So we spoke a little about the need to ramp up the productions numbers in attack. The thing we didn’t cover is our defensive stats. There are some good numbers doing the rounds.
•Most blocks in the PL (includes shots and passes)
•Fewest times dribbled past
•Fewest tackles won
•6th most interceptions
•3rd fewest fouls committed
•4th most aerials won
This follow-up was also interesting.
Since people are asking, Arsenal have allowed 114 total shots in the PL so far. But only 28 of these shots were on target. That means that only 24.6% of shots they have faced were on target, which is the third-lowest rate in the PL.
— Chris Moore (@chrismoore32) October 5, 2021
Good tweet, Chris.
When Roger Federer started out in tennis, he had the best forehand in the game. His backhand was not up to scratch. So he spent a year going to town on perfecting it, which cost him tournaments and success… but the output, in the end, is storied history.
Arsenal came out of last season with the 3rd best defence in the league and a shitty attack, so what did we do? Went out and smashed transfers records to make us even better at defending. We saw our backhand was average so doubled down on the forehand. That ain’t taking us to the promised land…
I mean, that’s a little simplistic. We know that the mission of the summer was maintain the resoluteness of the defence, whilst adding more dynamism to certain positions.
Our keeper has character, dominates his box, and makes game-changing interventions Bernd Leno refused to indulge.
Ben White, the chicken korma eating centre back that would definitely nick your bird if you met him in Ibiza, was brought in to offer us David Luiz like threat in the build-up. He makes less mistakes, he’s faster, he can pass, and apparently, he’s very good in the air.
Tomiyasu is quite simply an actual right back. But we found extreme specificity in his skillset. He’s a hybrid centre back so he gives us aerial coverage and he tucks into midfield with absolute ease. Another huge character in a position we’ve lacked it.
The point from the above statistics is we’ve upgraded the footballers without sacrificing the defending. We’re creating a City model in defence. The players don’t tackle because they are so fast at reading the game and intercepting balls. I think we ranked lowest last season for interceptions.
It’s also interesting that we don’t foul a lot, that shows you there’s a real quality in defence.
The lack of high quality shots at our goal is a team effort. It shows the system is good. This was the pattern last season. We’re difficult to create against because we’re well organised.
Now, the path to the end goal should be: If you have better footballing options in defence that can defend and break lines… eventually, the automatisms set in, and the team bangs in attack… becuase the ball moves fast, with more ambition, and your attackers start to convert.
Average shots per game is 13 right now. Take out City and Chelsea and it’s 17, I take them out because they are two of the untouchables in the Premier League, and we were totally injury-ravaged for one game, and played 60mins with 10 players in the other. European Cup finalists are the exception, the other teams are more the rule, at least until November 20th.
We don’t know which way this team will go, but my suspicion is that we’ll be more around the 17 mark than the 13 mark this season. If that’s the case, then the goals should come. The big worry is our ‘Xhaka at leftback’ right now appears to be anyone we put as our striker. We don’t have the bully we need in the forward line. Auba needs to ball to feet fast and if we’re pressed with discipline, that doesn’t happen. If we use our link player in Lacazette, he doesn’t have the speed to take advantage of situations. Eddie has been impressing everyone behind the scenes, he was superb in preseason, but he doesn’t really take his chances in the league. Martinelli hasn’t progressed. We need a DCL, Victor Oshimen, or an Ollie Watkins in our starting 11. I suspect if Balogun went on loan for the season, he could be that guy, but that hasn’t happened due to player preference.
So what will the club do? Hope that most teams can’t press to the levels of Brighton? Probably. Because most can’t. But we’ll see after the break. No doubt Paddy and Dean Smith have seen what Brighton did to us, so we’ll get a crack at it after the break.
On that note, see you in the comments.
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1st
Segunda!
Trois
Bedwetter!
Where is everyone?
trophy?
Sid I thought the 8th position was the bedwetter position?
Art8ta
Artet8
6th is the new 4th…………….
These two weeks will be so boring. I’ll have to get back to my online games.
Our shots per game stat is okay, but I would be more interested in shots per game from inside the box. Those Partey shots from 30 yards don’t fill me with optimism.
xG and xGA are better indicators, too, I guess.
BTW, it’s getting more and more likely that the Saudis will be allowed to buy Newcastle. It will get harder and harder competing with the self-sustaining model.
