsenal lacks — clever runs all over the park, one-touch passing, creative vision.
Giroud is unhappy with his minutes at Chelsea, and irony of ironies, about the effect on his France chances (hat’s why he left us for them). I reckon that Mikel should give him a call. I don’t see why Lampard would want to help him out, though. Arsene could have refused the Chelsea move, but he puts players first.
Giroud is actually so good at heading goals he’s a statistical outlier and overperforms the metric massively.
Oh absolutely. Did say that he was a pretty good goalscorer. And an absolutely superb header of the ball (and a decent defender of opposition set-pieces as well).
i agree with tim. giroud’s an aerial beast! likewise, i agree with you that wenger used him wrong. i always said giroud needs someone to stay close to him the way that griezmann does or the way that hazard and pulisic have at chelsea. even when arsenal signed lacazette, i suggested that laca’s best way back into the french team is to compete with the role that griezmann does for france, not to compete with giroud; a losing battle. i even suggested that arsenal play alexis behind giroud.
wenger wasn’t hearing any of that because mesut was his baby. while i understand and i love ozil, he drifts too much while laca and alexis would have remained more central. many griped about giroud’s lack of pure speed. what he had was speed of thought and great timing. besides, when you’re a ball-dominant side the way that arsenal were (until giroud left) you don’t need a speedy center forward…he was always going to be in the box.
the goals he’s scored this campaign for chelsea, arsenal have no one who can score like that. such a shame. with that, when it was clear that wenger wanted to move on from him, i welcomed his departure. it was one of the best decisions of his career, possibly winning him a world cup…and he won the europa league, thrashing his former club, arsenal, in the final.
…and while i know you love tammy abraham, he’s not a center forward. the only thing he has in common with giroud is that they’re both tall. abraham is not good in the air and his hold up play is about at the same level as theo walcott. he’s a tall striker impersonating a center forward. i doubt he’ll ever make an england team.
Ok, first of all he’s already made it into the England first team on several occasions. On top of that he’s also scored for his country. And secondly, no one on your team is as gifted centrally as Abraham bar Aubameyang, and even he has trouble holding a place leading the line by himself.
Abraham’s record:
2nd youngest player to reach 20 goals for Chelsea
3rd fastest to score 20 goals. List includes Diego Costa, Hasselbaink, Tammy, Drogba, Anelka, and Torres.
He’s a center forward, trust me. Here’s some added proof of his play. It’s a bit ironic because many of you bashed Giroud when he was at Arsenal and now that he’s moved on and has started teaching our center forwards the game, all you can do is look on with envy.
Proof of Giroud’s influence on his play:
https://twitter.com/0rland1nho/status/1341350343125446658?s=19
+1
Yes, I like Tammy Abraham, who’s a good, skillful classic CF…. who has played for England and is part of their setup, Josh; and who with Rashford, Kane and Calvert-Lewin, is proof that England has some riches in the position.
He’s keeping Giroud out the Chelsea team. Kante’s link shows why. Like I said, I wouldn’t mind at all if we snatched Olly G in January.
I don’t know if you’ll read this, but I wanted to answer anyway to clear this up. Yes, Giroud was unhappy at the start of the season, owed much to the fact that he carried our team with clutch goals after project restart.
However, with some more assurances and playing time in cup competition and the league, he has come to an understanding with Lampard. I actually expect he’ll play some significant minutes vs you guys. He’s no longer on the out, which is great, because Giroud is a gifted link player and his intellectual game means he has a lot to offer.
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Thanks for another post Tim. Great stuff. I would not doubt that Arteta reads your blog or at least has someone who follows the most important Arsenal blogs and reports to the club.
Circling back to your comment yesterday I did do my homework and I clearly forgot about Isaac Hayden. That’s my bad. I had no idea Eberechi had an Arsenal connection because he was released at age 13. Interesting that we also had Harry Kane as an Arsenal player at one time but was released before age 10. I think Malen was sold before he ever played a regular season game in the PL and Gnabry never really did anything of note in the PL.
I’m not sure why I’m watching this cup tie, but I am and it’s depressing. Runarsson is objectively terrible and Elneny, Kolasinac and Ceballos can’t seem to make simple 10 yard passes. Mustafi, meanwhile, has gone back to Emery era Mustafi. How low will they go?
15 minutes in and i’m in the “arteta out” camp! this is dreadful. it’s not a lack of talent but lack of direction. arsenal look rudderless. lovely player but a clueless manager.
ceballos and martinelli are the only 2 with heart. the rest need to go to see the wizard to get some heart…and a brain.
That comment alone is worth a double thumbs up 👍👍
central defenders are CONTINUALLY letting long balls bounce…no professional team does that. my youth team doesn’t do that. everyone is simply waiting for someone else to do their job for them.
goal…ALL martinelli effort! no way eddie scores that goal.
