This probably will not be the deepest analysis of a match I have ever done.
Mostly because I just don’t think that there is really in this match to look at. Even before the red card, there wasn’t much in this for Arsenal, and then after the red card, there was even less. The absence of any fight, of any sign of wanting to challenge, is probably the biggest signal for me.
Often times it has felt that there was a gentleman’s agreement between Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta in these matches that Pep would kind of call things off and not embarrass his former assistant, it looked like Manchester City was trying to hold up their end of the bargain playing at half speed but Arsenal couldn’t even keep up with a training level pace.
Things are very negative right now, and it really feels like Arsenal has the next 8 matches to salvage their season. They will be the team with the higher probability of winning in 5 of those, with the other 3 close on the odds. It feels like while there is pressure on Arteta, he is still pretty secure in his position, this run of games really feels like it will be the measuring stick on which we will be able to judge him.
Manchester City 5-0 Arsenal: By the graphs
Manchester City 5-0 Arsenal: By the numbers
134 – Passes completed by Arsenal in this match. this is the fewest passes Arsenal have completed in a Premier League match since 2017-18 and likely much further back.
99 – Passes completed by Rodri in this match.
13 – Number of players on Manchester City that completed more passes than Arsenal’s leading passer Calum Chambers’ 19 passes. Raheem Sterling who played just 33 minutes completed 18 passes to just fall short of every player on Manchester City completing more passes than Arsenal.
6 – Touches in the Penalty Area by Arsenal
4 – Number of players on Manchester City that had 6 or touches in the Penalty Area, with Manchester City as a team having 52.
299 – Touches for Arsenal in this match
320 – Touches in the final third for Manchester City in this match
11 – Number of times that Arsenal entered the final third through a carry (2) or pass (9)
60 – Number of times that Manchester City entered the final third through a carry (18) or pass (42)
It is pretty obvious from just about every metric Arsenal was dominated in this match. What is shocking to me is just how one-sided it was. I don’t think that I had unrealistic expectations for Arsenal to be able to hang closer to this Manchester City team, I understand Arsenal are missing players and then went down a man, but this is still the team with somewhere around the 5th-6th highest wage bill in the Premier League and they played like they were more like a team from a division below going up against Manchester City in a cup competition.
In the 35 minutes before the red card, it was still not close. Passes completed were 195 to 71, final third touches 44 to 23, touches within 25 yards of the goal 14 to 6, shots 3 to 1.
One of the other things that really stands out for me in this match is that even with Manchester City having so much of the ball, Arsenal didn’t seem interested or could not take it off of them.
The other part of the narrative that stands out is the obvious comparison to the 8-2, 10 years ago against the other team from Manchester. That was an embarrassing loss but I think that you can make a very strong case that at least in that match Arsenal looked like they belonged playing on the same field as Manchester United. I went back and pulled the data from that match and I don’t think Arsenal deserved to get anything from the match, it did show a team that was at least much closer in actually being able to create a threat.
That match proceeded the infamous trolley dash to bring in much-needed reinforcements, it will be interesting to see if this match is the catalyst for another transfer deadline splurge, because this team might need it even more on the available evidence so far.
@oh_that_crab
Sources: StatsBomb via FBRef, Opta via WhoScored
*Delirious laughter.
Trust the process.
Stats like those are normally only seen in a fever dream.
1- the number of hours that are darkest before the day.
https://s.yimg.com/os/en/blogs/sptussowexperts/ApAINOrCAAE_S_Z-1.jpg
Utter shambles.
Arteta wants the team to play safe and cautious. He learned under Pep that possesion is more important than scoring. Its a very elementary way of viewing the game. As a player and youth coach , you see alot of these types who want to make their Under-12s play like Pep’s Barca and focus everything on possesion. Its utterly snob and boring. Good coaches understand balance and getting the best out of all youve got. Pep can’t coach lower teams, he needs his players and his philosophy or he’ll fail. Wenger had a philosophy but he understood how to balance… Read more »
If you desire to play possession football, then it is important to have players that can hold on to the ball when pressed by the opponent. I do not see our front 3 men today doing that as they buckle under pressure.
