Those of you who follow me on twitter know that I am changing the column. Going forward I want to focus more on in depth stats analysis and less on the story-telling stats you get from the post-match articles. I know that many of you like these columns but ultimately they aren’t memorable. For example, which columns do you remember most? The ones where I talk about how many dribbles Theo Walcott had in a match against Sunderland or the ones where I show how Arsenal have been struggling for four years to create shots? I know it’s the latter and, frankly, if I’m going to take my attention away from my family I would much rather provide something memorable than something just fluffy.
So for example, I’ve been compiling the numbers on Arsenal’s corners. Wouldn’t you rather see a post detailing Arsenal’s corner profligacy, showing where Arsenal’s corners are going and why we are incapable of getting shots off corners
Still… I reserve the right to write a post-match fluffy post if I want! Like today.
12 – Consecutive matches that Arsène Wenger has failed to beat Jose Mourinho
1 – Consecutive matches that Arsène Wenger has not beaten Mourinho but did push him
1 – Consecutive matches which I wish Arsène Wenger had pushed Mourinho down to the ground and stomped his smug git face
1 – Consecutive matches that Arsenal will play with Bellerin at right back because Chambers got his 5th yellow card
10 – Shots Arsenal had against Chelsea today
0 – Shots on goal by Arsenal against Chelsea today
5 – Shots by Chelsea today
3 – Shots on goal by Chelsea today
22 – Shots that Diego Costa has taken (in League play) this season
9 – Goals Diego Costa has scored off those 22 shots, those 9 goals lead the League, of course, through SEVEN games and he has, like, what, 31 games left in the season?
10 – Goals Arsenal’s players have scored this season, off 106 shots (1 own goal brings the total to 11 goals)
145 – Millions of Pounds Sterling Wenger claimed Diego Costa would cost Arsenal
32 – Millions of Pounds Sterling Chelsea actually paid for Diego Costa according to the BBC
435 – Thousands of Pounds Sterling per week Chelsea would have to pay Costa, over five years, in order to pay a total of £145m for his transfer
1 – Number of times I’m going to say “there’s no way Diego ‘Costa’ Chelsea £145m – though even if he did he may be worth it”
7 – Assists Cesc Fabregas has created this season, in 7 League games, this leads the League, of course
7 – Assists Arsenal have created this season
1 – Assist Mesut Özil has created this season
22 – Key passes Cesc Fabregas has made (passes which lead to a shot) which means he’s created 7 assists on 22 passes, which is ridiculous because, for example, Özil leads Arsenal with 14 key passes but has only created one goal
4 – Assists Cesc Fabregas has made for Diego Costa
8 – Number of Costa’s goals which were assisted by others
27 – Millions of Pounds Sterling Chelsea paid for Cesc Fabregas
12 – Number of Chelsea’s 21 League goals Costa and Fabregas have scored or created this season
11 – Number of League goals Arsenal have scored this season
1 – Number of Arsenal tackles which were repeated on television in the USA with the phrase “that should have been a red card” (Welbeck on Cesc)
1000000 – Number of times I saw that tackle on television with that phrase during the NBC Soccer coverage of the game
0 – Number of times Cesc’s handball was mentioned
0 – Number of times Gary Cahill’s tackle was mentioned
Cesc v. Özil
90 – Touches by Cesc today (led Chelsea)
78 – Touches by Özil today (2nd on Arsenal, Gibbs led both teams with 93 touches)
61 – Passes by Cesc today (led all players)
46 – Passes by Özil today (third on Arsenal)
25 – Passes in the final third by Özil today (led all players)
18 – Passes in the final third by Cesc today
2 – Key passes by Cesc today
3 – Key passes by Özil today
6 – Dribbles by Özil today (of 12, led both teams)
0 – Dribbles by Cesc today (of 1)
4 – Tackles by Cesc today (of 10)
0 – Tackles by Özil today (of 1)
1 – Assists by Cesc today
1 – Assists by Özil this season
1 – Tackle by Welbeck on Cesc that came far too late in the game
1 – Handball by Cesc which should have been a penalty
Weirdness with Arsenal’s Dribbling
96 – Arsenal have attempted 96 dribbles in the last two games (Galatasaray and Chelsea)
19 – Arsenal averaged 19 attempted dribbles per game last season
31 – Arsenal are averaging 31 attempted dribbles per game this season
9 – Arsenal averaged 9 successful dribbles per game last season
14.5 – Arsenal are averaging 14.5 successful dribbles per game so far this season