I decided not to watch the game, though I just checked over at Arseblog’s live blog and it sounds so very Arsenal. Disastrous errors, clueless play, and an injury. Check, check, check. It be so easy to come up with an Arsenal drinking game where you come up with a list of calamities. The problem would be that you’d be dead drunk by the end of the first half!
But honestly, I simply don’t care about this competition or this result, bad as it’s looking (Laporte just made it four, and Aguero’s about to come on for a fifth and sixth, no doubt).
It’s also our second-stringers, so I’m not sure the point of getting too worked up. Arteta’s focus has to be an arresting our relegation league form. The Carabao Cup is nothing but a distraction; yes, a minor one, but a distraction nonetheless, and I’m glad we’ll have no further part.
Martinelli was such a bright introduction to this lifeless Arsenal side and now he is set for another time on the sideways. Very unlucky.
It’s hard to say anything about the game. Arsenal was completely dominated, City played tidy passes all over the pitch and accelerated their play very well.
Smith-Rowe made some good runs behind the defenders. Balogun looked well in his movement but Willock or Ceballos didn’t play any risky pass. Ceballos is extremely frustrating. He plays with such a nonchalance, but is very risk-averse in his passing and very sloppy – so many balls are far away from perfect. We’ve been blessed with amazing players on this position in the past. The difference is striking. AMN was sloppy as well, it looks cool on his good day but today he looked flat.
This team is mediocre – I believe the talent is there, many players can be good. But in this rigid system of Mikel Arteta I don’t see joy of play between the players. They all seem too scared to make something creative. And the plan, if there is any, is not good enough to win football matches on this level.
Merry Christmas everyone from
a long time reader, casual commenter.
Forget Runnarsson for a minute.
For City’s 3rd goal, Willock lost the ball in attack and Fernandinho took it. Willock? Turned away and WALKED back. No attempt to pressure the Brazilian, and win it back. Laca busted a gut to pressure Fernandino — not the fastest runner. Cedric did a half hearted press and was too easily played around, Mustafi charged out of the space on the right and was himself easily played around. If Ozil had played with the lack of urgency that Willock showed on defence, we’d be hearing about it till next week. It was a super goal, but soooo much space was yielded so easily.
Play the youngsters? If they have all of the lethargy and none of the tactical acumen of the big players, what is the point?
Ok, Runnarsson now. Rodri gave Kolasinac a slight shove, and the ball went — at headable height if Kola had jumped — in the space that Kola vacated.
What I saw was a broken team. No one except Martinelli and Lacazette appeared to give a toss when the going got rocky. Kola and Mustafi seem to have checked out. Yes, we competed well first half leading up the goal, but the players after 2-1 looked like they’ve given up. I hope they gave up on the contest and not the manager.
One of the man management issues at present is several players are either six or eighteen months away from contract end and clearly know they’re not getting renewed or played in the big games. Wenger wouldn’t have played them tonight or in any game.
As for the ‘keepers surprised Leno (who played the last round) didn’t get the nod. Some will say the Icelander was cheap but there’s cheap and there’s value. Bet we’ve got someone in the academy worth a try out.
Our little German clique of Mustafi, Kolasinac and Ozil “checked out” ages ago. We all know that. They collect their wages, stand around a bit at London Colney and then drive back home to the leafy Hertfordshire suburbs. Nice work if you can get it.
It’s not a German thing. Ozil was one of Arteta’s more effective players before the break, but carry on. Oh Per said the guy applied himself well in training. Maybe BFG is part of the German clique too?
slc, (comment below this in the thread) anyone with a properly functional pair of eyes can see that Guendouzi is a baller, and was ahead of his age, then 19, in his play. He had raw edges, but Emery got good minutes and output out of him. Wasn’t he a Mislintat spot? For 8m, we got a bargain on the player. Didier Deschamps had a ton of exceptional midfielders to choose from, but he made Matteo a part of the senior setup. Guen is significantly better than Elneny. We would be creating another Gnabry situation if we allow him to leave on the cheap.
If I’m the executive management of Arsenal, im thinking that Arteta is mad not to want to work with a player of that value to and talent ratio.
I agree it’s not a German thing. That’s not the point I’m trying to make. It’s a clique nonetheless.
Cliques occur in all football clubs. Arsenal is no exception. It’s natural that players from the same background hang out together. It’s not necessarily destructive, but it can be. A few years ago, there was an “African” clique, Song, Adebayour and Eboue, which reportedly caused Wenger a lot of concern at the time. Before that, the infamous “Essex” clique. On Tuesdays after training, Tony Adams, Ray Parlour and Perry Groves would drive out through the East End of London and get hammered. Bearing in mind that Mesut is basically ostracised, who’s to say which side of the fence his “mates” fall? It wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility that a percentage of their subconscious is coming out in sympathy. What I witnessed from Mustafi the other night, was nothing short of disgraceful. Someone who had given up even doing the basic defending. When the goals went in, you can see him waving his arms about. Not my fault! Kola plays within himself and little more. International footballers? Don’t make me laugh! They all need to go, and as swiftly as is humanly possible. My guess is they stink the place out. What must the young kids think, coming through? You know, the ones on a fraction of their salaries.