It’s very snob and boring, very boring i must say, football is a contest and that Pep stuff takes all the contest bit away.
This is the simple reason Arsenal is still probably the one mainstream football entertainment despite all these money clubs. Because it presented a contest and people should always find a contest for an Arsenal game.
Amen, Wenger allowed intelligent players to be free and creative, he trusted them to find solutions. Arteta and certain other managers need to realise there are no extra points to be gained for whose teams goalkeeper made the most passes to his centre backs during the game, we want to get our creative players (more Arrivals needed Inthis department) on the ball and allow them to work their magic. Results and entertainment matter, making the fans happy, football should be joyful not wrapped in some faux intelligence that buys some false credibility but doesn’t convince.
It is boring
I most preferred arsene 1.0 football, fast incisive counter attacking going for the throat
You do need really decent players to play like that and the opponents in the mid to late 90s were no-where near as organised and sophisticated in defence as teams are now.
That being said, I think we have a good nucleus of a counterattacking team and we could do worse than play deep and hit on the break.
Ironically I can think of one manager (currently in Italy), who’s got a track record in that dept but also someone none of us could stomach.
This sounds like something a change of manager would help more than new players.
It’s only boring when you’re on the end of it.I find it superb. You wouldn’t be writing such rubbish if pep was atnArsenal
I wonder if the lack of fight is tactical or the players out there just don’t care and were resigned to the loss?
Very worrying.
Can you see this lot fighting for the club on a shit night in Burnley, just isn’t going to happen. Add that to a manager who seems tactically inept and we have a recipe for some serious problems coming up.
We will be in a relegation battle and no one will have the stomach to get us out of it.
Sad sad times for a great club.
It is incredibly worrying and the longer board takes the worse it will get. Our current form is literally Frank de Boer and Derby 07/08 levels of bad. The thought of giving Arteta a second go at another relegation battle is a bit frightening. I look at Schalke’s relegation last season and it makes me very cautious. They also started their league season with two difficult games against Bayern (8-0) and Leipzig (4-0) with an “easy” Werder Bremen (1-3) game in between. They drew another easy game against Union Berlin (1-1), they gave their coach (Baum) till December to recover… Read more »
I know a lot of our fans criticize the players for it, but if you watch our matches in relation to others, you’ll see the problem is our lack of movement. We are not bold in our movement, we are very static. Even in defence, we don’t tackle, we just keep tracking. This is fully on the manager, players are just standing in their designated positions as practised and are holding shape. Just because something works for Pep doesn’t mean it is going to work out for everyone, I hope MA realises it sooner than later and adapts to the… Read more »
Those stats are shocking. I’d welcome some more personnel but it’s a management issue for me. Arteta is not a people person – Kay look at his interviews. I’m an Arsenal fan ffs and I’d still rather have a pint with Klopp
I’ll watch the next 5 games before I zone out for the season.
I’ve got my life to live.
Same. Only that I am going to focus more on following the women’s team. That’s a team worth watching.
Channelling Gloria Gaynor.
LOL. so you’re ready to waste 450min out of your life to live.
make it next 0 games and up until the clown gets sacked.
Shocking – but also reflecting what we saw. On some level you have to acknowledge what a bottomless pocket of state funded oil money can muster of brilliant footballers. This will undoubtedly lead to superiority on the pitch. We are not on even playing fields and the game is certainly flawed because of the uncontrolled level of financial doping. However, the complete lack of intensity and basic defending -both individually and as a unit- is utterly disgraceful. Our lot are professional footballers (and mostly internationals) paid an awful amount of money to represent our club. They all look clueless. The… Read more »
Actually not, this interlull makes it even more painful to watch the shit on top of table and us on the bottom of the pit for more than a week. Arteta has a few unsavoury records to his name, like no European football after 25 years, Everton doing the double on us (I think), etc. but this is just infuriating. You can blame the money for the win, but we haven’t spent less to the extent that you can’t muster up ONE proper chance against city. Nuno won against this city side without Kane and with a not-better-than-Arsenal kind of… Read more »
I don’t think Arsenal will get back to any level remotely close to the Wenger years with Arteta at the saddle.
