Sunday, November 3, 2024

Report: Arsenal 0-2 West Ham (inc goals)

Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Rice, Trossard, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka, Jesus

Subs: Ramsdale, Kiwior, Cedric, Jorginho, Elneny, Nwaneri, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Nketiah

Arsenal missed the chance to go top of the table after goals from Tomas Soucek and Dinos Mavropanos handed West Ham a 2-0 win at the Emirates this evening.

Leandro Trossard replacing the suspended Kai Havertz was the only change from the team that drew at Anfield, while 16 year old Ethan Nwaneri was handed a place on the bench.

Bukayo Saka had the Gunners first effort in the third minute, after a brilliant flick from Martin Odegaard, but he shot straight at the keeper. The opening saw the game settle into an expected pattern with lots of Arsenal possession and the Hammers sitting deep.

Trossard shot over after good work from Martinelli, but there was a 13th minute shock when the visitors took the lead. A West Ham cross came in from their left, it deflected beyond Raya and almost out for a goal kick but Bowen put it back in and Soucek was there to poke it home. A long VAR check took place, shades of Newcastle away of course, but the goal stood. 0-1.

The goal seemed to take some steam out of our performance, with not a lot of fluency going forward. Trossard took some bad corners and a bad free kick, Saka had a shot deflect wide, and the Arsenal number 7 almost equalised when he headed a Jesus cross on target but Areola made a superb point-blank save.

West Ham were forced into a 32nd minute change when Paqueta, who picked up a problem in the warm-up, had to go off – replaced by Benrahma. Martinelli shot wide after good interplay around the West Ham box, and Saka almost equalised when put through by Odegaard – his shot from a tight angle beat the keeper but crashed back off the post.

It was the closest we came to scoring before the half-time whistle blew and we went in 1-0 down. There were no changes at the break, and 10 minutes in the visitors doubled their lead, former Gunner Dinos Mavropanos rising highest to head in off the underside of the bar. 0-2.

Arteta waited five minutes and made a double change with Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson replacing Zinchenko and Martinelli. Jesus then had a header on target, again well saved by Areola, and moments later headed over from a White cross after brilliant work from Odegaard.

Nelson picked up a booking for a foul on Soucek, Odegaard was doing his best to pull the strings but there wasn’t enough support from those around him. The captain made a good chance for Trossard but his close range shot was cleared, Saka had a shot on target which was saved, and Emile Smith Rowe came on to replace Trossard in the 79th minute.

Saka wanted a penalty but VAR checked and said no, Smith Rowe had a shot on target but it was easy for the keeper, Odegaard had a shot blocked and it was tough going against a West Ham side who defended as well as we attacked poorly. Nketiah got no power on an overhead kick from an Arsenal corner, Odegaard’s powerful shot was tipped around the post, and Nelson curled a shot over.

The goal wasn’t coming, and there was almost salt in the wound when Rice slipped in our box, then committed a foul to give his former club a penalty. However, Raya saved from Benrahma, and the final whistle went shortly afterwards on a night of real frustration for Arsenal.

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Bruce

Crap

Henkamp

Got thumbed down earlier when I said we need a bonafide striker. Jesus turns in one of those chances and the game would have turned on its head. But here we are!

So frustrating that Man City would win only 1 in 7 and we really couldn’t pull away. Oh well

Anders Limpar

I said at the time and I stick by it, there was a reason wily old Pep was happy to let Zinny and Jesus move to a potential title rival

Joker

In fairness to both Jesus and Zinchenko they improved us massively when they joined and are a big part of why we are now title challengers. It might just be that like Raya for Ramsdale, we need those 2% upgrades in their positions to push us over the line from challengers into title winners. Certainly I think that was Arteta’s thinking when we signed Timber.

RamsdalemyHero

Hahaha Raya an improvement? Pls stop it

catbiscuits

We weren’t potential title rivals when they sold them, and tbf they were a big part of the reason we challenged that season.

Anders Limpar

We weren’t title rivals at that point, however a club with our stature and history are always _potential_ title rivals so I stand by my point.

RockyRog58

8 down votes ? Feeling grumpy back on the early tube home people & a bit bored !
Lighten up it’s true !

Jack

That reason was primarily FFP.

In any case, don’t fall into the trap of thinking Pep is some infallible genius who’s always playing 5d chess. His mistakes in the transfer market are too many to count, they just usually get plastered over with yet more hundreds of millions.