4 – Arsenal have 4 of the top 10 players in successful dribbles per game (Wilshere, Özil, Cazorla, Sanchez)
10.6 – Combined, those four players average 10.6 successful dribbles per game
64 – Combined, those four players have completed 64 dribbles
68 – The entire Manchester City team have completed 68 dribbles
100 – Percent chance I will be looking at Arsenal’s dribbles this season in my more extended weekly column here
@7amkickoff
I actually feel a numbness that I’ve never felt as an Arsenal fan. Every football fan has hope, even those near the bottom all think they’ll survive relegation come what may, but as an Arsenal fan it’s all gotten so stale and predictable that a part of me has just lost the passion for it all. I realise these words are close to sacrilege but seriously, anything other than a Chelsea win today would have been a massive shock, we’re 9 points off the top and out of one of our only two realistic chances of silverware and it’s only… Read more »
agreed, absolutely no progression
if this follows the normal storyline Arsenal will hit form for a couple of months, climb into the top 4, get withing touching distance of the title, then fall apart, followed by a sphincter pinching scrape to 4th.
We were the better team, deserved more than we got and only lost 2-0. Isn’t that proigress?
flacid dominance, a bunch of almost pulled it off, or shot over the bar
sure I’m happy we only lost 2-0, hurrah
No-ones asking you to be happy and I realise a bit of perspective is hard after knowing that John Terry is happy that something happened, but take a look at things tomorrow or later in the week and you’ll see we matched them, just their penalty was given and ours wasn’t.
We had 0 shots on goal, and Chelsea was never bothered and pretty much controlled the game from start to finish. That we had some good pointless stats passing the ball around midfield does not mean we matched them at all today. They let us wank around with the ball passing it around and probe away. But we never even got a half decent attempt on goal.
0 shots on target… we had 10 shots on goal. More than Chelsea!
People keeping harping about how we had 0 shots on target but I don’t think SZCZ had much to do either.
That’s misleading. Wilshere was clean through on goal and should have scored, let alone force a save. Then there was our pk claim (which would have been a shot on goal). If you watched the game, you know that we played reasonably well but couldn’t connect on the last pass. Their goals were clinical but not the result of domination. I agree it’s dispiriting to be so far back only seven games in, but it’s also too soon to be so fatalistic. Progress can only be judged at the end of the season. Hopefully we’ll have some silverware to sport.
Are you being sarcastic? Do you really think we were the better team?
The better team? You do realize that we dominated the ball because they let us right? We never truly looked threatening in the final third, and most times they got the ball in our final third they looked dangerous. It hurts my soul to say it, but the clearly better team won
everyone was busy giving chelsea the title this time last season, they’ll fade again like they did. they have enormous talent but little depth. costa and cesc are injury prone, this we know, so they will drop. our problem is getting into the groove like we did last season.
which, of course, we will. soon. i hope
I’m starting to hate those mob funded wankers more than sp*rs. What’s the point of of having a nemesis that never wins anything and hasn’t finished above us in almost two decades?
I’m still going to enjoy St. Totteridge but as a team we need to look to those on our level or (even though it pains me) higher.
Yeah, Tottenham, Everton, Man United, Leeds and Crystal Palace fans have it so much better than boring old us.
I have to admit that all the joy I felt about football and Arsenal has been eroded away over the past few years. I guess that may say more about me than about the club, but it’s just feels like 90/180 minutes of torture a week at the moment.
Groundhog day.
Little to give you hope. Its so predictable. Our best players are made from Balsa wood and the others turn up for games when they feel like it. The common denominator in all of this, I have to say, is the Manager.
You are so right. But still there will be a throng of Wenger disciples who will berate you for your comments.
I think our expectations as Arsenal fans are beyond the reaches of the current team. We should be satisfied with forth.