Fair Article from the Mail Online stating: “We remain none the wiser as to whether Arsenal have actually made any improvement this season and whether Mikel Arteta has the acumen to restore the club to old glories. Saturday’s goalless draw at Brighton remains an enigma when it comes to assessing their direction of travel right now. The goals aren’t exactly flowing and the best sides are still going to inflict serious punishment on a defence that rarely inspired confidence. There are promising signs, however, that £50m summer signing Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes can work together well at the back.… Read more »
“Top 4 is a halfway step, a return to CL My expectation is within three seasons, including this one. Winning a major title is an authentic measure of eliteness, an expectation within four seasons” Englandsbest, so you’ve given Arteta four and a half years since his hiring to make the CL I have no problem with your take on the pace of his progress but considering I’ve not met anyone anywhere who shares this sort of patience maybe you should refrain from calling out others who might be less patient than yourself. You’re the guy doing 55mph in the fast… Read more »
Nice article
We need a striker that combines the attributes of lacazette and Aubameyang(physicality and speed) ,also need to get our fear factor back because most teams feel the can get points against us when we get bullied
Saudi money into Newcastle will make it tougher for European football finishing. They not only will spend on players but also on elite managers as well as on knowledgeable footballing staff. Where will KSE make a showing then?
‘The goals aren’t exactly flowing and the best sides are still going to inflict serious punishment on a defence that rarely inspired confidence.’
Tough to take an article seriously that says our defence doesn’t inspire confidence. Quite a sloppy take. 3rd best in the league last season. Since the break, when we shipped in a new back 4 bar KT, it’s conceded 1 goal.
“Saturday’s goalless draw at Brighton remains an enigma when it comes to assessing their direction of travel right now.“ It wasn’t the goalless part that was the problem. It was Brighton with their league’s bottom five wage bill comprehensively outplaying Arsenal with their league’s top five wage bill. Same as losing to Brentford wasn’t a problem for me personally as much as Arsenal creating zero big chances against them. What would have to happen to Klopp’s Liverpool in his third season for them to create not a single big chance in a game I wonder. A team bus fall of… Read more »
10 Goals Against while facing the 3rd lowest shots is scary stuff
Pedro, This is again selectivity you could flip that and say -5 in goal difference after 7 games does support the argument of not confidence inspiring. You can’t take green shoots and proclaim we are now full on stable and mature at the defense, lets see how they will do against the teams that compete with us for top 6.
5 goals and 10 points.
40 goals should make the CL if we carry that on.
In the period since Monday forward to today, Arsenal rank #1 in all statistical categories…tied with every other team in the EPL.
See what i just did there? Its called suiting ones own sense of a reality.
Reality really is that the club sit 11th in the table with a -5 goals differential. Thats the only stat that matters in the end, where are you in the standings today!
the only stat I am ever interested in is our league position & how many points off 1st place ?
The defensive numbers will be naturally high thus far because we were obviously outplayed by Man City, were outplayed in the second half away at Burnley and outplayed by Brighton. The second half against Spurs was hold we what have to a large extent which was fair enough in that instance.
If Arteta continues many times with this let the opposition have the ball approach there will continue to be high numbers in regards defensive actions.
That’s not good defending every man to the deck.
All behind the ball clear your lines at all costs
your 50 million pound defender kicking the ball into the stands.
Pepe on his own goal line wrestling ?
Showing as much class as a Northern league div 4 side.?
“Arsenal have allowed 114 total shots in the PL so far. But only 28 of these shots were on target. That means that only 24.6% of shots they have faced were on target, which is the third-lowest rate in the PL.”
Another meaningless stat for me.
Should I complement an opposing defense every time Partey puts one in a row Z?
Or when Mbeumo dragged one wide from a close range with three Arsenal defenders doing their best Moe, Larry and Curly impersonation do we give them credit for making him miss badly?
Defensive actions higher up the pitch can be a good indicator.
This obviously won’t include many headers but rather tackles and challenges won.
Klopp at Liverpool is very big on defensive actions higher up the pitch.
Well all this PR from pedro won’t mean shit if we return from the break on performance levels of what we saw at Brighton. Performances really need to pick up. I am happy we are getting better defensively. But I also fear it is down to getting everyone behind the ball. Arteta has instructed everyone to get back to defend. And I don’t think we will ever see good football consistently with him in charge. It is fine margins football. And we aren’t that great at it as similar teams like Atletico Madrid. What I am hoping is this drab… Read more »
Newcastle is going to be the new Oil club. Things are going to get harder. Villa also have ambitious owners. They are richer than Kroenke and they will invest until they get it right. We need to go back to the levels of the real Arsenal before these clubs start to think they can compete with everyone.
