On Arsenal’s urgent need for a striker and other bits of hokum

 

 

 

• The statistics that make journalists look silly and Arsenal’s position even more exciting
• Arsenal: the best defence, the best goal difference and another five goals to watch

By Tony Attwood

One of the problems that publishers have with the football rumour mill industry which keeps them going, is that many of the rumours are written way in advance and then just scheduled in, irrespective of whatever else is happening to Arsenal.

So the fact that Arsenal scored 88 goals last season is not brought into the daily discussions about the strikers Arsenal are buying.  This season Arsenal are scoring an average of 2.32 goals a game – which again if continued would give Arsenal 88 goals.

Now since the 38 games a season regime started in 1988/89, Arsenal have only once reached 88 goals – which was last season.   So in fact last season was the best-ever scoring performance for Arsenal in the modern era.  And yet the media demand that Arsenal buy more strikers! 

Indeed the last time Arsenal scored more than 88 goals in a season was back in 1963/4 when the club got 90 goals – but had 42 games rather than 38 games to score them in.

So really does Arsenal need another striker. remembering that this would be a new player replacing an existing goalscoring player, which in and of itself would be a bit of a gamble?  Especially since just scoring more and more goals does not automatically give one the title – Arsenal came 8th in 1963/4 – and we do have several up and coming youngsters who will want a chance.

And it is not just strikers that Arsenal currently have of course, for as the Independent has said “Martin Odegaard might be the Premier League’s best attacking midfielder.”

Put another way, Arsenal have a really good range of goal scorers.  Why would we want to change one now?   Especially as the league is full of clubs who have spent money only to go nowhere.  We all know about Chelsea of course but as the Independent also says concerning Burnley, that “after spending big in the summer to the tune of almost £100m, more than Sean Dyche got in his entire Turf Moor tenure, sooner or later Vincent Kompany is going to have to answer some difficult questions.”

For as we know the media, if not the club directors, will always turn on a manager who spends, but doesn’t immediately go to the top of the league.  It’s what gives them their endless supply of free stories without having to leave the pub.

But still, despite Arsenal’s current success, buying more and more players is what the media think Arsenal are about to do.  Thus we have “Arsenal are totally convinced” – Journalist says Edu thinks £170m duo would be great signings  (Give Me Sport).   That relates to Wolverhampton player Pedro Neto and Brentford striker Ivan Toney.  Apparently theEvening Standard agree.

Meanwhile, Just Arsenal go with Chelsea gearing up to outbid Arsenal in the race to sign Ivan Toney at the end of this season.  And elsewhere The Standard has “Arsenal suffer Pedro Neto transfer blow after Wolves forward stars at Tottenham.”

But we know we  won’t win anything because Caught Offside tells us how John Barnes is not taking Arsenal title bid seriously.  Mind you of late I don’t think many of us have taken John Barnes seriously.   He lasted just eight months as head coach of Celtic, (that was the era of “Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious”).  Port Vale turned him down as manager, and as manager of Tranmere he was sacked after two wins from his first eleven league games.   He did however later appear on Big Brother.

So I guess we can say that one is mutual.  He’s not taking Arsenal seriously and we are absolutely definitely and totally not taking Mr Barnes seriously.  Tragically however some people still do.

But still the Arsenal transfer stories continue, as with Caught offside and numerous others who all copy each other running Napoli striker Victor Osimhen has been linked with a move to the Premier League in recent weeks, although Tim Sherwood goes a different way and says Bukayo Saka’s penalty kick was poor.

Maybe the pundits are fed up because Arsenal is not spending enough to give them free stories every day without leaving the pub.     After all, apparently Manchester United’s squad for last season was the most expensive ever assembled in Europe, (according to a UEFA report “European Club Finance and Investment Landscape”), at a total of  €1.42billion. 

We might now consider just how well that investment is doing with a peek at the league table before today’s games…

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	25	17	6	2	59	24	35	57
2	Arsenal	25	17	4	4	58	22	36	55
3	Manchester City	24	16	5	3	57	26	31	53
4	Aston Villa	25	15	4	6	52	33	19	49
5	Tottenham Hotspur	25	14	5	6	52	38	14	47
6	Manchester United	24	13	2	9	33	33	0	41

 

Indeed it seems Manchester U have spent all that money in order to be 14 points and a goal difference of 36 behind Arsenal, although they do of course have one game in hand.  I imagine the journalists are looking for them to win that game 37-0.  But still they are four points above Newcastle and so are looking good for a place in the Europa League