So Per is going to go public and accuse Ozil of not working hard enough? Of course not!
So Per is lying, then? This comment feels like a disagreement purely for the sake of it.
Giroud played for a manager whose whole tactical ethos was attacking football even if it meant sacrificing defense and during the Giroud era we had arguably one the best group of creative players in any team in the world and yet he only averaged 13.8 league goals per season in the 5 full seasons he played. That goal scoring output seems rather underwhelming given the situation he was playing in.
lol.. Wenger’s goals allowed per game was good. 1.95 PPG, 1.9gpg, 1 gapg.
This narrative that Wenger was “bad at defense” is garbage.
Try again!
Giroud scored 100 for Arsenal, and is second all time for France. Pretty hard to argue he’s a poor scorer.
And relative to not being good a converting crosses, pretty sure it was a near post goal from a cross that beat us in the EL final.
As for today, how the F is Runnarson ahead of Macey. He didn’t look great in Europa, and today confirmed it. Our transfer business is so bad it looks like intentional money laundering.
At least there’s some evidence that an ESR/Party midfield might be a big help.
bill, i love you bud. but they’re gonna keep giving you these minus ones because your arguments don’t have anything to do with the football we see. second, they’re so random. we’re talking about the league cup game now and you bring up giroud from before. huh???
but i’ll indulge you. sure, we have some stats guys. hell, even i have a math minor. however, we’re football folks first. let’s talk about the football we see. what qualitative argument can you make that giroud was this awful player you’re determined to make him out to be?
i have an argument for you. how good did giroud have to be to put up those numbers despite many of those seasons, wenger had giroud on the bench? have you considered that? have you considered that perhaps wenger got it wrong? maybe if wenger kept faith with giroud the way that deschamps has, giroud may only trail henry in goals for arsenal…similar to his strike record for france.
giroud is a centurion. since you’re so heavy into stats, can you tell me how many players have scored 100+ goals for arsenal while spending less than 6 seasons at the club? i’ll wait…
“All these minus ones”. Bullying, more or less, albeit fairly passively. Is there such a thing as competitive posting? Bill often makes fairly valid points, even if I don’t necessarily agree with all of them. Yes, he does tend to repeat himself, but then we all do, don’t we, myself included. Bill is invariably polite and respectful, particularly to Tim, who he invariably thanks for his efforts.
In the spirit of Christmas, give the bloke a break.
here is another problem. the young guys aren’t good enough but they’re way too close to the first team and getting far too many minutes. imagine if willock, maitland-niles, nketiah, or many of the other young guys were at the club a dozen or so years ago. would they have gotten in the squad tonight ahead of the likes of wilshere, diaby, quincy, vela, aliadiere, ramsey, coquelin, oxlade-chamberlin, gibbs, szczesny, etc.? maybe martinelli, saka, ceballos, and tierney would be young guns in that group, but not in the first team? not quite. no way martinelli plays ahead of the likes of samir or hleb. the rest of those guys wouldn’t even be a young gun…they’d be long gone…possibly league 2.
not only are these academy kids subpar players nowhere near good enough for arsenal in the cup, they’re getting minutes in the premier league too. there’s no standard of excellence; just a determination to make an academy kid into something he isn’t; a proper premier league player. meanwhile, arteta’s management of the squad has got mesut sitting at home with torreira and guendouzi on loan. nuts!
so what maitland-niles got a call up. i bet $1000 he won’t get another one.
I’ll take that wager. I’ll even promise you that he scores when we play next.
Well, I’ve seen no evidence that Guendouzi is any better. He ran around a lot like Elneny, but had poor control and was terrible in the air. And Torreira worked hard, but I’m afraid too small for that position in the PL.
Your other point is solid though. Not many of the younger players have shown better than many of those from the previous generation. Saka perhaps. So yes, some evidence that things have slipped. But not a lot of them have many first team minutes. Not compared to Wilshire, Ox or Coq.
And the first team’s record this year is crap. We really can’t get much worse by giving them more minutes.
personally, i believe guendouzi is a far more talented player than willock or niles with a much higher ceiling. . however, my point isn’t to compare guendouzi to the current lot of young players. it was a criticism of how the squad is being managed.
you know, it’s hard to play football with clown shoes on…and that’s what our backup goalkeeper is; a fucking clown! who thought it was a good idea to let this guy anywhere near the arsenal first team?
btw, emiliano martinez leads the premier league in clean sheets.