It is not the players; it is Arteta. His football philosophy might look good on paper, but it is utter shambles on the pitch. Players look caged and fearful.
He has to move on, no matter the results.
ESR, Saka, Pepe and MO are good players but we need more than them to compete in the final third. Reality is that these players today are not as good as Hleb, Rosicky and Fabregas. This is what Auba means when he talks of courage in the final third
Those guys were magicians what joyous football they brought us.
Was it just me or did anyone else think that when Arteta was appointed he would instinctively as a Barcelona educated former Arsenal midfielder and Pep Guardiola sidekick would look to sign technically gifted players in the Hleb, Fabregas and Rosicky mould? For me that was what I hoped he would be looking to do. Only Odegaard fits that description, of course we will see what impact the Norwegian can make.
Here’s another stat: ” The highest a team has ever finished after losing their first three games in the Premier League is 7th – Aston Villa 1997-98.” – @Orbinho Aston Villa had a -6 goal difference with no goals scored by Matchday 3. Based on this, there is a high probability that we will not finish higher than 7th this season, with or without Arteta. In my opinion, if we are already projected to not progress past Arteta’s ceiling (8th), it’s probably best to end this managerial experiment now. I doubt most fans would want us to finish 8th or… Read more »
Sad that 3 games in and we’re already talking about salvaging the season. A true testament to how bad this club has become under the leaderless Kroenke ownership. And I fear it will continue to get worse and worse.
I can’t see a trolley dash this time with the amount of money we’ve already spent and only around 52 hours of the window to go. But RB and CM are the two position which could both do with a “1-in, 1-out” refresher but we’ve probably left it too late. We haven’t signed a new right-back because Bellerin hasn’t found a buyer, so at this stage of the game I would just settle for a defence of Bellerin-White-Gabriel-Tierney. Bellerin is still by far the best right-back at the club. Cedric and Chambers just aren’t good enough to be a reliable… Read more »
I will never understand why Saliba isn’t here and playing regularly.
Absolute joke of a decision to send him back out on loan.
Really, how much worse could he be?
I get that Saliba is way higher profile because of the money involved and how the saga has dragged on, but Mavropanos instantly improves that back line. The amount of international grade talent we have on loan but can’t/won’t recall is staggering
Considering the utter lack of effort and application in our last game, I wonder when we’ll be able to declare the dressing room officially lost.
Officially? Probably after he’s sacked. In reality? I think he probably lost it around the end of last season.
Good , based on that effort they don’t deserve one.
They’re actually good players.
They just need a manager who 1. Knows what he is doing and 2. Advocates attacking exciting football.
The Football World doesn’t begin and end with Pep fucking Guardiola. A big part of Arteta’s problem has been his obsession with his mate, instead of being his own man. Fucking hell, he even dresses like him. Sad, if you ask me.
Time for Arsenal to have a real manager, not a wannabe.
I know we were crap etc etc etc…. but does anyone tink it’s ironic that Shearer who leads the “ heading the ball can bring on early onset dementia” agenda , but when reviewing goal no 2, chambers takes a punch to the face and Alan says “get up , be strong” . Twat.
It’s a shame that everyone just accepts the unfair and biased treatment Arsenal FC receive from officials and pundits/media alike; it reflects the absurdity in our own collective depressive psyche that somehow we don’t deserve an even playing field with the competition. If you find yourself getting angrier at Arsenal when an officiating crew is too incompetent or biased to apply the rules properly, you know what I mean.
You are absolutely correct. It’s very strange behaviour to not at least recognise this. It’s the same weird behaviour where fans sometimes side with a player and say he deserves a better club (to the detriment of the team they supposedly support) as if said player is not somehow part of the same shitshow we are all watching. There is an objection amongst fans to be seen making excuses when in reality the lines between success and failure in top level sport are so fine (when we aren’t being drubbed 5-0) that incompetent (bias) referring decisions make a huge impact… Read more »
Spot on, well said, totally agree – we got swizzled all too often in the Wenger v fergie days
Just to be clear Futsboller – this is your first comment on any article post-match?