Selling those guys was amongst those mistakes; Arsenal are quite comfortably the best team in the league this season by the most important metrics, significantly better than City, and Jesus and Zinchenko are a big part of that. Don’t throw the baby out as soon as there’s a slightly difficult patch.

Dave

Not by the most important metric though. Which tonight was goals and in the league is points.

Jack

At the end of the season, points are most important, yes.

During the season, xG and xGA are more important, because they show the true performance of the team. Goals actually scored and conceded are subject to a large degree of variance, as we saw tonight, which means over small samples they can be very misleading. That variance evens out over a longer period, which is why the teams with the best xGD always perform better over larger samples.

Ealing

We are watching a different sport : goals scored and clean sheets

Jack

We’re not watching a different sports; we just know different amounts about the sport we’re watching. One of the things I know is that xG is more predictive than actual goals scored, and the same is true of xGA vs concessions (clean sheets total isn’t even in the discussion- every manager would rather concede one goal a game than alternate between 0 and 6, meaning total conceded is much more useful than clean sheets). Based on the underlying stats that people in the know (such as the clubs themselves) use to evaluate performance and predict future performance, we are the… Read more »

Chris L

Jack, I respect your opinion, stats etc (which has its place within football), but good old judgement, what you see etc can’t be replaced with stats alone, there has to be context behind them, otherwise your judgement can be ‘distorted’…..
Shots on goal are a perfect example, unless you analyse the detail the numbers can skew what we viewed & experienced, so I’m sorry stats alone done ‘paint’ a true reflection…..

Jack

I think that’s true and a fair point Chris. Stats, even the more advanced ones, are not perfect yet, and sometimes you do have to rely on the judgement of your eyes a bit to fill in the gaps. For example, xG might actually understate our level of chance creation today because it only counts shots, and therefore doesn’t capture chances where the attacker doesn’t get a shot away (like ESR failing to get his head on that Odegaard ball, or the multitude of times that we can’t quite find space for a shot in a crowded box). Plus it… Read more »

Chris L

Again, Jack, I respect your opinion, & as previously stated there’s a place for stats & you make some very good points, but there still has to be context & as we stand no matter how good machine learning is, it still can’t replace the human element in all of this, yes, emotions run high after a game, but in the cold light of day, my feelings are still the same & have been for a number of years. I also stand by the fact that so many people & their similar opinions can’t all be wrong just threw same… Read more »

Funsho Patrick

I got thumbed down too when I said replacing our goalkeeper was less likely to cost us the title than bringing in a killer in the box….No arsenal player is in the top8 for goals scored…most of those 8 would have buried west ham in the first half… we’re the least ruthless team in the top4…

RamsdalemyHero

My friend that’s in the cyberspace s’ called “Shadow banning” your opinion.

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

You can’t say things like that about an Arsenal player here, unless it’s immediately after a loss and everyone is fuming.
I’ve said from last season that Jesus was Adebayor Mk2, but that is disrespectful to Adebayor who actually scored goals, even though he missed 4 to score 1

Doghouse

Said this would be tricky, WHU like us were 3rd best in current form over last 6 games and so it proved, like last game Dec come on against his former club in CC his performance was by his high standards below par like tonight, along with the many up front, having had a difficult away fixture gaining a point going in to this one we were expecting 3 points, lets be honest WHU played well, we move on..

Joker

That was woeful.

UzesGooner

Odegaard played well. That’s it.

Zinchenko was a fucking liability again

Ealing

Z was a liability but MO played too slow and was ineffective

Joker

I’m not sure Odegaard did play all that well unfortunately. The whole team was off it from start to finish.

Greg in Seattle

I thought he was good early but went to hero ball as the game progressed. That made us worse.

Matt P

He was busy and tried hard but not great execution

mach iii

Hairy balls Hammering against the arse! The blacksmiths forging an injustice to our rear-end. Forcing themselves on us. Grabbing on our lovehandles as we wrestle and bite the pillow! Woe! Terrible news!

Alex

You can’t tell me West Ham had a great defensive performance when they allowed 30 shots and 10 corners. Sorry. Not possible to convince me.

However, we gifted them a free half. The whole fucking first half we made it easy and casual. This is how you lose leagues.

Ealing

30 shots but how many clear chances on target

Jack

6 or 7?

Ealing

On target 8 but 6 were easy catches, 2 chances on target and Saka hit the post WH also had 3 chances and took 2,

Brian

The few on target were directly at the keeper. Saka had the only good chance.

