3 – Sunderland took just three shots in this match, two from outside the 18 yard box and from the penalty spot. When they took the penalty, many Gooners voiced concern on Twitter that Arsenal would let another one slip but Sunderland were the most toothless team Arsenal have faced all season and once Wenger brought on Giroud, there was little cause for worry.
16 – I didn’t say “no” cause for worry, however. Wenger’s boys have conceded 16 big chances in League play this season. Big Chances are counted by Opta and are a measure of a shot which should be scored. For example, a penalty is a Big Chance and the Alexis goal at the end was a Big Chance. Also, when a player is played through 1-v-1 with the keeper, they usually count that as a Big Chance. Clear?
Ok, well, to give some context: Arsenal conceded just 35 big chances all season last year. That’s less than one per game. This season they are averaging 1.6 per game.
Now, that stat is skewed by the fact that Arsenal conceded 7 big chances in the two matches against Swansea and Boro. Last season Arsenal only had two matches where they conceded 3 or more, Swansea and Sunderland, and so there’s a chance that those two matches this season will even out in the end.
I don’t think it’s time to panic on this stat quite yet: if I look at overall shots allowed per game, they are down from 12 to 10 and shots in prime* are only up slightly from 2.6 to 3.1. The 2 penalties Arsenal have conceded so far this season increased the opposition Big Chances per game by 0.2 all by itself. So, it looks like Arsenal are structurally playing well (shots allowed per game down) but errors and penalties conceded are causing a slight burp in the stats.
23 – Number of points Arsenal have won this season and coincidentally the number of goals Arsenal have scored.
18 – Number of Clean Sheets Arsenal kept last season. This led the Premier League and won Petr Cech the Golden Gloves with 16 to his name.
4 – Number of clear sheets Arsenal have kept so far this season.
6 – There have been 6 penalties awarded in Arsenal’s 10 matches this season (4 for Arsenal and 2 against) and while that seems unusual you have to remember that before this weekend, the League was on pace to hand out 131 penalties over the season. That is 25 more penalties awarded than in any season of the Premier League! Liverpool matches have generated 5 penalties (4 for and 1 against) and Man City have 6 (5 for and 1 against).
1 – Giroud scored with his first touch of the game and it was the second time in his Arsenal career that he scored a goal on the match he returned from injury. The last time was in Arsenal’s 2-1 loss to Man U in 2014. That was also Giroud’s first headed goal of the season. And Alexis’ first headed goal of the season. Giroud only had 11 touches in this match, 12 if you count the time he touched my heart and made me feel funny inside, and yet scored 2 goals.
1 – That corner for Giroud’s goal was Özil’s first assist of the Premier League season. He also has an assist in the Champions League but he is way off his mark from last season where he assisted 19 times. In fact, Ozil scored or assisted 25 goals last season (Premier League) and I wonder, would you rather have Özil score 19 goals or assist 19 goals? Assists are much less common. People almost never break 20 assists in a season but there are almost always players who score 20+ goals. But other than rarity, is there any reason why it would matter if he scored more directly or indirectly?
1 – That was also Gibbs’ first assist of the season and the perfect way to cap off a stunning match. He was 3rd on the team with 50/60 passes, second in final third passing with 18/21 passes (Iwobi was 19/21), he led the team (along with Özil) with 3 key passes, he won 2/4 dribbles (second on the team), was second in tackles with 2/4, had 2 interceptions, was second on the team in clearances with 7, tied for first (with Koz) with 5/5 headed clearances, and won 5/9 aerial duels to lead Arsenal.
@7amkickoff
Sources: WhoScored.com, Transfermarkt.com (for the Giroud injury thing), and my personal database
*My own measure of shots in and around the 6 yard box
Wow Gibbsy
Really happy to see gibbos rocking it on the left there.. We’re definitely better this season.. Or we’re just lucky.. Cause there still seems to be a air of uncertainty.. But.. Our plan B is back! Oli!
Oli is plan A
So exciting to have OG back. great to have a different dimension to play and not have to rely on getting in behind. Any one who wants to come at us we have the crazy pace and guile of Theo, Sanchez & Iwobi with ozil threading the needle, any one who wants to sit deep will just be giving OG and Ozil crossing practice. COYG
To use the old adage: The harder I work; the luckier I get.
There is a big difference between one-off fluke results and what we are doing.
