Monday, December 23, 2024

Arteta focused on ultimate goal not niche stats

If you want an insight into Mikel Arteta’s singular mindset, he produced the same reaction when two stats were thrown his way in the aftermath of Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Victory on the banks of the River Thames, secured thanks to first half goals by Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard, was the Spaniard’s 100th since becoming head coach back in December 2019 and took his personal win ratio to 59.5 per cent; better than any of his predecessors.

“It’s great [100 wins], we have to continue like that, I’m delighted to do that, unfortunately, it’s not a title, so there’s still a lot to improve,” he told Arsenal.com.

Facing the Sky Sports cameras, he was also informed that Sunday’s win represented the first time in English Football League history that a team had won five consecutive London derbies away from home without conceding – a beautifully niche bit of trivia served up by the lads at Opta.

While he stopped short of a Shania Twain impression, he replied: “Great, but that’s not a title! It’s good because it means the team is doing really well and it’s obviously something really difficult to do but we need to continue.”

To be fair, he was a little more enthusiastic when it was pointed out that his side had won 73 per cent of their matches across all competitions this season.

“It is incredible and that means that we have a lot of people doing the right things at the club. In the team a lot of players contributing immensely and especially the support that we have, which in my opinion, has absolutely transformed this team with that energy, so I’m really happy.”

If Arsenal can maintain this season’s current points per game tally (2.44) they will not only win a first title since the Invincibles in 2003/04 but surpass that side’s club-record 90 points haul for a single campaign.

Given some of the fixtures on the horizon (including matches away to three of the top six), that’s going to be a tall order but who knows with this team, every week that passes they raise their level.

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The Only Olivier is Giroud

This team has me dreaming big dreams again. Love the lads

C.B.

So impressive this season, and with Trossard, Partey and Jesus back that helps a lot. and hopefully City have some fixture congestion.

We lost against 5 of our remaining opponents last season in the equivalent fixtures, so I’m only getting excited when we are mathematically certain to win (fingers crossed).

Crazy the number of clean sheets we’ve had playing away too, far better than at home.

Everything crossed!

Johnny 4 Hats

Yeah, totally. Although I’ve always known we were in a title race, I really feel like yesterday was when I went “Fuck me, we could actually really win this thing”. Whenever anyone asks, I always play it coy. “City have a deeper squad, they’ve been there before, if we get injuries…” But you couldn’t watch yesterdays performance and not think are favourites for this thing. Crazy days my friend. Crazy days. In funnier news, my best bud who’s a United fan is still trying to find excuses for why we are where we are. People still refuse to accept the… Read more »

Oddo

Spurs fans are the worst. Last year they were telling me that our squad was full of kids that would never do anything and that their team had more potential.

Anon

You don’t win anything with kids

TeeCee

You definitely don’t win anything with sp*rs.

Anon

Touche

Henkamp

Must be quite galling for them to see our kids doing what they are doing now. They had a – let’s admit it – brilliant young squad with Kane, Son, Dele Alli, Eriksen etc and couldn’t end their trophy drought. .Must now be painful watching us win week after week.

Johnny 4 Hats

The thing that pisses me off is they could still get a good manager in after Conte. Poch and Luis Enrique are both twerking for the cock. Look at what Spurs did to Mourinho and Nuno. Tim Sherwood still wakes up in the middle of the night in sweats, dreaming he has to get something out of Nacer Chadli. I just want them to go back to 90’s Spurs now. It was kind of fun to have a rivalry for a while. But they just don’t belong in the top 6. And their fans have completely forgotten that. They need… Read more »

Anon

Harsh but fair

A Different George

I am hoping–though it won’t happen–that Conte stays there forever, with a back three based on Eric Dier, with their only skilled defender in a tight race with Casemiro for “most likely to be sent off again,” and with wingbacks, just like Italy 20 years ago. I don’t think their business model allows their owners to do the right thing: hire someone like Arteta or Howe (maybe Frank), give him a decent budget and understand that the price to pay for building a title challenger is probably to finish outside the top four for several years.