Says it all really.
The media. The match officials. The pundits.
Excuse after excuse after excuse…..
It’s a bit of a shame people use officials and media as an excuse when we get completely pantsed. And that isn’t just a one off. Chelsea thrashed is too and we lost to bloody Brentford. Sure mate, blame the refs though. Maybe it helps you stay positive about a football club being run into the ground by incompetent owners, managers, and coaches.
There’s a strange joy in the pundits as they take pleasure in Arsenal being roughed up like it’s acceptable- how Jamie Carragher got so excited about Brentford’s second goal, all fitting the dominant narrative Arsenal don’t like it up them- yet Leno was being fouled. Some pundits suggested Leno should fight back: stamp on their Achilles or push them away- you know he would be punished though if he did that- remember Jens Lehmann pushing Robbie Keane at White Heart Lane in 2004. We all knew we were going to lose the game yesterday but that was a key moment,… Read more »
Does that include managers?
Do me a favour, you are just clutching at straws. He had lenos arm locked against his body. Just go down and pull him with you. 999 out of a thousand you get the free kick. Stop the fecking excuses please.
Jens was a loose cannon, leno is just loose 😂
Like the free kick we never won on. Saturday when Chambers went down!
and I thought there’s now a VAR system😂😂😂
Var is just more of Mike Riley’s boys at HQ.
As for the excuses, just joining the debate on the calls that have gone against us, which as all close observers of the Arsenal know is a long term trend and adding some thoughts on the media perception. I very much doubt we would have been awarded the goal Man United got yesterday if we had scored it. Not excusing the team at all, they are such a long way off the team we love yet we still support them. These types of decisions don’t get to me as much as they used to as I don’t have that same… Read more »
Fans of EVERY club thinks the referees are again them. The reason is a dodgy (or plain wrong) decision goes for your team, you move on immediately & never think about it again. One goes against your team & you remember it clearly for a long time after. It just human nature.
As for the media….people in football media take great pleasure in laying into teams to give them easy headlines. It’s not anti-Arsenal, it’s just right now, our players are making themselves a very easy target.
This is worth a read…
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/dec/06/revealed-why-match-of-the-day-biased-insert-club-name
Mate, let me educate you here. I got news for you – the media, the match officials, the tabloids, the radio stations, the pundits have always but always hated Arsenal. The only exception to those, of course, are former Arsenal players employed in those jobs. That hasn’t stopped us winning trophies and titles before; if anything, especially in the George Graham era, it galvanised the team and consolidated the club with it’s entire fan base. Yeah, think about that for a minute….. At no time then was the anti Arsenal bias used to excuse poor results and poor management –… Read more »
Cool down my brother. Remember we are all fans on here and all follow our team. Respect one another’s views, don’t talk down or patronise one another, I don’t need educating certainly not by someone who goes under a misspelt soubriquet. Some very bland comments seem to incite such strong feelings, I will be taking a break from making any further comments for my mental health. I never wished to excuse any poor performance on any outside forces other than the team and staff. As I won’t make any further comments here I wish all our loyal fans 💞 and… Read more »
Well said, wishing you well too, I’m taking a break too let’s be kinder to one another on here as well 🙂 we all want to see our team do well and are all united by some great times watching the Arsenal, wishing the Arsenal family well, stay safe and keep the faith 🙂
You’re opinions are as valid as anyone else posting on here. Post whatever is on your mind,get it off your chest. You shouldn’t be worried at all about someone who disagrees with you.
💞👍🙂
If VAR don’t pick up a blatant shove in the face…well we’re fu*ked.
Does anybody know what the SP”rs equivalent of St Toteringhams day is and have we reached it?
St Arses day is a long way off yet but almost seems another inevitability.
I still think it’ll be a close race. I had thought Arsenal 5th, Spurs 6th before the season started but now Kane is staying there I think more likely Spurs 5th, Arsenal 6th.
With Ronaldo going to United, I wouldn’t rule out one last massive Man City bid for Kane.
