There are cries of hypocrisy from the comments section of Le Grove.
‘Pedro, you were spaffing xGA numbers all over the internet when you were anti-Emery, now you are SHOCKINGLY not. You sir, are a dirty muffin fancier’
It’s true, I have not performed a deep dive into any xG numbers for Arteta, but mostly because of my religious respect for data.
7 games is a tiny sample to start drawing conclusions from with xG data. The variables are so vast, no true Data Scientist would risk their rep by making appalling apples to dog biscuits comparisons between Unai and Arteta.
I’ve left the explanation to Champagne Charlie of the comments to point out why people looking to use xGA as a hangman’s noose are embarrassingly early to the party. This particular post starts because Emery’s last 7 games saw xGA of 1.42, versus Mikel’s 1.5… the argument is complemented by inane supporting commentary like, ‘both work with the same talent, so the situations are basically the same, and the data can be compared.’
Champagne Charlie: Why xGA comparisons of Emery and Arteta are very silly
The usual frontline warriors with the usual scrap gathering in yet another attempt to dismiss Arteta and instead drive a narrative they’ve long held. I’ll make a quick remark about the sample size of 7 games, it’s painfully low for any hard data to be exorcised from as it’s wide open to anomalous inputs. That should be pretty clear to all, alas.
Stats can paint several pictures, wield your brushes how you see fit:
Emery played 13 games this season in the PL, his average xGA was 1.62
– His highest xGA was Watford away at 2.83
– His lowest xGA was 0.38 against Newcastle opening day
– Number of games xGA was more than 1.5 was nine (9/13).
Arteta has played 7 games this season in the PL, his average xGA is 1.5
– His highest xGA came against Chelsea away at 3.27
– His lowest xGA is 0.31 against Palace
– Number of games xGA is more than 1.5 is three (3/7).
*The Chelsea game we played with 10-men for 70 minutes is the league-high xGA this season, without that match our xGA under Arteta stands at a 1.2 average for 6 games. So a 0.3 jump aka not a sample size to take seriously.*
+What none of the above tells you is one manager was 12 months into a job, and had two summers to nip and tuck the staff he had at his disposal. Whilst the other manager arrived a couple of days before Christmas Day and had to pick up the pieces and work on the fly.
+What the above also doesn’t account for is that Arteta took over and had 3 games in 5 days to contend with as an opener, followed by 4 games that have seen us reduced to 10-men in half of those.
But irrespective of that context we still have a manager that’s taken the basic average xGA number from 1.62 to 1.5 for the season. Yet I’m to establish there’s been no measurable improvement to support the visual evidence on display these past 6 weeks.
This comment on whether Arteta having an advantage as a native (kind of) was also very good (same poster).
Having any of the knowledge you’re talking about matters not one iota when it comes to implementing your own views on how YOUR side is going to play.
Arteta is doing this on the fly and trying to teach and cajole players between rest days and injury maintenance. The game is won and lost at the very elite by minor actions done on autopilot, yet there’s been nowhere near enough time for Arteta to ingrain his methods on any meaningful level.
I’m talking to the point each player knows his role and has a picture of the side in front/behind/to the side of him as he’s receiving the ball. This is huge, Liverpool are the example of this level of work that’s embedded now after years of constant training.
Every game we play early on inevitably throws up situations that are being met in our new approach for the very first time. A clanger at Chelsea, a red card in the early stages, a physical game of high balls, facing sides who press, those who sit deep, losing players to injury and having to rework it etc.
These things all upset the applecart until you’ve dealt with a few situations and learned what to do and what not to do in the respective moments. All the while you’re trying to establish a level of mastery over your new role in the side on a basic level all things being equal.
You simply don’t achieve that without logging hours in practice, the kind of hours we’ve not had the benefit of spending – hence the value of a preseason where it’s all about learning and perfecting. Idk what to tell you if that doesn’t register.
< End >
Context is king in all situations.
Having two full preseasons, £200m to spend, and 18 months working daily with players is a lot of time to make a measurable impact. It’s also a lot of time to do horrendous damage to an already broken culture – as well as the confidence of the players.
Arteta is fighting on many fronts. He’s trying to build a high-performance culture, he’s building the players fitness and confidence, he’s implementing radical ideas and he’s doing it all in the middle of the season.
