By Tony Attwood
So what did we learn from all this international stuff ? First, England don’t normally win tournaments – which I think we knew given that the only time England have done such a thing was when they were able to play every game at home.
Second, the organisations that organise international football tournaments can’t actually organise football tournaments. We have touched on the problems there have been in Germany with the transport. And today we have the news that the South American final was also a mess as for the Guardian says there were “harrowing scenes of organizational chaos outside Hard Rock Stadium, as police and stadium security struggled to cope with crowds massed outside, causing kick-off to be delayed by well over an hour.”
And as you will expect, “Organizational concerns have plagued the tournament.” But it wasn’t the organisers fault, as they blamed “thousands of fans without tickets attempted to forcibly enter the stadium, putting other fans, security and law enforcement officers at extreme risk”.
Chaos at European Cup finals well I never. And each time the media report it with surprise, as if it has never happened before.
The reality is that the international and national bodies that organise footballing events are incapable of doing so without injuring people and the cities that host such events are incapable of making sure the public transport works. From European Cup finals to international matches it is always chaos.
And here’s the other thing: the media is always surprised, while the people who oversee the chaos makes sure that they are in charge next time (see for example “Aleksander Ceferin encouraged to renege on pledge and continue as Uefa president”) while making competitions bigger and bigger. (“adding four extra teams to the Champions League group stage next season, creating an expanded Europa Conference League”).
So no one is reminding us that “Prior to the 2022 UEFA Champions League final between English team Liverpool and Spanish team Real Madrid on the evening of 28 May 2022, crowd control descended into chaos at the entrances to the Stade de France.”
Instead the chaos is always news and unexpected. As the Telegraph said in a previous revelation, “Copa America final fans ‘unconscious’ and injured after ticketless supporters storm stadium”. To which we can reply, yes, with these people organising events, it always happens.
Or if you want something nearer to home, “How the Champions League final descended into chaos” That was in 2022. And it is always the fans fault although the right wing media still wants to show us the pictures, as with “Watch: England fans fight each other inside stadium as violence breaks out on streets of London.”
We do get bits of football in the media of course. For example, “England defy football logic – it is not normal to play so poorly and keep winning.”
And there are arguments between players, with the Mirror picking up its usual anti-Arsenal stance with “Declan Rice confronts England team-mate Jordan Pickford during Euro 2024 final.”
But then, with no lessons learned, suddenly it is all over and done, and everything will be forgotten as we quickly move on to “Arsenal can hit gold by signing a “little genius” who’s worth more than Rice & Yamal”. AndReports from Spain say that “Arsenal and Liverpool were battling Real Madrid to sign Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz.”
And just in case you hadn’t already heard, Football.London announces that Williams and Gyokeres “at top of Arsenal summer list amid £161m overhaul.”
And of course the old stories are still there for recylcling as we are told again by FoLo that Arsenal “are desperate for a new centre-forward” as they often failed to secure three points due to the lack of a clinical presence inside the box.”
Now because this is FoLo it is important to examine every element of what they say to see if we can find any truth within.
Arsenal failed to secure three points a total of ten times in the league last season. I am not sure that counts as often, but let us compare with the club’s rivals.
Manchester City also failed to win 10 games, so I suppose FoLo could say the same about that club. But both clubs were better than Liverpool (14 failures to secure 3 points), Aston Villa and Tottenham (18 such failures each) and Chelsea with doubling Arsenal’s “failure” with 20 such games.
So it goes… In the media it is “Untrue Arsenal”, as ever.
We keep hearing these statements suggesting Arsenal, (and by definition Arteta), not only want a striker, they need a striker, nay they are DESPERATE for a striker.
Now the question is, is that true?
Now I would suggest that given Arsenal scored 91 goals, their highest ever Premier League total, it is a bit rich to suggest we are desperate for a striker. It’s even highly debatable as to whether we even NEED a striker.
But does Arteta actually WANT a striker? And if so, given how many goals we scored last season, WHY?
Well, maybe this is why?