Under Arteta the team seem to play in a manner that is dictated by what the scoreline is many times.
We were not outplayed at Brentford although of course they gave us plenty of problems when they attacked and that was because Brentford took a first half lead in that match.
Again it all goes back to Arteta being a bit braver in his overall approach to games.
Pedro
What’s the EPL median for shots on target?
24.6 % looks good on its own, but if the median is say 25.5, then we are not that exceptional.
Following on from my post from yesterday about not scoring being the Arteta number, I’ll say that defensive numbers show why we are poor in attack, we defend in numbers and don’t break quickly.
The best teams start their defence from the front so when they win the ball higher and are closer to their opponents goal.
Post for tomorrow should be pressing numbers and goals scored.
Defending is definitely not our problem.. Our problem is transitioning from defending to attack. We are not that good at it. When we get it right we create a lot of chances but then we have been poor at finishing them. But our transition is hit or miss mostly miss. Partey is good at it but injuries and lack of game time and he has been inconsistent and can be swarmed under. Loko is still learning what he needs to do. Xhaka is Xhaka.. occasionally he hits a great long ball but mostly he doesn’t and recycles the ball. Tierney… Read more »
Azed, not sure that conclusion is right.
Our attack is bad because we don’t hit the target.
17 shots a game should return more than 4 open play goals.
Issue is confidence and time spent together.
Is there a stat on quality of shots, Pedro? You are right, 17 shots average is a good number, but the quality of those shots really tells the story of stagnation on the attacking front.
KarsaOctober 6, 2021 17:02:59
5 goals and 10 points.40 goals should make the CL if we carry that on.
Lol. One nil to the Arsenal
Pedro
If Partey shoots 17 times, he might hit the target once. Like Ernest said above, what’s the quality of the chances?
Also what’s the league average?
Habesha was thinking exactly the same thing. Our last really top period was when there was only us and Man U. Once Chelsea and Abramovitch had skin in the game we struggled. The Kroenkes don’t have the money to compete with some of these newer franchises. Hard to see it going only one way and it ain’t up.
Partey always gives you that unnerving feeling that even with a gaping wide open net in front of him, he’d still bomb the ball over it. Truly he is.a wasteful shooter. He’d be so much more efficient if he were feeding others. Thats just my impression.
Pedro
“Fewest times dribbled past
•Fewest tackles won”
I believe a couple of months ago you told us Saliba’s low tackle numbers were a sign of a passive defender and dismissed the fact he was rarely dribbled past.
He is better off at Marseille, because he wouldn’t play for Arteta and I’m not sure he gets a fair shot next season, but with what he’s doing at 20, he has a chance to be elite.
Midwest, I think it’s too early to make any definitive statements how good these signings will be a handful of games into the season.
The general consensus on Ramsdale for example around here has been that he’s been fantastic and a huge upgrade on Leno, but if you just look at shot quality both keepers faced, Leno’s were the second highest, while Ramsdale’s third lowest in the league thus far according to stats.
The statistix are good, but I trust my eyes more. They tell me that Arsenal are fast becoming a lean mean machine. And there are two fundamentals that make sense to someone like me, with no professional experience: the need for a solid defence and an exceptional spine. Statistix seem to show that Arteta has fixed the solid defence. Now that may not mean much to the doomsters, solely concerned with results. But it’s an essential prerequisite Moving on to the spine, I’d guess we’d be top 4 material with, say. Lukaku and de Brunne. Yeah, I know, we are… Read more »
The Bard
“The Kroenkes don’t have the money to compete with some of these newer franchises.”
Stan Kroenke is married to a Walton, he owns more than 1.5 million acres of ranch land across the United States and Canada (almost 2400 square miles), he just paid $24,000,000 for a Beverly Hills Penthouse. They have the money, but like a lot of Billionaires they prefer to make investments pay for themselves.
Tom_ . Hopefully .. Teta has some Leeds game video on an endless loop to show the team .. There is a team that knows how to transition the ball into attack. I agree, it’s a bit early to judge the past transfer window. I am encouraged by our defense though since the switch to Gabi, White, Ramsdale. , so the numbers there do not surprise me. I think Part of why Ramsdale faces less dangerous shots is his ability to organize and encourage the defense and deal with high balls. . But of course the quality of opposition hasnt… Read more »
Englandbest
“The statistix are good, but I trust my eyes more. They tell me that Arsenal are fast becoming a lean mean machine”
Maybe You should have gone to specsavers.