Confidence is a precious commodity. One of the most valuable in sport (and life). When it goes for you as an individual, it’s terrible. When it goes for a whole squad, it’s very hard to reboot and it takes time. We experience it in our own boring lives, watch a junior staffer deal with being reamed out in a client meeting. We’ve all had it, doesn’t matter how brash you are to the outside world, it impacts your performance. Arsenal fans are the client and we’ve been slaughtering the players for a year. We broke Unai Emery, he went from touchline crazy guy to hiding in his jacket twitching out like a recovering meth addict. He couldn’t make a coherent decision, his English declined, and he reeked of a deadman. Confidence.
This is going to take time. No coach can click their fingers and make magic happen immediately. Jurgen Klopp had a similar set of criticisms when he took over at Liverpool. Worth noting he took over a team in distress far earlier (October 8th) and took them to 8th position in the first year. He had a better squad of players to work with. Firmino, Coutinho, Sturridge, Henderson, Can, Lallana, Milner, Origi, Gomez, Lovren. He also had the same troubles Arteta is suffering right now. Liverpool fans on Twitter rolled hard with #KloppOut after his side were beasted by newly-promoted Watford. Fans spread this below graphic to make the point that Klopp wasn’t a good coach.
The problems look quite similar to those we’re facing now. Tired players and some noisy fans making demands that will embarrass them in a years time. This is Klopp after losing to Palace.
“It is not a problem to lose a game. It happens in football but we have to learn,”
“If we learn, we decide how strong we are, how good we are, how awake we are and how tired we are. Nobody else. We played on Thursday [at Rubin Kazan in the Europa League] but I decide if I am tired, nobody else. Today we needed a few minutes to come into the game. It was not enough. If everyone thinks we gave everything, then it is wrong.
“After the goal on 82 minutes, with 12 minutes to go, I saw many people leaving the stadium. I felt pretty alone at this moment. We decide when it is over. Between 82 and 94 [minutes] you can make eight goals if you like.
It’s a huge trigger for people when you mention Klopp because Arteta is not Klopp, but again, let’s give some context… no manager of Klopp’s standing was going to come to Arsenal in December. We took a chance on the future. If a manager of Klopp’s level needs more than 7 games to shape things up, you’d think some of our fans might go a little lighter on someone with a lesser squad with deeper problems.
If a manager like Klopp can bring in Grujic and Stephen Caulker as his first signings, we can maybe forgive the odd signings we’re attracting (we’ll talk about where Ornstein is unsubtly pointing you on the Soares story tomorrow). He took Liverpool to 8th in his first season. The next season, he narrowly beat us to 4th… by 1 point. They made it happen on the last day of the season. The mighty Klopp only just pipped Wenger on the decline.
Anyway, just a bit of context for the folk that are polluting the airwaves with shoddy takes on data and overblown expectations without the nuance of MAJOR CONTEXT.
See you in the comments. x
“Under Arteta, we know we are not likely to lose because we have become hard to beat”
That’s not true! Lady luck is opening her legs without asking us our name. The only game we slightly dominated is the United game. I don’t know why fans are trying so hard to defend Arteta. Arteta is very demanding of himself and wants to win now, so the request for 8 transfer window and millions before we win some games is not in his thinking. Dude don’t even think of himself as highly as some of y’all do.
Freddim ‘You claim the season is over but you also want us to cling on to the same failures that we have to ship out sooner or later if we want to see results pick up in any meaningful way.’ Where have I ‘claimed’ this? He’s playing the players that give us the best opportunity to get the best results in the short term. This includes Ozil, Xhaka and Laca. You play your senior players when you can and come the summer there will be changes. The expectancy has been lowered due to the worst start in 38 years. I… Read more »
I would love for everything on Gambon’s list to happen.
Classic Legrove….after 7 games of a new coach, who has never been in charge before, people are keen to take sides. On the one hand, those supporters (of which I include myself) who accept that the board took a gamble on an inexperienced coach and are as it stands are hopeful that Arteta can turn things around given the necessary support in the transfer market. There are others who feel Arteta was the wrong option and results so far provide some sort of ammunition to support that perspective. Within this group , there are some, who it appears have lost… Read more »
Wait until next Christmas.
RH we’re still waiting for an example of one of these ‘many chances’ Burnley missed.