Looking forward to your analysis about our corners.
Look forward to all your analysis, fluffy or not.
Variety is the spice of life, so both are great.
Worst part is seeing the scum and a fledgling United side higher than us on the table. For a whole interlull.
Out of all those numbers you crunched blogs, this is what I come up with “We blow massive donkey dong!” Sums it up quite nice if I say so me-self
So I thought we played well against Villa, Galatasaray and Today. Am I alone?
It feels like every defeat gets jumped on and exaggerated by everyone nowadays.
It is possible to play well and lose.
I honestly don’t understand how you can say we played well today. Admittedly neither did Chelsea but when you’re saying that we played well after creating one clear cut chance (Wilshere miscontrol) and one shot on target (Podolski 89) it beggers belief. I understand it is just one defeat here. But we are 9 points behind Chelsea already, because the manager has been messing around with the formation that has clearly dropped us points. The reason everyone is so angry is because this has been happening since we moved to the Emirates, defeats like this, or worse, are part and… Read more »
We played OK today. But OK is never enough against the best and in particular, we didn’t do enough going forwards. IMO, you can’t play well if you didn’t have a shot on target
Played 7, won 2, drawn 4, lost 1. I don’t think anyone complaining here is jumping on a defeat….there is a problem with this Arsenal team. It is dysfunctional and unbalanced. The squad is unbalanced. The injury situation is a seasonal occurrence. The problem is not one defeat. It is a malaise throughout the club, an acceptance of mediocrity, a lack of will (or if you ask me a fear on the part of the manager) to succeed. Just look at the number of chances we create now, or the lack of them, the lack of goals. As someone who… Read more »
I absolutely agree that we haven’t got going yet, but that doesn’t mean there are major problems at the club. One group criticise the manager, the other criticise for changing from a 4231 to a 4141. Another criticise for not spending, another criticise our record signings for not scoring a hat-trick everygame. There is so much exaggeration when we lose which completely disappears when we win. I’m just suggesting a bit more calm occasionally. The huge optimism we had at the start of the season has not only vanished but been reversed because we haven’t clicked yet. It’ll take a… Read more »
Looking at the stats ozil didnt play that bad at all. The team were just second to the chavs…it could have been nil nil two errors cost us the game….I hope we pick up fro here and get our mojo back
Yeah, but he did play bad, didn’t he? The stats don’t show him letting the ball roll out 3 times and being outmuslced off the ball 3 or 4 times. Also, the key passes stat only means that a player took a shot after his pass. I wouldn’t read too much in to that as all our shots were speculative long range efforts.
He was outmuscled a few times, fouled a few times but he was generally lively, people remember the bad things and forget the good when we lose, and vice-versa when we win.
Cesc gave the ball away numerous times, was it mentioned here? Why being so nagative about ozil when the man you compare him with isn’t better? Barca’s problem with cesc was.. Yea you’ve got 15 assits and 10goals, how many of those came in matches against rayo vallecano and levante, and how man came against real and athletico? Open your eyes and appreciate the best you’ve got and not the worst others got rid of.
I’m the first one to criticize key passes which are speculative long range efforts. Ozil had one of those and two were good, in the box. Cesc had the speculative long range key passes in my opinion.
7am You should You Tube Gary Neville talking about The Arsenal.
Compare our corner technique to Crystal Palace, or West Ham.
If Sam Allardyce coached us we would score more from corners and concede less.
Instead, The Arsenal set up a corner that the opposition know is going to result in a counter attack opportunity.
Listen to Neville and Carragher, they use words like; “”disorganised””, confused, ill disciplined, naive.
With the talent at our disposal we should stand back to no one
With our clueless tactics we are predictable and easy to beat.
