- The extraordinary difference between referees in relation to home and away teams
- Liverpool v Arsenal – the referee and the strange doings of the PGMO
- Maybe the prognostications for the Liverpool game aren’t that daunting
by Tony Attwood
We have of course only had two Arsenal games this season, but just those two games showed two utterly different Arsenal performances. Obvioulsy there has just been one game at home and one away and against very different opposition, but even so the differences do seem to go beyond what one might expect.
Of course winning the home game by scoring five goals, while winning the away game scoring one suggests a different number of shots in the two games – but not quite the difference I expected. In the home victory there were 18 Arsenal shots – not suprising as the club scotred five goals. But in the away victory there were half that number of shots (nine) for the one goal. To me that suggests the forward line still getting used to each other and where each other will be. I think we might be seeing quite an increase in passing in the coming games now they’ve all had more time to adjust. to the new approaches being adopted.
These tactical changes also had a negative impact. In the away match Arsenal were the fourth highest team for away yellow cards (four). In the home game there was not one single card for Arsenal.
On the positive side, there were more passes at home (22% more in fact) than away, aswe might expect, but the biggest surprise came with the possession rate. For the home game it was 67.5%. Away to Manchester United it was 38.7% .
Last season, Arsenal’s home possession rate was 57.2% – the third highest in the division. Away it was 56.7% – very similar. So what on earth made Arsenal give up possession in the Manchester United match to such a high degree? It was a drop in fact of 30%.
Now to be clear, possession does not equal wiinning. The top team in terms of possession last season both home and away was Manchester City, who came third.
But of course having possession isn’t the key thing – it is what they happens, so I thought I would look at the types of passing clubs delivered last season. Figures are per game.
| Team | Cross | Through Ball | Long Balls | Short Passes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester C | 17 | 2 | 36 | 572 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 19 | 2 | 48 | 486 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 18 | 2 | 48 | 478 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 20 | 2 | 36 | 458 |
Clearly Arsenal were low on passes compared with Man C, so I then decided to comparse the passing of this season’s two games with last season’s 38 games. Two games is hardly a reliable indicator but it can give a sense of what is going on. The figures are of course per game and they may change over time, but given the extreme detail that Arteta and his colleagues go into, in terms of handling every moment of the game I think there could be an interesting couple of points here. These are Arsenal’s figures.
| Season | Cross ES | Long Balls | Short Passes |
|---|---|---|---|
| This season | 15 | 43 | 408 |
| Last season | 20 | 36 | 458 |
| Percentage change | -25% | +19% | -11% |
The percentage change shows the increase this season over last season (where over 100%) or the decreate where under 100%, and the big changes are the decline in short passes and the rise in long balls. Not something I would have immediately predicted, but when looking at the players that Arsenal have bought and the way the forward line can now operate, this looks like a most interesting development. Not something the media is mentioning I think – but I may have missed it.
And of course although there is a general disparagemeent of the long ball game in football, when a team has players in the forward line who are experts at picking up in the long ball and beating any defenders who happen to have stayed back, it is a superb tactic.
The long ball tactic has always been decried of course because it has mostly meant thumping the ball forward in the hope that the big number nine can out muscle the defender. But that is certanly not what we are seeing with this team.
This is not to say that Arsenal are simply trying to copy Liverpool. After all, what is also noticeable is that last season Liverpool produced more of both long and short passes than Arsenal – and Arsenal this season are still some way behind. But there are some adjustments being made, and it could well be that the players brought in are brought in to fit these adjustments that are needed to overtake Liverpool.
Last season Liverpool scored 2.26 goals a game, so far this season it is 3.5 goals a game. Last season they conceded 1.08 goals a game., but this season so far it is 2.0 goals a game. Of course we are only measuring across two games, but it is just possible that there is a change in approach there which Arsenal might be able to exploit.