“It’s seems like all the optimism for next season is based on the notion that there will be a clear-out.”
Which for some poster hypocritical is too mild a word
From odds on the third best team in the land to needing a clear out to make top four.
Marc “We have 13 PL matches left – how many do you think we’ll win and how many do you think we should be winning?” Personally, my anticipation and excitement will be in the cup comps , the league gives me neither of those things. I’ve said, by the end of March we will stay unbeaten this year, will be in the last 8 of FA cup and will still be in in Europe. Our position at the end of march in the league will see us within touching distance of top 6 and 4/5 points behind top 4 .… Read more »
Is it too much to ask to Pedro to stop idolizing Arteta, while he still blaming Emery regularly for the mess the club is in today ?
I see a lot of ppl accusing Pedro of bias towards Arteta and making comparisons between MA and Emery. Basically saying that Arteta’s coming hasn’t been too much of an improvement or no improvement at all. Probably those guys should rewatch the last 5 games under Emery in the Premier League. Those games were hands down some of the worst displays of an Arsenal team in the last ten years. Basically it was clear from the start of those games that the guys don’t know what they were supposed to be doing on the pitch. What happened after MA came?… Read more »
Gambon,
“In terms of how realistic a top 4 finish next season is, I would say the following would need to happen:
1 – Still need a great Centre Back to command the backline
2 – Need to keep our full backs fit for the season
3 – Need a complete rebuild in midfield including:
3a- Replace Xhaka
3b- Replace Ozil
3c- A midfield athlete (Torreira is too limited)
4- Pepe needs to improve dramatically
5- Buy another wide attacker (Grealish?)
6- Replace Lacazette
7- Keep Auba”
Facts!
Lego brain “This includes Ozil, Xhaka and Laca. ” It obviously doesn’t. Do I have to repeat this again in the vain hope it sinks into your thick skull. Ozil has 0 assists away in 2 years. A big fat 0. Doubt a team in league one would want him but that’s where he would have been sent if he was a youth player with those numbers, cause we couldn’t have sold him even then. Laca has 0 goals away for 1 year. Another big fat 0. Auba, Pepe and Martinelli are our most productive attacking players this season, all… Read more »
The revolt is on
… not so much against Arteta but the wild adulatory approach to him that’s set up to prevent him from being assessed by results.
HL
About asking Pedro to toe some other line or argument, sorry Sir, he runs the Blog. Plus he is democratic and allows so many viewpoints other than his own.
Of course , anyone can have his Own Blog where he may post whatever and hope for the best including followers.
Excellent post. Props to CC as well.
Just goes to show that certain people here use Statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost.
Instead of using it for illumination they use it for support. Then when convenient, they ll piss all over it
I don’t know how Arteta will turn out but it’s a pretty big stretch(borderline desperate even) to compare him to Klopp simply because the records were similar over the first few games.
1) I’d never fall out with Gambon. A Le Grove hero until the end.
2) Stop asking what the difference is between the Arteta situ and the Emery one is when I’ve listed it out in detail in the post
3) Agree with me and it’ll be fine. Dissenter, you should know better, than to revolt, remember what happened last time? Two revolts in a year? It medieval Britain, I’d have you hung, drawn and quartered
Rodriguez missed his volley by two inches from four yards out from a ball he saw late. Auba missed by seven yards from ten yards out from the Luiz ball over the top. The first one is a four goals a season striker while the latter is a 20 goals a season striker. Which miss was worse ? I know my answer. Take this Rodriguez missed opportunity , and his other speculative shot from 22 yards out set up by Wood in the first half out of the equation, and all Burnley created was a bunch of half chances from… Read more »
Freddie
You don’t get football, so yes, this is pointless, the only thing you have got right.
You’re saying a players total contribution to a game and value to a team can only be measured in goals and assists just shows how limited your view is, totally oblivious to any nuances in the game.
Freddie
Here’s one just for you….
‘In football, statistics give people the chance to exist who have little knowledge’
HL, you could always find another blog to follow….