A lot is going to need to change for us to make a run at 6th this year. Teams clearly have figured Arteta out – we were the equivalent of a training match for Chelsea & Citeh while the match was pretty comfortable for Brentford as well. As it stands you can effectively write off games against any of the top 4 and arguably Spuds as well.
Mate, I wouldn’t spend a micro second more of my life than is absolutely necessary thinking about those trophy-dodging cunts.
Fuck ‘em. They may be top now, but they’ll still win fuck all and the fly catching window licker will be going AWOL again.
Even I could have picked a better team to play City!
It was a strange line up and perhaps indicative of Arteta trying to be too clever for his own good like the false 9 debacle in Villareal. I miss our identity as a team with a clear philosophy to go out and play a fast attacking flowing entertaining brand of football- that to me is a philosophy not what Arteta is serving up. And if we are playing a superior team away from home like yesterday it would be prudent to stiffen the midfield up and man the trenches at times and to unleash hell on the counter attack at… Read more »
Willian as a false 9 against city last year was another masterstroke. I honestly think we could get into a relegation scrap if he stays.
Anything less than 3 points at Norwich and Arteta should be sacked!! No more fk*ng excuses!!
Agreed but it needs to be followed up with positive results against Burnley and Spuds.
As the great prophet Delia once said…let’s be aving you
let’s see
L😂L. So I take it we’re getting relegated then?
Caring owner is needed more than anything else. Other adjustments are meaningless.
I think a £130 million transfer kitty is fairly vigilant if not necessarily ’caring’…..
The owners aren’t to blame for this current mess. That’s firmly on the manager.
So true – during the 8-2 loss to United we had lots of opportunities in the first half and De Gea kept them in the game with some great saves. Szcezcny had a shocker for us.
It’s crazy to think that an Arsenal side would get 0 shots on-target against any side.
It was never this bad under Wenger. But I’m prepared to humor Arteta and see what he does with Partey and White back in the squad. If we struggle to compete, he has to go.
When Partey and White come back someone else will be missing. We have to fk*ing end these excuses. Anyone selected should put a shift in and fight. The system is not working with Arteta, water the fk his system is. The players have also let the club down. We cant put all our eggs on Partey and White coming back.
I have been following The Arsenal for 16 years now and I don’t recall a single season when our squad wasn’t marred by injuries. There’s not one long stretch of a season that I recall when we had all the key players intact. Yet, we scared other teams. We played beautiful football. And no matter how young, old or broken we were, every single manager and pundit expected us to score any minute in any game. And now, suddenly, everyone is screaming – oh we have injuries! It’s all down to injuries! Buy more players, better players, even better, even… Read more »
I think time to sack Arteta is now and get new manager in to get to know the team over next 2 weeks or so. They missed an opportunity after the last season ended to sack him and move on. It seems that we will not get RB or another CB in the time we have left in transfer market. I don’t believe that Arteta can lead Arsenal forward and I’ve said that multiple times. Any improvements made over next few weeks will be marginal at best; then what? Another spiral down? I don’t know that he can manage to… Read more »
I cannot believe there are still people who think Arteta will turn things around. He has proven many times he is not capable of implementing any tactics he talks about. Keeping Xhaka persisting with Willian last year, creating barely no chances in many games, bad squad selection, the list of mismanagement is endless. Get him out asap.
Apparently, we’re the boring ones.
Those of us who have become sick and tired of having to constantly repeat ourselves on here at how useless the man is – we’re the ‘boring’ ones.
Never mind that the real boredom is to be found in the supposed Football being played and the repetition of poor results.
Arteta might be an EPL level coach after about a decade of managing teams at lower levels and working hours way ip like he should have and like Vieira had to do (perhaps this would be a prefect time to talk about the lack of diversity in football coaching and the hoops non-how coaches have to jump through and extra 100 miles of written and experience they need to prove themselves only to still miss out).
“How did you lot do last week?”
“Not too bad, we won 6-5.”