Jack

We actually had just over 1 xGOT, meaning that an average keeper would have conceded one goal today.

Given that we had almost 3 xG total that’s poor finishing, but, for the same reason, it’s straightforwardly wrong to say that Saka had the only good chance. We had several- enough to score 3 goals on a good finishing day.

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

Their defence was better than our attack. That cannot be denied

Santi’s Phonebox

Simple analysis that is 100% correct. When you boil down everything, stats, eye test, form, their defense was better than our attack.

Don Cazorleone

A tale as old as time itself. Arsenal with all the possession but do nothing with it.
We have zero CF presence

Ealing

Didn’t even attempt to shoot

Jack

We shot 30 times

Brian

How many troubled their keeper? Not enough.

Jack

I was responded to a guy who said we “didn’t even attempt to shoot”

Hlebs socks

martinelli stopped scoring. so saka stopped scoring. but jesus wasn’t about to let them hog all the limelight in the not scoring competion. sadly this means we’re buggered

Eric Blair

Lack of firepower has been a discussion point all season. Luckily the window opens in a few days!

Tomaury Bischfeld

When you talk about excellent play without scoring, Hleb is one of the first players that leapt to mind.

Henkamp

Go take a peek at the article from yesterday of Arteta responding to the striker question. People were saying we don’t need a striker as much as we need another midfielder.

Saka and Martinelli are having stinkers game after game for a while now… That’s when you need a ruthless striker. But then we have Jesus who is great at missing big chances. Get a proper striker and shift him to the wings, not hard.

Tombo

They are getting doubled up on out wide. You need a presence to offer the early cross and that also then frees up space for saka and martinelli

Eric Blair

Don’t know exactly what Arteta tinkered with over the summer but it isn’t working. He’s got to earn his crust now and get us going again.

Jack

It is working. We are statistically much better than last year.

Ozzie

True, apart from goals and points.

Jack

We actually are better in terms of points than we were last season, look it up. 2.22/game vs 2.21/game last season. So basically identical actually, with the edge to this season.

We are 0.31 goals per game behind though, yeah. Hardly a huge decrease, and outweighed by our enormous defensive improvement, but sure.

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

We have less points after playing something like 5 games more 😀

Hlebs socks

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

AnonGooner

We can’t win the league with Zichenko and Raya in this team… Just not happening. Absolutely awful players

Norwegian Wood

What did Raya do wrong today? They had two shots on target that no goalkeeper in the world will save, so what are you saying?

Greg in Seattle

Troll comment.

portugunner

q-anon gooner…

Artedu

We can’t blame the effort can we?
The lads tried but the last game wasn’t easy so you could see them tired.
No injuries so bring the next one!
COYG

Manex

That was meek

Santi’s Phonebox

It was many things but not meek. The lads put an effort it, we just didn’t score, so we lost. But not meek.

Bill

Absolute crap. The only good thing?
A chance to make it right quickly. Oh and David Raya with a penalty save.

djourou's nutmeg

and watching esr again, my boy

Rick_Sanchez

We are clearly incompetent. But what on earth is VAR then?

Don Cazorleone

Desgracia

Spanish Gooner

We’d all be absolutely furious if we had a goal disallowed for that and it’s disingenuous to claim otherwise. We were crap, like in several other games this season.

Tombo

I said the same after Newcastle, the lino aren’t making decisions as expecting var to sort it out but they don’t have the angles to clear it up so nothing happens. Prob both occasions with no var the lino flags it as out.

GoonerJust

VAR is our kryptonite, we should rely more on converting our chances on the final third. Don’t make their keeper look like the best in the world.

Henkamp

The referring in England is nothing short of COMICAL. Just sad that we always the butt of their “jokes”.

Eric Blair

Not why we lost today.

Eric Blair

Incontinent

TheRiceIsRight

That was a shit sandwich with a side of shit fries

jeremy

Shit going forward, shit at the back. A quite frankly embarrassing performance at home to a bang average team missing their best player. Only Odegaard comes out with any credit. I defended Arsenal when people called them bottlers… I won’t after that performance.

jeremy

ps we need someone who can score goals. Not a defender, not a midfielder…someone who can actually put the ball in the net. No chance of a title otherwise.

Ozzie

Aubameyang?

Eric Blair

There will be no title this season. But I do fancy us to go far in the CL as relative unknowns.