Lego
So the fact that our main creative player doesn’t assist or scores and the player squeezed into CF at the cost of better options doesn’t score either is useless statistics? Smh
Stick to matlock and screaming at kids to get off your lawn. It’s more your pace
@Bob : you mean, like Untold ?? lol
Freddim
‘So the fact that our main creative player doesn’t assist or scores and the player squeezed into CF at the cost of better options doesn’t score either is useless statistics? Smh’
Have they contributed to goals whilst been in the team? Of course they have you moron, just not the final pass or the finish. You’re going on like they have offered absolutely nothing, when they have clearly been involved in the goals we’ve scored.
Stick to hanging around with inappropriately aged children.
Look at the facts. We were regressing bigtime under Wenger. Every single fan wanted him out. He had to go. Yes, it should have been sooner. Did the fans force the issue? Of course they did……..eventually. The club had to act. Under Emery, we also hit a wall. We were sinking even further into the abyss. He had to go. Again the fans pushed for action by showing their dismay and frustrations. There was no alternative solution. The club had to act. So, after two massive upheavals, plus an interim manager, we had a squad of players shot to bits,… Read more »
Graham
When you move past your Wenger obsession you can actually be quite measured and sensible.
There i said it.
Some of the comments above don’t resonate
while “hard to beat” is too strong, harder to beat seems about, still some lapses but periods where there is obvious progress
same about dominance…so far periods of each game have shown us what we want, but no game has been a solid performance
…or have I been watching different games?
…or have I been watching different games?
With all due respect to Pedro- an all around cool dude I’m sure , but if someone had spent 18 months of Emery tenure lamenting his appointment ,while simultaneously bigging up the entirely unknown quantity that was Arteta on very little other than a hunch, one might also show some signs of pro Arteta bias. Inside of six months Pedro went from “ Emery is failing with a squad full of world class players , including a golden boot winner, an assist king, a World Cup winning defender, a club and national team captain etc” …………to basically now ………..”Arteta is… Read more »
“hard to beat”…. yeah, we will see that after Liverpool. lol
oops, if I had read your comments Graham I wouldn’t have posted mine 🙂
Lego brain “Have they contributed to goals whilst been in the team? Of course they have you moron, just not the final pass or the finish. You’re going on like they have offered absolutely nothing, when they have clearly been involved in the goals we’ve scored. Stick to hanging around with inappropriately aged children.” Not only are you a stupid cunt you’re also a vile little shit. The peado accusations are all fun and game to someone who never had the chance to procreate I guess. So now we have to count our lucky stars that we score goals at… Read more »
Guns, brilliant analogy. Made me laugh thanks
Tom/Dissenter/azed/Freddie/Receding etc Did Pedro commit crimes of narrative overreach in (particularly) his criticisms of Emery and his support of Arteta? Absolutely. Get over it. Why do I say that? Because from late last season Emery began to tank, and tanked badly once he lost the players this season. Because style of play, player performances and defensive stability have all improved under Arteta, even if results haven’t. Their is no point in pursuing a social justice war to get parity and fairness in Pedro’s narratives re Emery and Arteta. He’s made no bones about it. He prefers Arteta. It just so… Read more »
Tom, the explanation in the post couldn’t be more explicit.
Emery built a squad for himself.
Arteta plays a different way. He has 5 players in the last year of their deals. He has 3 loan players. A few that will want out this summer.
Of course he’s going to rebuild in his vision. He has to.
LEGO / Freddie, last warning. Cut the personal insults.
Words, amen.
The worst kind of writer is a fence sitter seeking ‘a balanced view.’
Go all in. That’s how football chat down the pub works.
The best summary of Arteta ‘s management so far is his insistence in playing Laca up front and Ozil, they are the biggest liabilities in the club.
If we are in the rebuild process then he should us youth players so they can build in confidence and become useful squad players next year.
He is not ruthless, and if he prevented Ozil going then it is not a good sign going forward.
We will not keep Auba for next year he wants trophies and time is against him.
Pedro,
Absolutely.
Balance is for civil servants
Woab I don’t care much about the hypocrisy, it’s in the past. The constant digs on the past transfer window where Raul pulled a miracle on limited budget is a bit stupid but sure. It’s the thinking that just because you’re not fawning over Arteta and praises his every breath that you’re not willing to give him time. He messed up the line up in the last game, he gives too much playing time to some of the senior players that are clearly not pulling their weight. There’s some glaring mistakes happening that doesn’t take time to figure out, mainly… Read more »
“Because style of play, player performances and defensive stability have all improved under Arteta, even if results haven’t.”