I think we are taking more risks of playing a more attacking game this season. Thats why we also score more goals than last season. Another thing is we have players who have gelled more with each other and new good players came in and are doing great going forward. Mustafi takes more risks and is generally playing high.up the pitch. As long as we score 1 more than the opponent i would care less about big chances conceded. COYG
I agree to a certain extent. However, the more big chances conceded = more goals conceded. While that is fine if we are scoring 3 or 4 each game that is unlikely to happen. There will be some games where we miss heaps of chances and only score the one goal. For that reason we must tighten up defensively. I am not saying that we abandon our attacking intent, but a tiny bit more caution would be nice.
Gibbs upping the pressure on Monreal for the left back spot?
It will be interesting to see if he holds the spot for now. Monreal was not in great form before he got hurt and Gibbo looked good in his sub appearances and cup appearances before this.
Keep in mind that we just played a championship side and bottom of the league side..
Mohamed ‘safe pass’ Elneny. Real aura of calm about him 😀
23 – Arssshhhaaaaaaaavin
Don’t be carried away by this result. The gunners are trying to score the perfect goal.
Mu will be playing against the gunners soon. Wenger’s record against the so is poor.
He has not beaten the latter since the Portuguese came to the epl.
If they play in this manner ,imho,they will lose.Its about time the rd poor run ends soon.
So the gunners better be careful.
Shouldn’t you be called Malaysian Red Devils or something?
Mourinho has won just 8 pl matches since he called Arsene a specialist in failure.
Hahaha……what goes around comes around!…best stat on this thread in my humble opinion!
Except it isn’t true.
Mourinho made that comment the season before Chelsea last won the league. He’d said that Chelsea were the ‘little horse’ in the title race and Arsene had commented in response that some managers were afraid to fail. Cue massive over-reaction…
The facts tell you that Mourinho is a c*** – there’s no need for made-up stats.
While I reject the sentiment about Manure. They have, are and always will be a complete sh*t shower of a club. This season they’re due a humbling by the Arsenal. I do agree that we should all enjoy the good form, but dial down the hype till the new year. Tough games coming up, starting with the other Sp*rs shower club from down the road.
do fuck off
Good question about Ozil: does it matter if he “scores” more directly or indirectly? Mesut registered 19 assists and 6 goals last season. He had the barren batch from Jan/Feb(?) onwards where the assists dried up or our finishing fell off a cliff. Outside of those periods he was in great form, decisive in big moments and many of those assists were critical, especially in the last few games. On the other hand, we all know Mesut should have smashed Thierry’s record and ended up with at least 25 assists. So with the goals he’s adding to his game, we… Read more »
I think he was just upset that the ball hit the ground before he himself could kick it to the ground for his trademark finish, so he thought “fuck it, I’ll shank this”.
But seriously, the ball seemed to have landed a bit awkwardly before Mesut could kick it. Didn’t look like a sitter to me.
It looked to me like he’d initally expected it to bounce a little in front so he could take a similar touch to the CL finish the other week. But it appeared to back spin a bit and up and the dink he went with seemed instinctive. I think if he’d predicted the bounce and planned the dink he scores it.
Summary: not a bad effort for a split second readjustment of his body!
Yeah I noticed this too. Ball stood up like it had masses of back spin on. The same thing happened to Mustafi for their pen which seemed to wrong foot him and allow the attacker in. Also noted one of Ox’s runs at goal the ball was bobbling all over the place. Am I remembering right that Stadiu of light is where Per’s ankle got banjaxed Ina divot a few seasons back? Not a top top quality pitch. Not an excuse but a reason.
They didn’t water the pitch, to slow the ball down and try to negate our quick passing.
It resulted in far more backspin than Ozil (& Mustafi) were expecting, because it didn’t skid off the surface, it bit and held up.
Something to learn from for the future.
1 assist in 10games.. nicking a living..
Happy days!!
Why are you downvoting its clearly a joke.
Gibbs has got good skills . He should be used more!! Good to see Giroud back too!!they all seem to be firing at the moment. There is that BFG in the room though!!
1 – not given most stone wall penalty ever!!!!
Agree, he not only pulled him back, looked like he caught his right leg as well
Giroud also had an assist in getting my sex life back on track. My woman hasn’t gone near me since he was out injured. The moment he kissed that camera she was kissing my…..defensive midfielder.
haha.. good for you..
hope your .. defensive midfielder .. gets more attention now.