HoosierGooner

After Conte is sacked, Eric Dier…Player-manager.

A Different George

Dier is probably, over all, a better defender than Rob Holding. But you have to think about it.

Finsbury Park Gooner

I confidently told a spurs mate last summer that we would finish comfortably above them this season and he didn’t stop laughing about it for weeks. He is very, very quiet these days.

Johnny 4 Hats

It’s funny because when City won everything, I can’t remember people going “yeah, but they played Liverpool when VVD was injured and Spurs had Kane out too”.

It speaks to societies total lack of ability or willingness to change your mind on an issue that people are trying to poke holes in our performances.

Billy bob

Looks like your friend popped up here to down vote you!!!

Daveo

This team is freaking QUALITY! No doubts about it. The way I see it is when I try and decide who is the player of the season. We have truly world class talent in Saka, Ode, Partey, Zinchenko and Jesus – 5 sure-fire world class level players. And then another five are knocking on that door – Martinelli, Saliba, Gabriel, Rammers, White. Xhaka may not be quite world class, but he’s been exceptional this season – something I truly cannot believe from previous years – he was brilliant yesterday too. Every time I try to pick a player of the… Read more »

Mootilated

I still don’t understand why all the pundits, media outlets etc are still saying we’ve been lucky and pushing that we’re soon going to fall apart. Especially when they keep quoting stats. Like… Why? What is their obsession with watching Arsenal fail? You’d think they would want that corrupt club sitting behind us to be as far away from possibly buyi-*cough* winning the title as possible. Yet they seem to want Arsenal to crumble. I don’t get it. Oh, and I love that everyone is acting like a manager in his first managerial role is completely blowing all the managerial… Read more »

TheLimpBar

This is Arsenal. If the media, pundits etc are doing this then all is well – this has happened to us throughout our history!

Frosty

I have to manage my own expectations every time I looked at the league table. I tell myself whatever happens we’ll be back in the CL next season, and I imagine our wingers turning world class defenders inside out!

A Different George

If you watch the American feed, everyone thinks Arsenal are (a) now the favourites, though obviously not overwhelming so–Man City described (accurately) as “relentless”; (b) absolutely deserve to be where they are. Lots of talk about ability to win different ways (Bournemouth and Fulham); lots of talk about having surprisingly easily survived loss of Gabriel Jesus and much deeper squad. All their commentators/pundits are English bar Tim Howard–who loves his old teammate Arteta, by the way. All of them think Arteta has been brilliant.

Saph

Agreed
This idea that every pundit or outlet wantinf Arsenal to fail is just not true. I have seen many articles and people praise Arsenal’s displays and form this season.

I know it’s fashionable to be hated everywhere, and we will have it in some quarters but overall I have seen constantly seen comments about how impressive Arsenal have been

Buteo

Who would downvote this? Not an Arsenal supporter anyway, but perhaps an envious Spud that would love to see us fail. Or a Manure… I think they are the worst.

Ebo

This might be a ridiculous theory but I feel like most of it comes down to a particular kind of xenophobic Sun or Mirror-reading brexiter c*nt that’s unfortunately about half of the English populace. Arsenal were the first club (or at least the first top club) that went and got a non-British manager and even dared to be super successful with him, and he had the gall to bring a ton of foreign players and play – for the life of god – attractive technical football, something English players were completely incapable of at the time and went against their… Read more »

Sorted

This is exactly it.

Saffergunner

Looking on from south Africa 🇿🇦 I don’t understand why Arsenal are to am extent ‘hated’ in the media … I thought it had to do with them being a club in the capital (is there any bias for this reason?) but maybe your reason is the one Also this may seem like a strange observation but Arsenal constantly being hit hard by the F.A and saka not getting fouls, a result of 1) majority of referees being from Mancheste 2) British government AND F.A being in thrall to middle eastern money and not wanting to upset them in any… Read more »

Ebo

There’s for sure some anti-London sentiment in the north and midlands (as there is anti-north sentiment in the south, it’s just the way countries tend to work) but not sure if that plays a majorly dominant role here. Chelsea have certainly never been the target of as many FA charges, bad refereeing decisions, pundits waiting for them to fail etc. In fact when they finally achieved success under their own foreign manager many years after us the English press was so charmed by him and thrall of his disgusting narcissism it was painful to watch.