Words what is our style of play?
Why do we struggle to create chances?
“”” ““Quite how they escaped from this one with a point is a mystery that could potentially make for an in-depth, 12-part Netflix documentary, the sort that people say you should watch (and you probably should), but really, who has the time?””””
Surely they mean Burnley right ?
If both teams clear cut chances get converted , then we run out 1-4 winners , it’s that simple
Some of the utter attention seeking bollox from these outlets is amazing
Pedro
Sure, keep the vile little ankle biter away from me and I’ll have no reason to respond in kind.
There’s a reason you banned him more than a dozen times, guess him being in the cult of Arteta gives him a lot of leeway.
Statistics are like mini skirts, what they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal are the most vital parts.
Words on a blog
No question Emery tanked and Arteta is showing progress, no argument there.
If anything, Emery was given too much time and Arteta has suffered for it.
That was never my point.
Pedro bigging up a totally unbalanced squad mid rebuild under Emery ,
to now all of the sudden seeing the light when Arteta has taken the reigns was.
Why we struggle to create chances? Because we don’t have an established attacking unit. Because mr. Emery didn’t implement a clear attacking style during last season and in the preseason. Because he changed our formation countless of times in the beginning of the season. Because the players don’t have any automatisms built in.
Great post today Pedro. I couldnt agree more. Its saddening to read the asperity some sections of ‘fans’ spout. It makes you wonder if Xbox and PS underpins this viewpoint. I am not even sure why Wenger’s name is even being brought up as a reason for the team’s current form, when the whole fibre of the club has been stripped off anything Arsene. Yes, the usual suspects will argue Xhaka, Ozil, Laca, Mustafi are the reason why we are currently where we are. Whilst, others may claim that after spending close to £200m of which about a quarter of… Read more »
As much as I despise statistics w an agenda, and in general, pedro brings up solid points, most important being the sample size. 8 games is WAY too small for stats to mean ANYTHING. Another point Big P missed is how many of the teams we’ve played under MA have managers who’ve had a pre-season and a transfer window/multiple. We’ve been playing teams who have had time to cohere and consider strategies to fuck us up. Hence his point about the grass which seemed more like a descriptive talking point than an actual excuse… When I first started reading this… Read more »
Receding,
You asked @what is our style of play under Arteta.
Probably too early to say with any certainty, but at this stage it looks like a Wenger/Emery blend when we have the ball, and more like Pep with significant residual traces of Emery when we don’t!
Lotta money to work w when we see the backs of ozil laca auba and perhaps sok and mustafi. If arteta can give all the kids some decent playing time and discover who are viable squad options going forward, we’ll have a decent enough structure in place and will only need to worry about signing first teamers
“Because we don’t have an established attacking unit. ” Established in what sense? We have two 50m+ strikers, the highest earning number 10 in Europe, and a 72m winger. Please explain what you mean by established. “Because mr. Emery didn’t implement a clear attacking style during last season and in the preseason.” We scored 73 league goals last season, only City and Liverpool scored money. “Because he changed our formation countless of times in the beginning of the season.” In a bid to win football matches, you had no problem when his tinkerings from the touchline converted draws to wins… Read more »
Freddie, Miracles? £200m spent. Hardly miracles.
Pedro
138m spent, most of that with complicated payment schemes to eke out every drop of the budget.
4 long term starters bought, 2 that looks to be generational talents and the hottest winger in Europe last season.
Luiz even as a stop gap and over the hill is our best CB now
So yeah, easily our best transfer window in many years even if it’s not showing on the pitch yet.
Claiming he blew the window is just delusional.
Tom,
I know exactly what you mean re the squad, but all’s fair in love and war!
As the Beatles once said, Let it Be!
Pedro
Did he though?
Emery wanted Enzonzi, he got LT.
He wanted Zaha , got Pepe.
That’s just four players we know about.
I couldn’t find two midfielders with two more diametrically opposing sets of skills than Nzonzi and LT if I tried , or the two aforementioned wingers.
So claiming Emery got the players he wanted is a bit disingenuous.
Did Emery really build the squad for himself?
I thought the new setup devolved recruitment power from the manager and spread it between Raul, Vinai, and Sven? Wasn’t that one of the main reasons we binned Wenger, to redistribute power?
