Leno to leave Arsenal because he’s far too good: the pre-game stats

By Bulldog Drummond

As we approach the Chelsea game we are told that Arsenal are trying to get rid of our goalkeeper Leno.  This is because, according to the Daily Star, “Despite being a regular starter after joining the club from Bayer Leverkusen, the 29-year-old has conceded more goals that he would’ve hoped across his 32 league outings this season.”

“Than he would have hoped.”  So what did he hope for?  And why are a person’s hopes the reason for getting removed from the club?

And besides, is Leno a bad keeper?  As I have pointed out many times, Arsenal have the fourth best defence in the Premier League, letting in 12 more goals than Manchester City, six more than Chelsea, and one more than Manchester United.  Every other club has let in MORE than Arsenal.

And we want to sack our keeper because he has let in more than he hoped for?????

This season Arsenal have conceded  38 goals in 35 so estimate 41 in 38 – although if Chelsea knock us about that will be a bad estimate.  But let’s say it is 41.  How awful, terrible and disastrous is this really?

Season	Goals against	League position	FA Cup
2010-11	43	4
2011–12	49	3
2012–13	37	4
2013–14	41	4	Won
2014–15	36	3	Won
2015–16	36	2
2016–17	44	5	Won
2017–18	51	6
2018–19	51	5
2019–20	48	8	Won
2020-21	42*	9???

*estimate

So on this basis only three seasons in the past ten will be better than the 42.  And we have to get Leno out?????

The reason for this utter garbage is that the newspaper staff is under orders to write a negative story about Arsenal every other day, and today Leno gets it.

But that is not the main concern – it is some dimwitted supporters actually believe this total piffle and start saying Leno must go, because he is the problem, which of course he is not.  Because the entire defence is not the problem – it is the attack.  We have the ninth best or 11th worst attack in the league.  If we could solve that, we’d be laughing.  But no, the bonkers idiots in the media keep telling us to clear out the defence.

So why?  Presumably because they want to ferment discontent and ensure that Arsenal remains mid-table.  And this is because

a) They just don’t like Arsenal

b) Arsenal didn’t pay them enough of a bribe to stop them doing it

c) They are total cretins and seriously believe that Arsenal has a bad defence

d) They just make any old rubbish it, and then copy each other.

So what else have we got?

If we do win, it will be the first double in the league over Chelsea 2003-04.  Although that is not quite the whole story and since I am being picky concerning the media and their mindless gibberish, I’d better qualify this.

18 Oct 2003	Arsenal v Chelsea	W	2-1	Premier League
15 Feb 2004	Arsenal v Chelsea	W	2-1	FA Cup
21 Feb 2004	Chelsea v Arsenal	W	1-2	Premier League
24 Mar 2004	Chelsea v Arsenal	D	1-1	Champions League
06 Apr 2004	Arsenal v Chelsea	L	1-2; Agg 2-3	Champions League

As you may observe we played the oil billionaires five times, winning three, while failing to beat them in two Champions League matches, thus going out of the competition.  In the final Porto beat Monaco 3-0.

So not as bad as we might think especially as we have not lost a Premier League game (nor even at 1st Division game) against them when it was not played at the weekend.

But Chelsea don’t have a big time scorer.  In fact, and this might surprise you, their top scorers have only six goals.  Can you imagine what the media would be saying of Arsenal if our top scorer had only six goals.

Their joint-leading league scorers this season have six goals: Timo Werner, Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Jorginho. 

So time to look at Arsenal’s top scorers.  Data comes from the BBC site

Player	Goals	Goals per 90 min	Total Shots	Goal Conversion	Shot Accuracy
Alexandre Lacazette	17	0.63	54	31%	65%
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	15	0.49	67	22%	51%
Nicolas Pépé	12	0.39	67	18%	46%
Bukayo Saka	7	0.18	48	15%	52%

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