We av a very imbalance squad. No world class players on the bench, Da bench is full of average players. When I saw city substitutes d players dey av on der bench I wish it was our Team that possess dos players. I don’t know y players lyk torreira are not in our team d man is hard as steel with lots of energy. Partey and torreira in our midfield wow we are going to be tough to beat. Y Saliba wasn’t given a chance this season? Y are we not buying a new right back? Using Cedric WTF I… Read more »
I hate when punishment is delivered without reasoning. Just an FYI; I also downvoted you not because of your message but because it is almost unreadable, what with all the lazy spelling.
To be honest, I didn’t even bother reading past a few lines because of it. I am sure your a decent person with interesting things to say, so I’d gently recommend using full words so others read and respect your viewpoints as they likely deserve (again, not sure, cause I didn’t read it). You can happily ignore this advice if you so choose.
Cheers.
Noted thank a lot, we all deserve better
Bookies opened betting on next manager….they don’t move without reason
2/1 Rodgers 4/1 conte howe 10/1 potter 11/1 hassenhutl 12/1 galtier 14/1 gerrard.
Galtier gone already.
id take conte or potter tbh
Potter isn’t a bad shout. More longterm than conte.
conte is a winner and will grant us trophies.
Will he? With no transfer window and short term?
seems like conte could be the new Emery.
Potter did his badges with Thierry/ viera afaik and has had great success with both oostersunds and doing alright with Brighton
Have a look a Conte’s CV.
The guy has won the title in EVERY single league he has coached in. One Serie B title, three Serie A titles and The Premiership.
And you want some rookie dude who has won a match or two with Brighton….?
Yes. 👍😆
Mate, this club doesn’t need to do any more Long Term. I think most of us, if we were honest with ourselves, have had it up to fucking HERE with projects, processes and Looooonnnnnngggg Teeeerrrrrrmmmm. How about we get in a serial winner to fast track us back to attacking football, goals, more goals, even more goals, the top four, Champions League football and some self respect. This Potter dude is another fucking time wasting ‘project.’ This is Arsenal Football Club, not a college for rookie managers. We need a serial winner. Someone who has won the respective title in… Read more »
I would be delighted with conte, allegri or similar just not sure we could get them to come to us. I would also take potter Howe Freddie or any other reasonably competent coach over arteta. I can see us being in real trouble by the time it’s all over.
I was playing devils advocate, you’ll notice my earlier comment saying I’d take conte or potter.
my FEAR is more that the job of fixing us in a season is impossible
Also the long term aspect isn’t success long term, more that potter would stay after the success too, unlike conte who’d be off after winning.
as long as we’re winning I’m coolwith anyone.
but not looking for the next manager as soon as we felt success would be nice
I think if Conte was successful with us, he’d stay for the long term – in spite of his age.
Chelsea treated him terribly – like the veritable classless cunts they are. He won them the Premiership, then the FA Cup was duly sacked for narrowly finishing 5th.
If he became a success at Arsenal, he would want to rub it in Chelsea’s face non stop; I think he’d be in for the long run.
If managers still contracted to clubs are also being considered… Then I’d go for Erik ten Hag of Ajax. Long-term manager who improves youth , plays good football and has Champions League experience.
I also think Eddie Howe fits this bill too (minus UCL experience)
Ten hag would work well with the new DoF Marc Overmars
I agree.
I like howe, getting Bournemouth promoted through the leagues and keeping them in prem for 5 seasons was an accomplishment. He would probably take a shorter term deal as well to prove himself. I think anyone is better than arteta, I can’t see him turning this around.
Brendan Rodgers can fuck right off. We want a manager, not a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Conte is the real deal.
Rodgers is the bookies favourite but I don’t think you have to worry about him coming to us. Why would he leave Leicester for the shitshow that arsenal are at the minute.
The club has a clear direction which we can see from the signing and the academy players promoted. Conte will not be suitable as he wants the support with trophy, which come to different signing strategy. And we won’t be able to compete with the signing he wants. I see Porter to be more suitable, his team is organize, hungry, and with an attacking intend. We need to admit that we are no longer the team that opposition is afraid of. Just look at the first 3 games, a toothless Arsenal, opposition just need to do basic defending, and attack,… Read more »
If there is one thing this club doesn’t have by any stretch of the imagination, it’s a clear direction.