Can’t imagine Emery had a hard-on for anyone other than possibly Suarez (because he worked with him previously). Weren’t all the rest Sven/Raul contact signings?
RH “?Why do we struggle to create chances?” Try this one .. Because he is addressing our defensive weaknesses that have been with us since Wenger and actually worsened under Emery. He is addressing our weakness in the defensive side of midfield that has been evident since Wenger allowed Ramsey to go glory hunting whilst playing in a 2 man midfield. Emery often allowed both full backs to attack at the same time which in effect left gaps down the channels for the opposition to take advantage of. Our away form has been dire for the last few years .… Read more »
Receding…
Receding you still haven’t responded to that nonsense ESPN article that you were so proud of sharing.
Where is one example of the ‘many chances’ Burnley missed apart from the Rodriguez one? You watched the game so it should be easy shouldnt it seeing as the article was so accurate and not a load of shit ?
“I’ll just leave this here seeing as you’ve had your pants pulled down when trying to claim Laca and Ozil offer NOTHING (your words) and countered with that bullshit above that no one had even claimed. Desperate.Have they contributed to goals whilst been in the team? Of course they have you moron, just not the final pass or the finish. You’re going on like they have offered absolutely nothing, when they have clearly been involved in the goals we’ve scored.Clueless.” We’ve scored goals with Leno in the team too. It’s not his job to score them though, it is however… Read more »
I think our overall play has improved under Arteta, but the results are no where near good enough.
Also, his team selection and in game management are not very inspiring.
Tom, if Emery was too weak to get what he wanted, what does that tell you?
1. His vision was unclear
2. No one really thought he was very good
3. He was not elite. Just a meek man who gets bullied by players and management.
Get in the bin.
Lego Hair shut up and go watch the game Stop asking me stupid questions If all those crosses flying in undefended by a team known to be good in the air did not concern you then your often exaggerated knowledge of the game is all nonsense Besides i just shared an article that did not support this notion we are a team “hard to beat”. If 7 games is too small a sample to make any conclusions then it should also be too small a sample to declare a team hard to beat. Who have we played in that period… Read more »
… but more to the point, why are so many people out here defending Emery? What is there to defend?
You’re like the Liverpool fans who yearned for Brendan Rodgers 8 games in.
Words
“Tom/Dissenter/azed/Freddie/Receding etc
Did Pedro commit crimes of narrative overreach in (particularly) his criticisms of Emery and his support of Arteta?Absolutely.
Get over it.”
We are just asking for the assessment metrics to not be changed for Arteta. He shouldn’t get a pass from criticism.
Besides, it’s good fun to keep the ribbing on.
Pedro ddin’t think the Emery sample was too small when he started using xGA stats against him one month into last season.
Shouldn’t have different standards; What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander.
where the fuc# are the goals gone? I can’t remember another season where Arsenal has scored lesser goals than this year? Who is going to take resp of this mess?
Wy the fuck can’t our guys shoot, shoot and shoot at goal like mad?
When I see Soares and Pablo, I don’t see Arteta hires, just the work of Raul and the backroom team.
Same way Emery din bring anyone in.
Dissenter, I think I started exploring xG later in the game… and it was against the backdrop of:
‘we are winning, but the xG is bad, the hope is it corrects when Emery’s ideas solidify, otherwise we’re due a massive correction’
We landed a massive correction.
Not really the same with Arteta.
He’s working under different circumstances, he’s had lots of bad luck, and you can actually see what he’s trying to do.
1. His vision was unclear He had a two year deal, his vision was qualify for the champions league 2. No one really thought he was very good Yet he got the job walking in straight from PSG, many people do think he is good 3. He was not elite. Just a meek man who gets bullied by players and management. Who is elite? Arteta? Just a handful of elite managers about, no elite manager would have taken a two year deal so that should have told you what his hiring was about. You wrote just a few weeks ago… Read more »
Words
Nobody is against Arteta. The “dissent” on the blog is against Pedro.
Nzonzi and Banega were seen as hacks and relic of the past even though they’ll both probably walk into our midfield.
Cedric and Mauri(sp) are seen as necessary signings because Arteta is in charge.