This current squad would make top4 gallantly only if Mikel Arteta doesn’t mess the team shape and selections up.
Arteta has to stick with like for like lineups and subs. That is the way to ingrain the team’s philosophy into the players fibre.
Arteta has to be conscious of players height, speed and defensive awareness as he makes like for like subs.
NWM, Saliba’s low pressures were a sign that he’s passive.
“Hopefully .. Teta has some Leeds game video on an endless loop to show the team .. There is a team that knows how to transition the ball into attack“ Midwest, Leeds do transition well from defense to attack but they also take a ton of chances pushing players up, and at the back playing a high line with their two CB’s often times almost surrounded by three attackers. A suicidal football that leads to the type of scores United inflict on them repeatedly. I’m not sure I’d want that type of bravery from Arteta but definitely more than what… Read more »
Pedro, really don’t care about Saliba while he’s on loan but you do realize CB pressures are mostly dictated by a coach’s system and set up, right?
How often does VVD pressure?
“They tell me that Arsenal are fast becoming a lean mean machine”
You bust me up EB, you really do.
My eyes tell me this team is still struggling to find an identity. Care to refute that?
Spain V Italy about to kick off.. should be good.
englandsbest’s lionizing posts about Arteta are reminiscent of the speeches that Dennis Rodman would give to praise Kim Jong Un on arrival in Pyongyang.
Midwest
What network?
Tom – ESPN2
Thanks
So to summarize the threads on here ;
1. The stats show that our defence is decent
2. But stats are bullshit
3. Stats show out attack is crap
4. Stats don’t lie
5. Arteta is showing good signs
6. But he is probably shite actually
7 but none of it matters because we will soon be the 9th biggest club in The league and only money matters
8 despite only money mattering – we still argue over whether we need a different coach as a different coach could do better
Am I up to speed ?
Man I love Chiesa as a player.. Fun to watch.
“Average shots per game is 13 right now. Take out City and Chelsea and it’s 17, I take them out because they are two of the untouchables in the Premier League.”
Here we go again… if you’re taking out City and Chelsea because they are “untouchables” then you have to take out Norwich (30 shots) and Burnley (18) as well because they are the “shittiest”.
Johnno: Hahhaaa — you nailed it!!!
Pierre one liners are the best.
“Maybe You should have gone to specsavers.”
Wow.. nice goal by Spain.. perfect cross.
Ernest: I guess you’re a half empty guy, whereas EB is a half full guy
What a goal!
Vamos Espanya!
Does it not occur to anyone that the reason we were “the 3rd best(defence) in the league last season” was because our transitions were so frigging slow, we always had players back to defend. Just a sarcastic thought. You can say anything to counter the pro-Arteta clan and they’d come back with something that would make you shake your head in disbelief. For example: If you were to say Arsenal look devoid of confidence and play like a team consumed with far too much analytical data, there response would be “Yeah but you’ve got to understand that too much confidence… Read more »
Both team’s GK deflected the ball onto the post.
Oh man… Insigne… big miss. Good match so far.. Spain look slightly more motivated for revenge from the Euro Championship defeat.
Oh.. no Bonucci.. did a Xhaka.. That wasn’t smart..
In which semi-final is Southgate’s England playing?
Never enough games with 7 defensive players.
Game over
2 – 0 with a man up
Ok then .. Game over. Guess I have to wait until tomorrow now.. to watch a decent match. Belgium v France.
Spain with two high quality goals there.
Italy got too involved in the rivalry and emotional part of it. Lost their heads.
Upstate, there are more teams closer to Norwich/Brentford/Burnley than there are City and Chelsea.
Alonso is in very good form. He is very efficient both offensively and defensively. I find Tierney rushes his delivery. The quality of both his passes and crosses are worse than before.
Matt B
Ernest: I guess you’re a half empty guy, whereas EB is a half full guy
Wrong again…. as per. EB is a full-full guy (I’m sure you can guess what I think he’s full-full of). A starstruck Arteta – decidedly not Arsenal – fan who is wallowing in Arsenal’s demise because I suspect he’s not really a gooner. We are suffering our worst ever manager in living memory. That’s painful to all of us on here who care about the club. That you tend to think we’re on some mythical ascent makes me seriously question your credibility.
We should have spent the money on Enrique.
Not convinced by him, but with little preparation his team play with more identity than Arteta’s, who some say needs 2 or 3 more years to instil any sort of attractive identity into the team.
Stats mean nothing football is totally unpredictable.
We are mid table now taken down there by a jackarse.