I thought Özil was actually one of our best players on the day. At least in the first half he took the ball and went past players. He did muck up some in the last 30 minutes, though. But I think the problem goes a bit deeper. He is not the player to take the game by the scruff of the neck and force proceedings, but he is a player who needs runners between the lines, and he is probably the best finder of those runners. And what pissed me off to no end yesterday, was that no one makes… Read more »
Ozil is such a hard player to watch sometimes. I know he is doing some amazing things and if you watch him when he’s not on the ball he gets in space all the time. It’s just far too easy for your mind to put that to one side and go “oh look he didn’t outmuscle that guy” and put his performance down as being ‘lazy’. Everyone does it. I find myself thinking he has gone missing in a game, but when you look into it he has run the most and had the most passes. He’s a ghost. We… Read more »
Thanks for gratuitously smashing that pic in our faces.
And then rubbing it in with the stats
Remember the days when Cesc was kissing our badge? Now he’s kissing Costa. Thumb me down all you like, but now he’s well and truly dead to me. Ugh.
Wow! I guess i’m not human. Cesc was dead to me the moment he left arsenal, seeing him play against us today was just like oscar playing against us, nothing different.
The moment I heard that he’d gone on strike to get the Farca move was the moment he became nothing to me.
He kissed his teammate after a goal. Big wow, get over it.
As always in these big games we get a great chance to get back in it and it is wasted, Wilshere’s touch when it really mattered let him down. It’s always the same with us we never take the chance when it really matters.
erm, never? was that the first game you’ve ever seen? o_0
When I was watching the Manure game today, I thought, yeah, they have plenty of attacking power, but they’re still soft at the back. And thinking about their no.10 position, I started thinking about Kagawa, and actually, I like how Klopp took him back. Even though Kagawa left for a ‘bigger’ team, and it didn’t work out for him, he was played out of position, didn’t play as much as he should have, and was eventually pushed out the back door, Klopp still took him back, even though they have Mkhitaryan. And I really like that. Maybe I’m just a… Read more »
We don’t just have Ozil in Cesc’s position though, we have Jack there, Ramsey, Cazorla, Rosicky, then the Ox, Gnabry and Zelalem are all supposed to graduate to central attacking midfield one day.
It’s a tough one. I’d like to say if I were Wenger I would found room, but we already have so many players there that I want to see get their chance.
Don’t try to reason with me. I’m feeling sentimental.
There is a part of me that thinks if Cesc came back, it would have been ‘lol, we don’t need another small AM’.
I would easily have sold Rosicky or Wilshere to make room for Fabregas since he is a much better player and would have made our team much stronger than Rosicky or Wilshere ever will. Wenger said he was allways open for any signing in any position aslong as it improved the team. But he obviously is not when he let Fabregas pass him by which must mean he think Fabregas is a worse player than anyone currently in our midfield. But the fact is that Fabregas top level is miles ahead of most of our players perhaps with the exception… Read more »
read http://www.arsenalreport.com/ix/the-cesc-fabregas-transfer-saga-timeline-how-barca-got-what-they-wanted/ 21 July 2011 may be the reason we didn’t get him.
your logic works if you have unlimited funds.
If we have to decide who to spend our transfer money on and who to spend our wages on then getting another world class no. 10 when we already have one of the best in the world doesn;t make sense.
Not only that but we have Cazorla, Ramsey and Wilshere who are also great No. 10s.
I wanted him back, but it really doesn’t make much sense when we all want to spend the money on Defenders and Defensive Midfielders.
We are the the most infuriating team to support, we’re basically our own worst enemy.
The faith has finally disintegrated for me and I no longer hold the interest in the team I once loved. We’re living in an age of hope whereas once we expected.
It’s becoming too late for change.
Well if your faith in the team disintegrates that quickly……
Remember the good old days when we were top of the league for half the year, won the FA Cup and then started the next season of winning the Charity Shield…
Oh yeah, that was a couple of months ago!
So Ozil was one of our best players according to the stats but most people think he was our worst. Just goes to show. Start judging him objectively because way too many arsenal fans are having their opinions distorted by pundits and the media who always need something to talk about. Don’t fall in the trap guys it’s a conspiracy.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics. There, i said it.
So are you having a go at the stats or the piss poor pundits?
is there a stat for slowing the game down and letting the opposition organize their defense?
because Arsenal, and Ozil, would top that one
You’d rather we went all guns blazing and lost 6-0 again? Not for me.