Pedro,
Your’e now a Yankee bro, stop putting Arsenal fan in the bin because you don’t like their opinion. That so very British. Don’t tell me you’re not wearing a fitted cap and Js yet lol
Nice contextual element to todays post, particularly interesting seeing the comparative Brenda/Klopp breakdown and how it serves to give data room to breath before extracting verbose conclusions. Cheers for the kudos Pedro, and others. Just threw together the data, nothing more. In terms of sentiment it’s really quite tiresome to see some feverishly dissect every single detail to 6 weeks worth of work for a new manager at the mid-point of the season, with our own unique circumstances as a football club. We (as fans) do no favours with that kind of approach, and it cannot be washed away under… Read more »
“… but more to the point, why are so many people out here defending Emery? What is there to defend?” The point keeps flying over your head that you went on a campaign of insults mostly personal of a man trying to do his job, pinned everything good on the players and everything bad on him. Now we are asking you to use those same metrics with the same tools to judge the new manager I for one didn’t expect anything from this season, i said earlier my assessment of Arteta will start when i see who he lets in… Read more »
“If 7 games is too small a sample to make any conclusions then it should also be too small a sample to declare a team hard to beat.” We had people after the Bournemouth, United games saying he had already made a huge difference to our attacking play. Now that inaccurate knee-jerk assessment has been shown up as such, it’s back to small samples and next season until we see a real difference. I don’t remember Guardiola or Klopp binning top players because they didn’t suit their philosophy. Lucas Leiva, Clichy, Fernando, Moreno didn’t suffer from unsuitability to philosophy. They… Read more »
Lol
You don’t need sample size to seethe difference between a team that presses and a team that pretends to press
“You don’t need sample size to seethe difference between a team that presses and a team that pretends to press”
So you believe that at this moment Arsenal are a pressing team??
Hair
While we’re no liverpool, i do believe we’ve become/are becoming a solid defensive unit that can press. Obv making a comparison btwn wenger/emery and arteta. I don’t think there’s any question that defensive solidity has improved. Only so much you can do w ozil and auba in the lineup tho
“Top players transcend system which is why they are almost always kept on regardless of a manager’s style.” Exactly This POV we bought players to fit an Emery system (while still arguing he didn’t have a system between) and now need to but players to fit Arteta’ s system is inaccurate. We need a turnover of players because most of the ones w have aren’t very good for the level we believe we should be at. If we take to the league next season with Lacazette, Mustafi, Ozil, Xhaka, Kolasinac and co as first eleven options then we will fail… Read more »
Zacharse we look defensively solid because we do not have players making forward runs not because we press, we do not press. Pressing teams win possession farther up the pitch and attack you.
Our defensive solidity has come at a cost, we have fewer options when attacking now. Our fullbacks cannot join the attack because our midfield cannot cover for them.
Everyone knows what Arteta is up against when it comes to player quality and attributes, many are avoiding that discussion because they dismissed it out of hand a few months ago and waited for the sauce
Hair
I gotta stop you right at
“ Our fullbacks cannot join the attack because our midfield cannot cover for them”
WHAT FUCKING FULLBACKS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? XHAKA SAKA OR AMN?!
It will be interesting to see any analysis from data analysed. By looking at the data for a full season for both emery and Klopp.
Any data analysts here?
GunnerDNA, if you don’t add value to the conversation, you go in the bin. Inane teenage trolling isn’t for this place.
I would never wear a cap.
Major_Jeneral, why would anyone be interested in comparing Emery to Klopp right now?
Freddie, The argument that PEA is being played out of position is baseless.
PEA has played as a winger for most of his career going as way back as going on loan to Milan and even his first season at BVB. He only played as a central striker after Lewandowski left for FC Munchen
David Luiz has been giving some pre-Dubai chat on the dot com, talking all things Arteta: “He knows football, he knows inside the pitch,” David Luiz told Arsenal Player. “He loves football, he loves to work, so this enthusiasm is contagious for everybody. “What Mikel is trying to build is something big and I really believe in his philosophy, I really believe we can do something big this year and in the future, so I’m really, really happy because we have our way to go. This way, is it going to be a hard way? Yes. Is it going to… Read more »
Arteta is failing. That is a fact. If we don’t start winning we’re going to be relegated. Keep talking about XG stats all you like the table doesn’t lie. It’s the year 2020 and Football is a results business and time waits for no man. Not even Pep if he under performs will be spared. Underperformers should not be rewarded with starts that should be the basic but that isn’t the case now is it? Carry on.