Artedu

Patience. The scored one lucky goal that changed momentum and one very lucky set piece.
Then they defended massively and given that they could kick us around with no interventions from the ref….it was tough.

Alan Sunderland

there was nothing lucky about west hams 2nd goal.

Ealing

MO also tinkered too much, did some nice numbers but little substance

Jack

It really wasn’t either.

2.68 npxG to 0.8. 30 shots to 6. A record for touches in the box without scoring. The finishing let us down, which we know is basically just random variance.

We are statistically the best team in the league- let’s all just calm down.

Cygan’sbaldspot

There’s always a nerd to tell you that your eyes are lying to you. We clearly need more goals, I don’t care what the stats say.

Jack

Yes, I am that nerd. If you think we didn’t create by far the better chances and dominate that game, then your eyes are lying to you.

portugunner

does one fact speak against the other?

Eric Blair

Sure, bad finishing is just random variance, as it was at Villa.

Jack

It demonstrably is. Over- or under-performance of xG almost always regresses to the mean over time, a telltale mark of something caused by variance. Over a large sample, xG predicts actual goalscoring near-perfectly, and is therefore what you should care about.

portugunner

don‘t worry, jack, you will be proven right! 🤩🤩🤩

Ealing

30 shots, only 8 on target 6 were easy catches, plus Saka hitting the post (1) I’d say we got three chances, Saka’s header and save on trossard, they also got three and put two away.

Jack

The point of xG is to measure the quality of those shots. So no, you’re wrong to suggest that the shots were low value ones or whatever exactly you’re trying to say here.

EmileSmithWhoa

Amen, we maintained high intensity attacking football for about as long as you will see in 98% of games you will watch in any league. I love me some Martinelli but am not sure he is the best choice when the bus is parked all game. I would love to see some combinations of Trossard, Havertz and ESW or even Nelson where Gabby is the super sub. It would also be nice if fans were a bit less radioreactive.

Jack

Chance would be a fine thing

Brian

Does the “statistically best team in the league” get a trophy?

Ealing

The wankers half filled cup !!!

Jack

Yeah, usually- they call it the Premier League Trophy

The Badger

Jack, I appreciate your calm delivery of stats BUT if you watched the same game as me we never looked like scoring and without someone taller in the box, we never will.

Jack

I don’t agree; we do currently score a bit less than our title rivals, but we have the best defence in the league by a country mile, which more than makes up for it and gives us the best expected goal difference in the league. That will tell over time if we keep these performance levels up. I don’t deny we could improve our attack, but I personally think that’s more a result of Arteta’s conservative tactics than anything else, and the flipside of our outstanding defensive record. I think we have the players to have a more potent attack,… Read more »

Santi’s Phonebox

Disagree, we looked like scoring the entire game. If you watch a game through a negative perception that we aren’t going to score you feel validated while I feel frustrated because we created so many chances it’s hard to believe we couldn’t score. We need to move the ball faster through the thirds, longer passes from the back to front attacking quicker before the low block has time to set like some impenetrable concrete. Agree with Jack’s comment about the not getting the luck from the variables. Over time and number of games we get those goals.

Stuart

Our striker options are woeful

AnonGooner

It pains me when we pass the ball around in front of the opposition goal and not score….Just awful football. All that possession for nothing.

Ealing

People say we are doing fine and we took 30 shots

Bleeding gums murphy

Trossard and martinelli awful. Putting on Nelson and nketia tells you how short we are. Some will call this knee jerk but I’ve felt it all season, we aint winning the league when you get beat by an injured ravaged West Ham at home.

djourou's nutmeg

remember when everyone thought we were fine with leno and then ramsdale came? the same is going to happen the day we buy martinelli a proper replacement. not his fault, he should be entitled to have a few bad months (he’s been average at best since the season began, awful these last few matches). but this team is always depending on out-of-form players to improve their performances. it was three months until havertz remembered how to play football, now other three months until martinelli remembers how to shoot, three months until trossard stops sending shitty corners, and so on. and… Read more »

Henkamp

What THE heck has gone wrong with Martinelli? Did we make a mistake letting Xhaka go without replacing him with a proper 8? That LCM is giving so much headache, even with Havertz recent uptick in form playing there!