So what? Emi wouldn’t have played in the Carabao, because the choice facing Arsenal was whether to make him No 1, not No. 2. Emi is nobody’s backup. Or Leno, for that matter. We had to choose a Number 1 from two Number 1 quality goalkeepers. Tough choice, could have gone either way, but it was good business for Arsenal, and a good move for Emi. The problem isnt our No. 1…. it’s our Number 2, which should be Matt Macey.
The guy’s not good enough (as Tim warned us) but every keeper has clangers. Ask David de Gea.
my point about emi is more one of nostalgia than a comparison to leno. all of arsenal’s second string keepers of the past decade are all playing at the top level…minus those who’ve gotten old and retired. szczesny, fabianski, ospina, and martinez were all good keepers to start with. even vito mannone, who was a third string keeper is playing in ligue 1 with fabregas. this new guy is not even good enough to be an arsenal backup.
as for keepers having bad games, i concur that they all do. however, there’s a difference between having a bad game and playing bad football. the new goalkeeper plays bad football.
I remember Martinez made a horrible error in a famous 7-5 victory over Reading. Every gk makes a mistake, even these the most exciting prospects (Henderson last week?).
I would give Runarsson more time to assess him properly. Clearly Arsenal gk coach rated him highly. He won’t be a world beater probably, but still there is a chance he will be better than Almunia.
Cheers.
Trying to be positive.
Runarsson pulled off a couple of decent reflex saves.
His distribution and all round ability with his feet is good.
He plays behind someone in a number 20 shirt.
Rumoured to be a full German international, but I actually believe him to be a hologram. Might as well be invisible.
Not too fussed about losing but 1-4 at home and the fact we were so poor is a big concern. Everyone is hoping the next game will deliver a performance but it’s just not happening. No defensive solidity, pedestrian and toothless in attack. Is there evidence the players are being coached? Is there evidence the players are enjoying playing and believe any more?
I’ve made my views clear. Arteta is far from responsible for all the club’s problems but he certainly owns many of them. This team is playing so poorly everyone will fancy their chances against us. I can easily see us getting dragged into a relegation scrap and we’ll probably lose it. Can’t fault Pep for backing his mate but he couldn’t be more wrong.
Oh Tim managed to find a positively angle from this whole interview. I am optimistic.
The lack of irony in that song always drove me crazy, given its title.
I did find some irony while watching the Jets of American Football playing the Rams on Sunday. They reminded me so much of Arsenal. Sloppy play – not focusing on the details. Stupid penalties, many born of frustration. Defeated body language. The have lost confidence so they play without any conviction. The irony of course was they ended up beating the Rams after looking so terrible. Still, there’s something you can immediately recognize when a team has lost belief. And we are treading close to Jets territory these days.
Claude.
Wenger dropped Giroud and then sold him. Conte did not use Giroud as a regular starter and neither did Sarri and Lampard hasn’t used him regularly for the most part. Thats 4 PL managers who watch their teams in practice and on film everyday and none have used Giroud as their regular starter in the last 4 years. Its hard for me to believe that we are in a better position to judge how good a player is and the value he brings to their team compared with those 4 managers especially when 2 of them have won PL titles and one has had a long solid career and was highly regarded enough to get a job at Juventus after leaving Chelsea.
This isn’t factual. I could pull up numbers, but I honestly don’t care to find them.
Giroud was integral to each ans every manager’s reign you mentioned. He helped us win a title, carried our team through turbulent times, and is now teaching our youngsters the game up front.
His record is impeccable for how much he has played and his value would endure regardless of which team he found himself on, whether Arsenal or Chelsea.
It’s more nuanced than that, Bill. Giroud at the point that he asked Arsene to be transferred was not our guaranteed starter. He needed to continue to be picked by Deschamps, ahead of the 2018 world cup. Chelsea was a good destination because the move would not disrupt his kids’ schooling, as a move out of London or back to France would have.
At that time, his chances of more starts at Chelsea were greater with Alvaro Morata as his main rival. And so it proved. He got more starts — contrary to what you assert — and protected his France spot.
Wenger’s preference was to keep Giroud, but he generally never stood in the way of a player who wanted to leave.
So what you say not only isn’t factual — as our Chelsea supporting friend says — it lacks a nuanced appreciation of all the factors at play.
While none of the managers saw Giroud as the full time striker(i.e. Lewandowski), he got a fair amount of minutes with most. The point isn’t that he’s the perfect all-around striker. It’s that he’s got a skillset that would be enormously valuable to Arsenal right now. Good hold-up, good touch and passing, good in the air. Even a good defender at set pieces.
And while that 13.8 goals/season stat might not seem like a lot, that’s two more than the entire Arsenal team has this season.