Stan
Oh, so only for the last 6 years then, I’m convinced now.
So you think it makes sense to play our best CF on the wing and place our best dribbler/winger on the bench to accommodate Laca? A CF who doesn’t score, especially not away from home?
Strange people on here.
People are pissing on banega but have guys here actually watched him?He comfortably walks into our midfield and he is one of the best cms in laliga.Even Messi said he is his favorite midfielder to play with..infact the guy is a CM who can probably play the Am role better than our German maestro
Are you for real? Badkalu
when did you wake up from coma? Just now?
we talking about arteta style and you are asking about emery attacking style
I believe PEA is not played through the middle because he cant hold the ball up. He has never been able to play with his back to goal which imho is a key requirement for most strikers in the EPL. Not forgetting PEA scores a huge majority of his goals coming from the flanks whether he starts through the middle. The same way Martinelli being prolific in front of goal (for us) has scored most of his goals coming from the flanks. The point of where he starts is moot . Against Burnley he was rusty; his misses had nothing… Read more »
“ It’s the year 2020 and Football is a results business and time waits for no man.“
Pedro
Can you get this 12 year old to write a guest post. I’d be very interested in some more deep philosophical info this kid clearly
has on offer
You’d think the 10 man draw w chelsea was years ago if you take half the folk here seriously.
Stan but laca is really poor at link up play as well. He just runs more than auba and makes more fuss every 5 mins so his presence is more obvious
Laca isn’t a good passer of the ball, he’s not exceptionally robust or dominant, he’s not a super clever playmaker second striker, at the moment he’s a big fat nothing and that’s been the case for a long time now
Auba has to go back up front and martinelli on the left
@kristoman Mate, Arteta came just six weeks ago. If Emery wasn’t capable to implement an attacking style, Mikel simply has to start from scratch. What I said, and I think it was pretty clear, is that the Emery heritage is heavy and still being felt.
Why is tom binned?
let me guess
he found pedro out just like marko GUNNER DNA. When he has no counter argument to thiers he binned them saying they are not contributing any meaning opinion.
@Zacharse
Are you butt hurt because you don’t like the FACTS I provided. 13 games left lets see how many we win with Laca and Ozil leading our attack and the goals we keep conceding when teams decide to run at us and through that pathetic ensemble of a midfield the manager keeps serving up. Honestly if he just drafted some under 23 to replace those senior players that are damaging our results I would give Arteta a pass.
Pedro is marketing/salesman and he is trying to sell us a shit sandwich. For some reason Emery was expected to get immediate results with inadequate squad but we have to accept Arteta inadequacies when he working with same players. When Emery was hired, Pedro did not wait long to write about xG/xGA and how Emery was fraud but Arteta is sauciest of saucy managers apparently and all of a sudden xG doesn’t matter. Arteta is going to fail, just like Emery did. I don’t even understand why we fired Emery and paid him and his people off to hire new… Read more »
Agreed China1 based on current form. Traditionally, you would expect Laca to do the Tevez job better.
I guess there are 2 school of thoughts when dealing with players out of form; the idea of play them until they get back on form vs drop them and give someone else a chance.
So Badkalu
arteta have not change our attacking style because he is working on only defensive style for 6 weeks now? Got you
Hi All very spirited stuff , diverse opinions as usual, our problem now is linking a stronger defense with the talent up front. Against Burnley the problem was the appalling time it took to get the ball forward, lost count of times runs were made up front, not spotted and the opportunity missed. The biggest culprit is Matteo, he has many talents, but spotting a quick pass is certainly not one of them,always insists on ambling forward with he ball. then playing a simple short pass. By then all forward motion has come to a halt, defenders are back in… Read more »
Shhhhhmm jwl
you will go into bin just like tom say the same thing. Be careful.
Evidently Ozil could have moved to Qatar this window? A move that would have been approved by Arteta ? The move guaranteed him his current salary. It was rejected by the board because a suitable replacement could not be found in time.? Seeing how bad Ozils form can be why where Arsenal so slow in missing this opportunity to get him of the books. Was the bid that late.? Jack Grealish has a transfer value of around 30-35 million. He is on a salary of 35 k a week. He has the traits of Wiltshire. He is an English. He… Read more »