This is the complete Arsenal team and the stats prove it

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

And the big question will soon be, “Will Emile Smith Rowe be satisfied with a bit part, or will he get further chances or will he demand a leave?”   I really hope he doesn’t go, but looking at the other young players at the club he might well be tempted to do just that.

But then he might also look at other players who have left to get more game time only to find that playing with a struggling team really isn’t as much fun as playing with a team that are, oh where is it… (Data from 11v11)

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	30	21	5	4	72	24	48	68
2	Liverpool	29	20	7	2	67	27	40	67
3	Manchester City	30	20	7	3	67	29	38	67
4	Aston Villa	31	18	5	8	63	46	17	59
5	Tottenham Hotspur	30	17	6	7	62	44	18	57
6	Manchester United	29	15	3	11	40	40	0	48
7	West Ham United	31	12	9	10	50	55	-5	45

 

Did anyone predict that we might not only be above Manchester City (admittedly by only one point) but also with a ten goal better goal difference?   If they did I must have missed it.

After thirty games last season we were top with the same number of goals scored, but this year despite the fewer points we have a better defence.   This to me means that even if we don’t win the title this season (and obviously I am hoping we do) we are building something incredibly solid at the club as the goals scored and conceded tallies show.

 

AFC	Year	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	2023	30	23	4	3	72	29	43	73
1	2024	30	21	5	4	72	24	48	68

 

It is of course true that we are being chased and harried all the way by Manchester City and Liverpool, but what I really do love is the fact that Arsenal have developed their own way of proceeding.

This can be most easily demonstrated by looking at the top scorers in the league…

 

	Player	Goals	Assists	Games
1	Erling Haaland Manchester City	18	5	24
2	Ollie Watkins Aston Villa	16	10	30
2	Mohamed Salah Liverpool	16	9	23
2	Dominic Solanke  Bournemouth	16	3	30
5	Son Heung-min Tottenham H	15	8	27
5	Jarrod Bowen West Ham United	15	5	30
5	Alexander IsakIsak  Newcastle	15	1	22

 

And as you will know, there is not an Arsenal player in sight.  And yet Arsenal is top of the league on points and top of the league on goals scored.

In fact that first Arsenal name in the list clocks in at ninth: Bukayo Saka on 13 goals.  After that comes Kai Havertz on in 21st position on eight goals.

And still just counting league goals what we then find is that we have both Odegaard and Trossard on seven each, followed by Martinelli and Rice with six each.  

Which by my calculation gives us six players who have scored six or more goals this season in the Premier League.  Indeed the club has 11 players who have scored two or more.

Manchester City have five such players on six plus and nine on two plus., Liverpool have four on six plus and seven on two plus.

Now the difference might seem small, but then if we expand even further we can see that Arsenal have had 15 goal scorers in the league this season. Liverpool have had 14, and Manchester City 13.

Again the differences are tiny, but it is these tiny differences that have given us a league table which if based on goals scored would read….

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	30	21	5	4	72	24	48	68
2	Liverpool	29	20	7	2	67	27	40	67
3	Manchester City	30	20	7	3	67	29	38	67
4	Newcastle United	30	13	5	12	64	52	12	44
5	Aston Villa	31	18	5	8	63	46	17	59
6	Tottenham Hotspur	30	17	6	7	62	44	18	57

 

Doing this the other way around and looking at defences the table would read rather curiously, although Arsenal are still safely top…

 

None of this proves that Arsenal is going to win the league of course, but it does show that Arsenal are developing on all fronts.  This in turn suggests that Arsenal are not particularly lacking in any part of the pitch – despite the hourly announcements in the media that Arsenal are bidding for twenty or more players.

Of course, Arsenal might buy one or two more senior players his summer since the battle is to end up with more points, not just more goals and a better defence.  But the figures do show that there are no glaring problems with this team, and that if in fact the summer transfer window were to be empty that might well not be the disaster that the media would see it as.

So why do the media keep telling us that Arsenal are going to sign new strikers and thus disrupt the squad?   Because a) that’s what they always do, and b) it requires no work.  They just make it up.

And do remember that the average accuracy of summer predictions of transfers is just three in every one hundred names mentioned.