PeteyB

We’re going so well, and with players coming back fit we really have a great chance. But while the manager and team are going one game at a time, the April fixture list is giving me the heebie-jeebies a bit!

Anon

The whole thing is on a knife edge which is part of what makes it so exciting.

If we keep doing what we’ve been doing all season we will likely win the title.

I’m more confident of that after our performance on Sunday. Less so when we get 3 points by the skin of our teeth, even if it is fun to watch.

Runzac

Agree with the jeebies. One loss against City and a draw against either Chelsea or Mugmashers in april might hand them the title on goal difference. What a fucking nightmare

mporter7625

City will drop points somewhere as well. Not sure where but there is a draw or a loss for them in fixture list.

lovely_arse

Agreed. They were gifted the win at Palace

Teryima Adi

Fear not.

GateCrasher

First time in a long while I’m actually looking forward to, rather than dreading, Liverpool away.

Two heavyweights slugging it out in an atmosphere that we’ll need to fight to quieten all the way through.

I honestly can’t wait!

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

I really hope this team wins the league!
Title or no title, I am super proud of these boys and most of all Super Mik.
I might even shed a little tear

Adney Toams

That sounds like me after EVERY match now!

Gooner Reg

The undisputed kings of London!

Jimbo1

It is always strange when pundits come out with trivial statistics. To be fair the overall win rate is impressive, but the London derby stat felt a bit random. The only really intense rivalry is with Spurs and maybe Chelsea, otherwise the rest are just short trip away days at another Premier League club. Leeds, Villa, Liverpool etc are probably tougher grounds to go to than Fulham Brentford West Ham.

A Different George

Data is (are?) an amazing thing (things?). Most goals scored in last fifteen minutes of a half when opponent is wearing its change kit even though it doesn’t need to.

Henkamp

The stats are mind blowing! We have won 10 wins out of 13 away games. We have kept NINE clean sheets in those 13 away games. We have won 21 out of 27 EPL games. These are the kind of stats that used to make me go green with envy looking at Liverpool and Man City not too long ago. And when you consider how young this team is, with a manager in his first job, plus missing, arguably, our most-important player for 3 months… it’s just all insane! No matter what happens, looking forward to what we do in… Read more »

Cliff Bastin

My wife reacts to (ignores) me rambling endless stats like this too.

Naked Cygan

I might be in the minority but I think I best bet for silverware this season is the Europa League. With our first team we are by far the strongest team in this tournament and I think we should still take it very seriously. The Premier League my heart says we can win it but my head says City will finish first given the easier fixtures remaining for them. We got City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Newcastle away if I am not wrong and those games will not be easy. On the other hand City got Liverpool and Chelsea at home.… Read more »

¶aulson

This sounded like something a left testicle would say, I look at your name and you’re not Left Testicle…

Why?

TechGuyNiran

You shouldn’t mentioned Newcastle in there. They should be more scared of us. The same applies to the so call City Liverpool and Chelshit

TechGuyNiran

*have mentioned *so called…damn auto correct

Jimbo1

Chelsea is at home. Beat them away already. Newcastle not winning too many. Liverpool inconsistent and we can afford to lose to City if we win the rest.

Mark

Seeing how we dominate most teams it wouldn’t be a miracle if we won both. Why not? Someone has to win them! Let’s go.

Cranky Colin

Did anyone notice Martinelli roaming around , at one point doubling up with Saka on the right second half.
Arteta has astonishing tactical variations, yet maintains security pretty well.
Is he the Messiah?

Anon

No he’s a very naughty boy

Hass

The mentality of the boss is exactly what will keep the players level headed and get over confident ahead of run in. Watching the game yesterday with non Arsenal supporting friends they said this team look like champions. Me not wanting to jinx it still says City are favourites but week by week my confidence rises

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