Wenger is damned if he don’t, damned if he do at this point
Pretty Even game besides the goals if you ask me. Not much of chelsea to say they were WAAAY better. Pleeeeease. Played in their ground and I really believe we have the upper hand at the emirates. chelsea team is not intimidating at all by a long shot. Arsenal has to build on this YES, and just take chances. It’s still early in the season guys 7 games and ONE loss is not a big season defining moment. The constant draws are hurting us NOT this game. I feel confident arsenal will get stronger once the injured players return! Let’s… Read more »
Not to mention the number of players who are needing to acclimatise to everyone else around them, it’s especially hard when our game relies on combination play.
You know, you made me feel better with that post. No AKB, just relentless positivity. Thanks man, I am beginning to get pretty numb and apathetic (mainly because we have a good team but don’t play the right players), but you made me feel better. Now if only we could play with Ozil and the pacey guys, and settle into the defensive rhythm we had during the first half last season. No favoritism, play only the players that fit in the positions they are for, and on form. Basically, I am saying that at the beginning of this season and… Read more »
crazy amount of crying and overexaggeration on here. The team is playing the best stuff they’ve played in years [bar BVB]. Alexis and Wellbeck are just what we needed — a little pace and attitude. I think if we could have brought on some muscle in the second half, Giroud, or even Sanogo might have made an impact. I bet we win the return fixture.
Think I’ll have another beer hcup
Every Attacker was Shite today not just Ozil,,,But… Sanchez and Welbeck did nothing going forward but they worked there socks off, as did Santi and Jack so you cannot say they didnt care or that they did not try hard. Ozil however is so lightweight and weak. He has that lazy languid style of play like Berbatov so when he has an off game footballing wise it really stands out because he just cant tackle or get himself about the pitch…At times he is actually just a passenger. I thought Flamini had his best game for a while aswel. Still… Read more »
Wenger changed the formation and were more conservative going forward compared to last year. Don’t just use negative Wenger arguments that you’re used to when they don’t hold up. Sure, it didn’t work, but he did try something different.
Wow he told the full backs not to bomb on and added an extra midfielder..(something we have done all season by the way) just shut the fuck up.. Where have you been. This is not a one off game, its is a groundhog day classic that has been played constantly since 2005. Wengers head to head vs mourinho tells you everything you need to know how tactically naive and inept this fool has become. To think that Chelsea and Mourinho have his number so badly he cannot even win a game by accident..Or a smash and grab that several shitter… Read more »
Take a look at the number of unsuccessful dribbles in the team. I think Jack will head this list, due to his insistence on playing only with his left foot, leaving the ball completely unprotected whenever a defender approaches from his left.
Fine if he is playing out on the left, but no good for a central midfielder.
8 – The number of players Mourinho said Arsenal should have had on the field. I am going to kill him!
That dribbling stat really should read ”How many times an Arsenal player holds onto the ball to long which leads to blind alleys or getting run off the ball, which leads to us being countered”.
What tthe fuck happened to quick passing and fashioning a shooting oppurtunity.
173 – million reasons in cash reserves Arsene’s comment about Chelsea’s “financial power” hurts like a big, fat bitch.
Thought it was pretty even out there today and hate going back to transfers but chelsea bought who they NEEDED we bought we could get. From what I read Alexis and Costa were about the same price. Who did we actually need? I love Ozil but he got ragdolled everywhere today. Missed the welsh Jesus even though he’s been playing like shit
As I understand it, Costas manager is a MaureenO buddy and once they decided they wanted him then no one else stood a chance.
We bought Alexis, Welbeck, Ospina and Chambers.
We need all of them!
We need more yes, but this was a good transfer window by all accounts
It’s quite unfortunate we lost today. Mourinho’s tactics got me so irritated – They were all defensive. We barely had the ball to ourselves talk more of having clear sight on goal. We were covered in the box. I expected Arsene to bring in Poldi or Ox in place of Ozil. It just doesn’t add up – We were obviously being bullied physically. Ozil isn’t built for that. If we had Debuchy and another strong CB I believe Chambers would be playing DM now. Let’s get behind our boys for the next game – It’s not new. We can still… Read more »
Cesc shits all over Wilshere and Ozil from a great height. He really worms his faeces all over their fucking faces. Wenger should have brought him home….but he’s a muppet, so what the fuck would he know? Wenger out!