Ealing

That LCM position WAS not trossard ‘s role, but who do you play for MA it has been hard to trust ESR without minutes under his belt

Santi’s Phonebox

Perfect game to start ESR and find out where his level is at with the squad. In terms of understanding where his team is at, MA missed an opportunity for potential squad growth and confidence for conservative team selection. This conservative approach doesn’t build confidence in the squad players and MA is demonstrating he hasn’t progressed in this area. Not playing players doesn’t maintain their squad value, playing them and have them contribute increases squad value. This is an area IMO that Arteta can improve his performance. Also changing tactics mid game might help. If our forwards can’t come inside… Read more »

akasuna00

David Moyes channeling his inner Man United manager..

Vonnie

74% possession, 30 shots, 10 corners and couldn’t hit a barn door. This team needs a kick up the arse.

Don Cazorleone

This team needs a centre forward.
Jesus & Nketiah ain’t it.

El__Chapitan

So instead of Rice haunting his former club it was Mavropanos who came to haunt us. The fans leaving towards the end is a disgrace btw, SUPPORT YOUR TEAM, win or lose.

Joker

Absolutely agree. That was shameful to see.

Willypool

Some of those fans are with kids leaving to catch the tube home. Not being funny but 2.0 down with a few minutes left poorinh with rain and an hour train ride home with children in tow I don’t blame them one bit after that ball ache of a performance

Fenko

But would they have stayed with their kids if Arsenal was 3:0 up

Consider it from that angle

Willypool

But they weren’t..

Eric Blair

What life lessons are they teaching their kids?

Willypool

More about putting thier kids 1st I think is what I am getting at

Ozzie

I’m completely with you on that. How much less likely are our players to pull off any comeback with the sight of their own fans leaving?

Unknown

Although I see your point, fans are frustrated. Arsenal have been one step forward two steps back for far too long. We can’t be shut out at home by West Ham. Past seasons it was Brighton, 2 seasons ago it was Southampton. Things like that can’t happen if you want titles. Team can absolutely destroy a team one week and lay an egg next week. It’s like team is bipolar.

Eric Blair

Lack of experience, lack of solid squad rotation options, too dependent on a small number of players for goals and when they’re misfiring we’re screed.

Ozzie

Fans feel frustrated, so they shit on any chance of an unlikely (but still possible) comeback by leaving early, thus giving themselves even more reason to moan. Makes sense.

Emerson

Don’t blame fans leaving the stadium when we play so poorly. People need to go home and do something important with their time than watching this awful performance. Yet again Arsenal could go on top with a win at home but we lose. That’s the story guys. Let people go home early. Their decision. Yes we need a striker but we aint getting one in January except we sell players (no one is buying from us in January to help us – mark it down) or if we get another loan from Brentford. Doubtful. Like someone said at the live… Read more »

hellsyeah

desgracia!!!

djourou's nutmeg

a side whose answer to being losing is to bring on eddie nketiah and reiss nelson doesn’t deserve to win the premier league. sold mavropanos for 3 million last year btw. all you need to know about this club in a single comment. also fuck pgmol

Stonks

I think it’s time we gave Zinchenko a break. Also wtf happened to Trossard magic?

Ealing

Z has 2-3 mistakes a game, was also ineffective going forward

Ozzie

He’s really started to irritate me. The very best full backs are allowed to be bad defenders, but is he one of them?

Bjorn

Yeah Zinny was ponderous and untidy.

kas

Fo who, we have no cover now at Full back, centre back or a no 6 all gone or injured. Squad is no better than last season.

loose_cannon

Shambles

Mootilated

Zinchenko and Jesus need to be permanently replaced. City won titles despite their presence, not due to it.

This habit of creating 100 chances, scoring 0 and the opponent scoring with every chance they get, needs to stop. It is not the stuff of champions.

Wengerball

Agreed. MA showing his hand by favoriting them. I think MA is the great pretender of Pep and not his usurper.

Mootilated

I think he has no choice. We barely have backup for either position. They are not very good and there’s a reason Pep got rid.

Greg in Seattle

They helped the rebuild and restoration to top four. They don’t feel like they will be around when we win the league, or at least not featured. To be fair, Tomi was on his way to taking Zinchenko’s spot before injury and as someone else said, Timber is coming. Zin as a spot starter rather than regular seems inevitable.

Matthinc

Bring back Wenger

Fireman Sam

I think late-era Wengerball was brought back tonight!

JuiceJ

The final third efficiency blogs wrote about this morning was lacking again. We desperately need a striker, we should have done better with the chances we got. We were slow and laborious, loads of ball but zero cutting age. We cant afford this if we really wanna push on. Kudos to West Ham though they defended excellently.