What got me thinking was this, on the face of it misleading statement from FoLo that said:
“They often failed to secure three points due to the lack of a clinical presence inside the penalty box”
To which Tony quite rightly said:
“Now because this is FoLo it is important to examine every element of what they say to see if we can find any truth within”
Which is typical of Tony and Untold Arsenal in general. In other words, statements are nothing without supporting evidence and more often than not it is the statistics that provide that supporting evidence, to wit Tony provided the following:
“Arsenal failed to secure three points a total of ten times in the league last season. I am not sure that counts as often, but let us compare with the club’s rivals.
Manchester City also failed to win 10 games, so I suppose FoLo could say the same about that club. But both clubs were better than Liverpool (14 failures to secure 3 points), Aston Villa and Tottenham (18 such failures each) and Chelsea with doubling Arsenal’s “failure” with 20 such games.”
So, on the face of it, that does rather debunk FoLo’s accusation. We were no worse than Man City, as we both failed to secure victory 10 times each.
But me being me I thought I’d have a look. more closely at those 10 games just to see if there was anything within those specific games that supports or undermines FoLos’ claim.
Arsenals 10 matches:
2-2 draw
2-2 draw
2-2 draw
1-0 loss
1-0 loss
0-1 loss
0-2 loss
2-1 loss
0-0 draw
0-2 loss
For 7. Against 15. Goal Difference -8. Points 4
Manchester City’s 10 matches:
2-1 loss
1-0 loss
4-4 draw
1-1 draw
3-3 draw
1-0 loss
2-2 draw
1-1 draw
1-1 draw
0-1 loss
For 13. Against 17. Goal Difference -4. Points 6
So, here’s the thing. yes, we had a very slightly better defence conceding 2 goal less than Man city, but tellingly Man City scored nearly twice as many goals as we did.
But this could be the most crucial thing. Man City failed to score on just 2 occasions all season. In those 10 matches that we ‘failed to secure three points’ we failed to score 6 times. 3 times as often as man City.
Ultimately it is arguable, that despite scoring 91 goals, is was our failure to score on 6 occasions that cost us the title.
Maybe, I say maybe because I haven’t got a clue. But maybe it is those 6 matches that Arteta looks at?
In those crucial 6 games when we needed a Wright, a Smith, an Henry, we didn’t have one?
Just a thought.
Sorry as usual I’ve spotted an error:
Man City failed to score 3 times. Meaning we failed to score TWICE as often.
Doesn’t change my conclusion, but sorry anyway. Any more errors please be kind and just point them out. Thanks.
After the international are over, my main concern is the hope that the Arsenal players have come back without any new or aggravsted old injuries and that they are not too knackered as a result of the tournament.
Once again, the good sense of Ben White is evident
John L
Despite playing exceptionally well, I thought Rice looked very tired at times, which was not surprising given the amount of work he did. Despite his exceptional level of performance and consistency it was noticeable how little acknowledgement he received for his performances.
More importantly I think he will return without injury, but he will certainly need a good rest. Trouble is, will he get it?
Similarly Saka, who also had a great tournament?
Proud of what our lads contributed. I had to support our boys, but honestly I really could live my life happily without these internationals.
Media: Arsenal are desperate for a striker.
Arsenal: Let’s sign 2 goalkeepers.
You love to see it🤣🤣
Arsenal had two keepers at the finals . They were not used , but have trained well during the tournament . a big thank you to the respective managers for returning them intact and ready to go !
According to UEFA stats Rice played the equal most minutes, and covered the biggest distance at the Euro’s. He also achieved the most ball recoveries. Lets hope he gets enough time to recover!!
As a point of interest Kai had the most shots on target. 11 from 19. For comparison Mbappe was second with 9 from 24 and Ronaldo 3rd with 9 from 23.
In my humble opinion Kai is very underrated. His all round game is phenomenal. As we witnessed in the second half of the season he is very capable of being a 20 plus goal a season player, despite his one weakness. Finishing! Honestly, if he can just improve that aspect of his game he could easily achieve 30 plus goals.
All stats can be seen here: https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/statistics/players/distribution/?sortBy=passes_attempted&order=desc