I swear to god if I read anymore of this Cesc bullshit I’m going to explode. I’d love a good whine at this moment, on how we should really look to replace Wenger with Klopp or Loew or the likes but let’s have a bit of perspective yeah? Cesc was piss poor yesterday apart from that one assist when we were chasing a game. Before that he gave the ball away numerous times, as soon as he’s pressured he’s slow and don’t have the skills to wriggle his way out of trouble. This is precisely why the Catalans didn’t rate… Read more »
am i the only one who regrets buying Ozil? we could of had our beloved Cesc by now! i don’t think Cesc is necessarily a better player than Ozil but it’s just the fact that Fabregas is (or should i say was) Arsenal through and through and grew up in the club, unlike Ozil who was a ready made star who we had to pay for 42m like other plastic clubs do. seeing Fabregas produce that pass to Costa while Ozil doing shit today doesn’t make it easier either. it really isn’t about the quality of the 2, just the… Read more »
I’m with you mate.
0 – Number of winter breaks in the PL. Season’s still long, league isn’t won in winter.
(Although I don’t think we’ll win it, but I’d prefer anyone than Chelsea.)
Depressing result, but you could say we kept it tighter than last time, even if we didn’t produce much. I’m still flabbergasted that we didn’t get a penalty for the Fabregas handball, it was like he was trying to do us a favor for old time’s sake.
Really, how the fuck is that not a handball and penalty? If that had broken for us we might have walked out with a 1-1.
All is not lost though folks, at least you don’t support a team of thundercunts.
More relevant so early in the game is ‘how the fuck did Cahill stay on the pitch after the Sanchez ‘tackle’?
The Chavs best player in the first 15 minutes, their midfield general who ran the game for them was called Atkinson.
After that Matic was their best MF and the talented but diving git Hazard was their best attacking player….
The dribbling stat is very interesting. I think Wenger wants us to try more of those and off-load the ball after we’ve committed those players in order to open up space. Wilshere is a specialist at this as seen in the second half but the issue is that atm, when someone starts a dribble everyone else stands still instead of running into the newly available space. Or, in the case of Ozil today, they run it out of play or are too easily out muscled.
Ozil was getting tackled by air today….Sometimes it just dosen’t happen for a player so a Manager should see this and take the guy off..Not leave him on to prove a point and take off two of your better performing players. It was so easy to predict that Ozil was going to have a bad game..He cannot handle the physicality of the prem..Against the lesser sides his footballing intelligence will allow him time and space, this does not happen against the top sides when they all now exactly how to set up against us. Why couldn’t Wenger spring a surprise..… Read more »
Looking at Chelsea’s stats, they’re unsustainable, pure and simple. They’ll still probably run away with it, but those goal numbers, shot numbers, assist and key pass numbers, it’s unsustainable. 7 assists off 22 key passes? No chance over the long run. 9 goals in 7 games in how many shots? They’ll regress to the mean, and they’ll still be damn good, but this is something they can’t sustain.
No idea how anyone thinks we played well. I cannot think of one part of our game you would say we played well in. The whole match from start to finish was depressing. Not once did I ever sit there and think “we could win this”.
We huffed and we puffed and tried our best, but our best just wasn’t good enough. This team isn’t good enough to challenge the top teams.
1- handballs not given for penalties today.
1- red card that was not shown to Gary cahill.
2- tackles referee Martin Atkinson made on Santi.
Just throw JW to left side of attack and put Ozil in the center Bergkamp role behind DW or OG.
