Arsenal’s untold statistics
“It makes no sense, when you think about it for even a second. Ben White. Leandro Trossard. Aaron Ramsdale. Granit Xhaka. At the start of the season, would you have described any of them as imminent champions? And so perhaps the only real hope for Arsenal is to trust fully in this alternative reality, submit to it, keep doing the things they do without ever really knowing why they do them.”
It’s a typical putdown from the Guardian, one of a number by different news media of late, aimed at covering up the failure of English football journalism to keep track of what has been happening to Arsenal tactically since December 2019. And still, rather than admit how wrong they got it, they keep on and on coming up with excuses. Mind you, as excuses go “It makes no sense” is just about the lamest there is.
The fact is that it is quite possible that Arsenal will end this season with four players having scored 10 or more goals, something that is quite a rarity. As things stand Martinelli has 13, Saka 12, Odegaard 10 and Gabriel Jesus seven. I wouldn’t put it past Jesus to get three more between now and the end of the season. Especially as given that Jesus has scored his seven in just 15 league games and he has nine left to go.
In comparison, for Manchester City Haaland has scored 28 league goals – an astonishing number. Foden is on nine but is now out for a few weeks, yet could well make it back to scoring ways by the end of the season. After that we are looking at Alvarez and de Bruyne on six and five.
Of course Manchester City don’t need other strikers with Haaland available, but the problem with being totally reliant on one striker comes when he gets injured. Then what happens?
With Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal played 14 games before the world cup, and had a record of 12 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat. The club scored 33 and conceded 11.
After the world cup and before yesterday’s game, Arsenal also played 14 games – obviously without Gabriel Jesus. The record was 10 wins, two draws and two defeats. But the goals scored was once again 33, although the goals against were 15. As a result the goal difference was 18 (instead of 22) and the points 32 instead of 37.
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal to 12 Nov | 14 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 11 | 22 | 37 |
| Arsenal without GJ | 14 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 33 | 15 | 18 | 32 |
And just to be pedantically clear, I am including the game against Crystal Palace on 19 March as one without Gabriel Jesus since he only came on as a sub on 65 minutes by which time Arsenal were 3-0 up.
So the fact is that as the table above shows, with Gabriel Jesus Arsenal do slightly better than when he is not playing. But the difference has nothing to do with goal scoring as Arsenal were scoring with him and without him in exactly the same way – 33 goals each time. No, the difference is Arsenal let in four more goals.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Gabriel Jesus is not of great value to the club – he obviously is. What it means is that Arteta has two things. One is a team that is flexible and getting ever more flexible as time goes by. And the other is that he is quite capable of buying a centre forward known for his goal-scoring, and have him scoring a decent number of goals, but also building a team that can continue to score a decent number of goals even without him. That’s quite an extraordinary achievement.
For the key thing about Gabriel Jesus is that he touches the ball a lot – and that is something that Arsenal really like.
Now the official “touches” data from the Premier League is slightly odd in that, for example William Saliba is shown as currently being clubless, but if we correct for oddities we find Arsenal have four players in the top 20 players list as measured for touches: Gabriel Magalhães, William Saliba, Ben White, and Thomas Partey. Only one club has three such players – Brighton and Hove. Manchester City has one (Rodri), Tottenham has two, as do Liverpool.
Thus as with other metrics, Arsenal are showing their strength. Of course, no club wins the league by having the largest number of touches of the ball, but it is once again one factor that is helpful. And indeed once again a factor that a) the official League table can’t quite get right, and b) one in which Arsenal is again ahead of everyone else.
“to trust fully in this alternative reality”
I hope the Arsenal players are reading crap like this as a motivational therapy.
IMHO it does not get any more insulting then this. And it just shows how useless and manipulative they are.
Then again insults are weapons of losers and idiots. So let them stay in their ‘f*x news’ alternate reality.
If Arsenal end up winning the League, it will be funny to see them shut down their playstation knowing they lost.
And you’ll still all be bitching when we’re home and dry as Premier league champs.
I think I may have mentioned before, “Self-Righteous” that your ability as a fortune teller is open to doubt, and I don’t think you’ve ever provided evidence to suggest that such prognostications should ever be treated as anything other than embitterment. But it is always interesting to read your comments.
Chris I do indeed agree with you. “insults are weapons of losers and idiots.” A regular testing of that theory does indeed suggest it is generally true.
Self Righteous
And yet here you are ‘bitching’ again. You couldn’t make it up.
Yes we are 8 points ahead, but Man City have a game in hand that they will almost certainly win. That puts them 5 points behind.
We have to go to City, who apart from us, have the best home form in the PL. Despite how well we have been playing there is a distinct possibility we could lose that, even if we play really well. We did that at home and still lost. Man City area fantastic team in case you hadn’t noticed, who have seen it, done it, and got the T shirt.
So a City win puts them 2 points behind and we haven’t actually anything wrong.
We have to go to Liverpool who apart from us have the 2nd best home record in the PL.
We have to go to Newcastle, who apart from us are the 6th best home team in the PL.
There would be no shame in coming away with 2 draws and 2 points from those 2 matches but that still may not be enough.
We have to go to West Ham. Yet another Derby, and a team that are fighting for their Premier League lives.
We have to face Chelsea at home. Still a strong team despite their poor form. And yet another Derby.
Brighton at home is no gi’me! Apart from us they have the 4th best away record in the PL.
None of that is an excuse. Those are the facts. We have a tough run-in. Tougher than Cities. Our biggest advantage is the amount of massive games Man City have, and it will test them that is for sure. But, as we keep getting told, they have the squad. They have the experience. They have the manager.
Home and dry you say?
What planet are you on?
@Nitram,
well, I’m looking at it more positively then you.
Every team from Crystal Palace (12th) down is fighting against relegation.
And from Chelsea (11) to Brighton (6) they are fighting for a european place.
Fact is Arsenal have not lost that many games against lower table teams (Everton and that’s it, right ?).
City have lost more.
City are still active in 3 competitions and will be more challenged physically then Arsenal. Yes they may have more ‘star’ players available, but from what I see , Arsenal do have players who know what ‘next man up’ means and so far each one has performed very well when his time came : just look at Holding.
So City won’t have any easier run-in.
I am convinced our Young Gunners will go to Anfield to rout Liverpool and if they re to win this League, they can prove their mettle there. They have this chip on their shoulder. All of them. They run the table and don’t want this to change. Yes there are 9 games left, and each is a final. So we can watch 9 finals in a row. Perfect !
COYG
Chris
Yep, all perfectly feasible.
I was just making the point that to say we are ‘Home And Dry’ is ridiculous.
@Nitram,
yep, I mostly see glasses half full…