Johan

Kudus to West Ham.

JuiceJ

He was excellent. His holdup play and strength on the ball was really great. It hurt us badly.

Ealing

Martinelli didn’t stand a chance against him

JuiceJ

No chance at all, Martinelli is out of form, needs a sit out for the next game. I give him a 1 rating for this game.

Dave

He was poor but at least he holds width

Greg in Seattle

Martinelli’s crap form is putting SO much pressure on Saka and the whole right side. Saka is working so hard but it’s evolving to triple teams against him now, and of course the endless kicking.

Nelson looked like an academy player.

Vonnie

I was disappointed we didn’t go for him, he wasn’t even expensive.

JuiceJ

Also, I see what you did there.

Eric Blair

This has been a discussion in some quarters all season.

ObiKing

The gaffer knows more; I don’t ever want to hear negative talk about Havertz. Please get Toney so we can play Jesus out wide. Saka was denied a clear pen.

Wengerball

Ivan Toney? You’ve got to be joking.

ObiKing

Yes Toney. The mans hold up play, speed, and skill is what we need upfront. Name someone who can hit the ground running?

loose_cannon

Not sure Toney will hit the ground running himself after such a lengthy lay off. But I do think we need someone, I’ve defended Jesus to death but he was diabolical today, pun not intended. Martinelli hasn’t been pulling up trees lately either.

Eric Blair

We need a striker and Martinelli and Jesus to fight for a spot.

😇🚗☀️

For someone who was nailed to a cross, there was none of that last night as he struggled to even hit the proverbial barn door. But seeing as it was his birthday only 3 days prior we can hope that he rises from the dead (of this performance) and is the self-annointed king that is crowned come season end.

*Gets coat

Elgon_View

Got very tired of that overplayed Saka-Odegaard-White triangle, just keep doing same thing over and over again, gets very easy to defend..we are not winning any major title with current CFs, no hunger for goals!

Fireman Sam

Ben White was so slow and scared to pass forward.

AnonGooner

It’s time we sold Zichenko. Offers absolutely nothing

Tomaury Bischfeld

I think Trossard was really poor and we miss Havertz and having options in the full back positions. Also thought lack of a proper striking plan B was really evident tonight against a block like theirs. Wish changes were made sooner.

The atmosphere stank tonight. There was a lot of the game left to play and going 2-0 down does not help, neither does the weather but slightly embarrassed that the place fell silent.

El Mintero

We absolutely do not miss Havertz.

Adebanjo

Artetas obsession with control has caused this club to regress. We are ten points worse off than we are at this same stage last season. Our vibrant attack has become blunt. We have three players who scored 15 goals last season and only one of them has scored 5 so far while the other two has not scored 5 combined. If Arteta does not rethink this ponderous possession and control strategy we are about to fall off the cliff and go out of contention for the league totally.

Ealing

Other team have found us out ; sit back and double up on Saka; MO takes too long on the ball, Gabriel and Saliba excellent in defence , but unable to shift a fast ball forward

Tomaury Bischfeld

Regress to what? Finishing 5th, 6th, 5th 8th 8th in the league? Do you remember we finished 2nd last year and we are currently in 2nd place and 2 points of the top. Nonsense.

Wengerball

Different season. The competition this season is far worse than last year and by performances we most definitely have regressed. Numbers don’t tell the whole story

Tomaury Bischfeld

Well if you are talking about regressing from last season, if you remember Arteta was the manager that season playing a game based on control. The fact that we achieved 2nd place was in large part down to him. So if the performances have regressed this season, they are only regressing from a standard he set. If you are talking about the club regressing under Arteta, you are just talking a load of old dogs bollocks.

Tomaury Bischfeld

Dogs’

Wengerball

Yes we regressed from the standard he set but that point is moot. We regressed from last season. Call it a victim of your own success if you want, the point still stands.

EmileSmithWhoa

We have progressed defensively, somewhat regressed offensively and virtually tied statistically when ranked against others. We have accomplished this two years in a row in a sport and league largely dominated by a few clubs or 1 club who dominate for very specific unethical and illegal reasons. We now compete at their level … thanks to all who help make that happen and a big dose of Old Dog Shriveled and Infected Bollocks to the others.

EmileSmithWhoa

Old Dog Shriveled and Infected Bollocks!

Eric Blair

Nah, these are the new fogging estandards set by the man himself. He doesn’t want your excuses.