Kill 2 birds with one stone
Consider this for a moment. If chelsea wasn’t the absolute powerhouse they seem to be so far, our traditional competition for the title would be city, pool, utd. Of those teams, how many of us would be ecstatic about our chances come May? My point is we’ve closed the gap between city and our other main rivals. In fact, I like us to take 6 points from United and Liverpool, and the remaining 3 pints on offer from city and Tottenham. That leaves Chelsea, who in reality are a different animal this year. Maureen knows her ultra negative tactics will… Read more »
özil had a good game….crawling. santi is smaller bt doesnt get pushed..infact blown aside that easily. stats really add colour to some black n white picture that is özil. My or our biggest regret is that Wenger didn’t tackle that bigmouth and take him out for some 4weeks dammit
The ozil vs cesc numbers are unfair imo. Let’s see how well cesc’s numbers are if he would to play on the wings with a mikel occupying his creative central space.
Wilshere in the middle and ozil on the wings just doesn’t work!
Yes it’s me again. Sorry for the spam but i’m still sad with the result and i don’t have anywhere else to go to share my sadness.
Thanks again 7am.
But doesn’t Ozil have 2 assists – Aston Villa for Welbeck and Galatasaray for Sanchez?
there was an air of inevitability about everything that chelsea did- that they would win again, costa will score and fabregas will assist. everything is so predictable with this arsenal team playing against chelsea. when arsenal were defeated 6-0 sans fabregas and costa last season, what do you expect with them in the team.
wenger has no more excuses now. i don’t want to dwell too much on fabregas, but wenger’s decision not to resign him looks more and more stupidity. he is just plain arrogant and stubborn.
Indeed. Using our abundance of forward players as an excuse not to sign him is ludicrous. He is a top class player and not signing him was a huge mistake, no matter what anyone says. Look at Manchester United. They have a truck load of forward players yet purchased Angel Di Maria who has shone for them. Scoring 3 and assisting 3 in 5 games. He’s helping them climb to the top. Meanwhile we refuse Fabregas to allow time for Mesut Ozil to adapt to a league he has been struggling in since day one at the expense of points.… Read more »
I don’t think we played especially poorly today but the sad fact is that we were never going to win that game. Mou knows that if he gets men behind the ball, denies us space in midfield and are physical all over the pitch then we’ll struggle to score. And the way we play we are always likely to concede on the break. The problem i think is that we can’t match these teams physically or defensively, so what options do we really have to play any other way? As long as things stay as they are we will struggle… Read more »
“Mou knows that if he gets” should include “the right officials” as well.
A Red for Cahill or even an early Yellow for Oscar (deserved) would have changed the game.
You may well be right, but I think we are clutching at straws a bit by blaming referees when we didn’t get a shot on target all day and by the letter of the law kos should of seen red too – which might have changed the game again. It’s all ifs and buts
Cahills tackle was a clear Red. It was the first major thing Atkinson got wrong and everything that followed wouldn’t have happened if Cahill had gone. Not ‘clutching’ but regretting the refs fuck up. We hear the ‘it evens out over a season’ shite but against Chelsea (especially under MaureenO ) we always seem to get the 1st major ‘game changing’ decision go against us. Equally if the first couple of professional ‘clever fouls’ (to use dim-wit phil nevilles phrase) had gained a card then the game would have been very different. In both events, we don’t know what would… Read more »
The problem with arsenal is lack of mental strength – why do you think Wenger keeps taking it up? Even the invincibles fell apart after getting beat at old toilet, thus ending our 49 game unbeaten run!!! It’s like any defeat knocks the stuffing out of them and it takes too many games to get over it!!! Last season was a classic case when, at home, we drew with manure when they were there for the taking – why? Because we were more afraid of loosing!!!
The Emirates crowd can be the least supportive crowd in the EPL. Odd as our away traveling fans are some of the best but the home crowd expect 100% pass success and a goal every 5 minutes. When they get on a players back then they kill him from an AFC perspective (look at Gervinho now). In many ways we’d have been better off staying at Highbury with the smaller crowd which had less glory hunters in the stands, but we’d be regressing back to the days when we won the EPL occasionally but most of our silverware was the… Read more »
We played the same game we would have if we played lower clubs, and got the result we deserved.