Maybe you shouldn’t invite team mates round to watch the footie from now on…
Lol….
To btw.I am a gunner fan.The problem is the epl is so much tougher to win compared to 10 years ago.If you look at the Henry era,you will find the present gunners buildup is slower . Anyway I just hope the gunners can win the epl. The thing is the current long unbeaten run will come to an end one of these days.Its the law of averages. Even Mu aint immune to it. Since rf first won the epl ,it has been an interval of 3 years before they win the epl. If the present MU poor run continues until… Read more »
Are you copying and pasting this garbage from some shitty pages or what? check your grammar, ponctuation and writing style mate. It’s difficult to read and full of shit.
You’re right- unbeaten runs come to an end- when rooney cheats.
First time ever commenting here but hey this is getting embarrassing. Why can’t you savor this victory and enjoy it like the rest of us if you’re truly an Arsenal fan. You talk more about those scums than your own team.
Anyway, up the Arse!
Now this is the real Malaysian Gunner.
I didn’t understand much of that. I think you’re trying to say don’t get carried away with the run were on.
I would say fuck that. Live in the now.
Laugh at your mates who are fans of struggling teams. If you can’t enjoy the (current) good times what’s the point at all?
It’s like not celebrating a goal in case we concede and equaliser.
You stress how you are an Arsenal fan then go on to analyse and worry about Mourinho’s Manchester United. . .what do you want?
As a fellow Malaysian I’ve got to disagree with everything you said.
The pessimist in you will, even if we won the league by 10 points and clinched it in early May, make you worry that “how are we going to sustain this momentum in the coming season”.
Enjoy when the team win, and embrace failure as every year there will be 19 teams contemplating failure to win the league!
Btw, you remind me of one fatgunner! I sure miss him!
As a malaysiangooner, seeing you be negative these last few weeks always after a nice enjoyable win, can you please fornicate to the direction of yourself? What do you think all that ‘humility’ talk was about huh, we know.
Be a fan and enjoy yourself.
Rather than just down vote and go…
I’d argue that our current set up is every bit as quick in transition as the Henry side.
We’ve already gone from defending to scoring in under 10 seconds several times this season.
We’re also much better at the sudden change of pace in our play when we get an opening. — the first goal yesterday as an example.
what the feck?
I like elneny a lot, but he is a bit predictable. I keep thinking of him as a very conservative ramsey I cannot tell if arsena told him to do so, but in the middle third, he is always either on the ball or 10 yards from it. In the final third, he never rums to the front line or goes past the others’ midfield line. Careful, conservative player. Predictable and consistent – mostly virtues for sure, but he lacks a change of pace or cleverness sometimes. watch, when he passes square he never goes forward to receive the next… Read more »
BTW, don’t mean t o suggest that he should run forward with reckless abandon. I mean even coqueilin gets more forward
See the tactics columns for Coquelin’s role, he is instructed to push up. Elneny acts as a Cazorla deputy as the deep lying playmaker, he isn’t supposed to run in the box.
I get what you are saying. Conservative is a good way to put it he’s the perfect player to bring on to hold a winning position through possession but sometimes we need a riskier pass or a dribble to open up the next phase of play. Hopefully the gaffer can identify the times to use him and the times where the cavalier style of Ramsey is needed. Fuck we’ve actually got options these days, awesome!
With Cazorla out, Xhaka unavailable, Ramsey coming back from injury, Wilshire out on loan to rehabilitate, conservative Elneny is not a bad option 😀
Serious return to form @7am, fucking excellent article
I liked those bullet headed goals alexis and giroud scored and did you see defoe face on 1.1 still you see the game turn when goals flew in watch prem top two well played
We had two of the best players of last summers EC on the bench and have barely featured yet this season. Talk about squad dept. It really makes a difference to be able to bring in players of such quality when it matters.
Very happy for gibbs, love this guy, ils made good concurrency beetwen him and nacho. Hope we can have the same dynamic with bellerin and jenko !
Jeeez.. Options eh. From Cech to Giroud we got very able deputies there and that is a transformation from when we had Van Persie and NB52 as his deputy. Damn i got one too. Özil’s first assist was for Giroud away to Sunderland. His last assist was for Giroud away to Sunderland. Déjà vu? Bad thing is we play better on s’lands farmyard better than they do
Its good when we have Le Coq’s quality to ourselves coz u know France got Pogba haha.oh and kante.