Two years for nothing
Nelson
“””””Alonso is in very good form. He is very efficient both offensively and defensively. “”””
Like our Monreal.
Monreal unlike Tierney ,very understated , great composure and good for the odd goal.
Tierney not the same player this season.
Maybe the new contract he got in the summer has dulled his edges.
Should be dropped for Tavares ASAP.
Old school management still works even with all this data flying around!
Gotta say, this Nations League is better than the fucking Euros.
The football is better, and we might actually see the 2 best Europeans teams in the final.
Great advertising for a competition I used to think was shit, but is rising in stature.
KroenkePhobe: Leave it out with the drama…
You’re clearly younger than you let on, or maybe you only started following Arsenal with the advent of the premier league? Anyone 50+ who supported Arsenal as a kid would remember how poor we were mid-70s to mid-80s and even beyond.
Arsenal League Position (1973-1986)
1973-74: 10th
1974-75: 16th
1975-76: 17th
1976-77: 8th
1977-78: 5th
1978-79: 7th
1979-80: 4th
1980-1981: 3rd
1981-82: 5th
1982-83: 10th
1983-84: 6th
1984-85: 7th
1985-86: 7th
Incidentally, we finished 12th in 1993-94 — I guess you forgot that season too
Talking of credibility…
Mat B
Can you shine some light for some of us Johnie come latelys who started following and supporting Arsenal from the Wenger years how was Arsenal’s wage bill and transfer spend during those mid table seasons?
“Ernest: I guess you’re a half empty guy, whereas EB is a half full guy”
He’s full alright, Matt B!
“Incidentally, we finished 12th in 1993-94 — I guess you forgot that season too“
I thought Arsenal finished 4th in 1993-94 season
Tom: That’s not the point…
The point is that Arsenal have been shite in the past, and to suggest Arteta is the ‘worst manage in living memory’ is not true.
Tom: Oops yes, typo — we were 12th in 94-95, the year GG was fired
After the 1st game of the season we were only
3 points of top spot,
Arteta has presided over the worst start to a season in Arsenal’s history. Breaking the most negative records of any manager at Arsenal before him.
All true.!
That any better for you Matt b.
So the conclusion of this post by Pedro and his previous post is:
Arsenal has taught Arsenal how to defend. And in so doing the team has forgotten how to attack.
The thing is: does he have the wherewithal and the nous to teach the team how to attack?
I’m not so sure he has it in him.
Words, that isn’t the conclusion of the post.
Pedro,
Sorry, I should rephrase it to: so the conclusion I draw from this post and the previous post from Pedro is…..
Phase 2 learnings: Artetas young team couldn’t change the game themselves against Brighton. Arteta paid for nothing
It’s not that the doubters ‘know’ we will lose against poor opposition, we have seen over Artetas time here we can lose against nearly anyone; but this team despite the young players should still be achieving top 6 this season. The only reason we won’t is because our manager has no balls and his attacking football is woeful
And the fact that Arsenal can’t give any expectations this season is just absolutely weak as piss.
So to summarize the threads on here ;1. The stats show that our defence is decent 2. But stats are bullshit 3. Stats show out attack is crap 4. Stats don’t lie 5. Arteta is showing good signs 6. But he is probably shite actually 7 but none of it matters because we will soon be the 9th biggest club in The league and only money matters 8 despite only money mattering – we still argue over whether we need a different coach as a different coach could do betterAm I up to speed ? 😂 love to see an… Read more »
I’d rather fail at our target of top 4 that the club got the fans behind at the start of the season (which they didn’t); than to just be happy with wherever we land come end of season because the boys got to run out together over the season.
I thought this club was meant to be elite
If money matters we should be near the top of the cl table. But money in incompetent hands doesn’t go far
Goober, just saying the word ‘elite’ really means nothing. What are you specifically getting at. What isn’t elite about this project? What would you do differently? If you have standards that are so high, what is the change you are making that takes us to the Promised Land faster?
Hahaha so you can use elite but I can’t? You know exactly what I’m saying though, if this club came out before their ‘project’ and said this is what we are going for give it time, we still aim for top 4 this season. I’d have given way more leeway. Our “transition” from Wenger has been a shambles. And nothing speaks truely elite at this point in time about the club, except the funds that they can spend. And you know the answers. Get in a manager that has proven himself. Get in a proper midfield. Play the arsenal way… Read more »
My standards are so high that 6th is a stretch too far?!?!?!?
According to Arteta when he started, he has already failed on champs league target