We were not outplayed but outmaneuvered tactically. That is the difference between the two managers. Sadly anyone expecting a trophy for arsenal in this season or subsequent seasons should hope for a change in the (fast fingered??) board and a tactical change by the manager.. Unfortunately both are far fetched
I only had to see our lineup to start cursing. Everyone in the world wants Ozil played centrally but Wenger sticks him out on the wing again. Sure, we can blame Ozil for having a bad game, for not being a fighter, for not giving his all, but Arsene is the main culprit. Just look at our last few games, Aston Villa and Galatasaray; Ozil centrally – big wins. Tottenham and Chelsea; Ozil on the wing – fucking disaster. Hazard was toying with Chambers all game, Chambers had no protection from his winger because… we had no fucking right winger.… Read more »
2 – The number of times Arsenal will loose to Chelsea in the league play this season
100 – The number of thumbs down I expect
100% – Wenger’s record against Moreeno is not just down to luck or money
100% – I still support the Arsenal
2 – The number of spelling mistakes you made
Cesc Fabregas just needs 2 more assists to reach Ozil’s total of last year *gulp*
I can’t see any point in dissecting each players performance against Chelsea to the nth degree when surely the Manager / Coach should be examined. After all, he buys the players / fails to buy the players (!) / sees them on the training pitch and picks the team; so the buck stops there I’m afraid. He is noted for remarks like “I never study the opposition” and we know he doesn’t ‘do’ tactics. We often don’t have a good plan A let alone a plan B and one can only wonder whether he can motivate his players. It appears… Read more »
I think you’re missing the really important statistics and it is this.
We have been beaten 17 times out of the last 21 games against the other teams in the top 5 over the last 5 and a bit seasons and won only once!! That’s an over 80% losing rate and a win rate of less than 5%!! Even if we’d won the stats would point to a systemic failure in Wenger’s methods. He has show no desire to change and quite frankly what justification is there for him to remain in a job?
I’d guess the justification is that he’s been the best manager we’ve ever had and that there aren’t many options if he goes. I have used the phrase ‘been’ but maybe he still is or could be again…
I can’t see any EPL managers being better (or that would come to us!) Klopp will not break his contract to come here and after the amazing support he gets at Dortmund I’m not sure he’d want to come to us anyway. I gather Felix Magath is available! Who would you prefer?
Wenger has been our best manager but he’s currently in possession of 95% failure rate against his main competitors and he’s shown no sign of change. Just hoping to do the same thing better demonstrates an unwillingness to learn but with a success rate of less than 5% it shows a fundament flaw in his methods. I’m not entirely bothered who takes over all I want is not to face the predictable failure, unpredictable failure I could live with at the moment. And anyhow, Arsenal are amongst the top 5 biggest clubs in the World, who pay their managers world… Read more »
“not entirely bothered” I guess that’s the point.
Anyone with sense would only want someone better and no matter what you think, there aren’t many that are.
Top 5!!!!! you are joking aren’t you?
We’re becoming one of the ‘Global’ clubs but we’re still quite some way off.
I think anyone could be better given the circumstances, it can’t be that hard to improve on a 5% win rate could it?
Arsenal are one of the top 5 teams in the World, be it in revenue, value or profitability, you might not like to admit it but it’s the truth
At least one thing we can Learn from Chelsea’s game is that Arsenal needs to get physical. We will definitely lookout for and match other teams who dear try to use the same physicality, the likes of Stoke City.
Just pray the defence holds strong and tight prior to the January transfer activities.
Let’s look at the bright side, the impending availability of Walcott as a bonus to the attacking capability of the Arsenal Team as a whole.
Just watched Costa’s goal again. He brought it down brilliantly, but was there a hand in there?
i think what would have happened if Ozil was playing with the invincibles. for Viera, Campbell, Keown etc it would have simply been unacceptable for them to let him look so nonchalant on the pitch. not to mention that he wouldn’t have gotten in the starting team anyway (Pires, Bergkamp and Freddie all ahead of him).
haha you clearly never saw Kanu play, Ozil’s a workaholic compared to Kanu!!
I’m pretty certain that Viera, Campbell etc would have recognised his ability and his actual work-rate and ignored the fact that he doesn’t actually look like he’s trying!
Kanu coasted through the final years of his bumper deal he secured after his 15 minute hat trick he scored against Chelsea. If he didn’t play/be a reserve in a successful team he would have got the Adebayor treatment.