Wake up.
I’m only sceptical about Conte because he doesn’t appear to be a long-term manager but you can’t fault him for being results driven. His specialty in the last decade has been in improving big clubs who had suffered a slump. Which is exactly what we are, so I can see why people want him. Juventus had finished 7th place twice before he came. Chelsea had finished 10th before he came and Inter couldn’t get past 4th place before he came. He won the league with all of them. Every team he went to got their fear-factor back Except for his… Read more »
Top post, well said.
Conte is the only sensible, common sense choice here. He’s exactly what we need.
Which probably means that most people on this site will want anyone but him……🙄
Stop picking fights because people disagree or don’t quite have the exact same opinion as you, it’s not forthcoming and it’s fractious to the fan base.
If the pre-match team talk had been “Imagine you’re in the school playground with no manager telling you what to do, just use your eyes and your own footballing skills” would it have been any worse?
at least Willian is officially going to Corinthians, signed until 2023… when he probably will be 80 something.
one less dead weight on the team, now we need to get rid of Xhaka
Where was Pepe?
Beside tomato at the veg store.
Rodri had 99 touches by himself and our whole team had only 133…? This article is like hearing the bailiff read aloud your (or your club’s) litany of crimes just before you walk to the chair… How are we in exactly the same place we were when Emery got the sack—no fight, no identity, no system, NO FIGHT, clueless. How are we f#*%ing here again? I want a way to support Arteta but it has to be over for him doesn’t it. Even second string players are legitimate professionals and should put up more of a fight than this group.… Read more »
I think that time was the honeymoon period. I remember similarly when Emery joined after Wenger was sacked, our performances were great. We went on an impressive unbeaten run, then the wheels began to fall off and we turned to absolute shit. Even shitter than under Wenger. Same happened when Emery was sacked and Arteta replaced him. We started off great, lively again. As if we had been revitalised. Our performances were so good, we won a trophy and even reached a final in the Europa League. There was so much improvement, they even promoted Arteta in the summer to… Read more »
Interesting. The players that featured extensively under Wenger, Emery and Arteta are; Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Lacazette, Aubameyang, Holding, Chambers and Kolasinac. The youth players were AMN, Nketiah and Nelson. Bellerin – Bid rejected from PSG Xhaka – Bid rejected from Roma AMN – Bid rejected from Wolves Lacazette – Bid rejected from Roma Kolasinac – Bid from Bayer Leverkusen falls through due to his wage demands Holding – Loan offer rejected from Newcastle and purchase offer rejected from West Ham Chambers – Bid rejected from Fulham Nelson – Loan offers turned down due to wage arrangements. There have been opportunities… Read more »
So the 8-2 was actually a very close game where Man U scored loads of low percentage chances? Interesting…
I watched that game from start to finish. It probably holds a record for most long-range strikes scored in a league game. Rooney scored two freekicks, Ashley Young scored two worldies and Park Ji-Sung literally rolled one in with his left foot past four Arsenal defenders. All low xG chances.
Van Persie also had his penalty saved in the first half. To be honest Szczesny stopped caring after Rooney’s first freekick went in. It was a free for all after that.
I vividly remember Wenger searching out the Arsenal directors in the Old Trafford stands at full time and shooting them a look as if to say “NOW are you utter cunts going to give me some decent funds…?”
Shocking stats. Artery May have the support of the Board (hum Josh … does Stanley even care), but it seems the players have given up on him! Sacking him now would give a new manager some influence on any last minute impact signings, a week or so to train with the team and reset for Norwich. More likely is a must win game for Arsenal and Arteta. A draw would probably be worst result … not bad enough to get Arteta fired but a result that well and truly sets the relegation trajectory.
That match at Old Trafford was very freaky, 2 teams going toe to toe with eachother we easily could have had 4-5 that day, both defences were highly vulnerable and Man utd’s shots were flying into the top corner for fun.
.the expected goals is a good metric and since Wenger has gone the expected goals projection is lower indicative of less of a goal threat and attacking potency.