by Tony Attwood
There is an article in the Sun that says “ARSENAL could play their final Champions League group stage match in front of just 9,000 fans due to UEFA protocol.“
There’s an awful lot of garbage to get through before getting to the point but the fact is that Girona’s ground has temporary stands in it and the Sun’s headline is, “Arsenal set to play Champions League decider in half-empty stadium with tiny away allocation thanks to little-known rule,” is not quite true. First, it is unlikely to be a “decider” and second the stadium will be 64% full, not 50%.
In fact, rather like the headline half way through “From farm to fryer: the story of McDonald’s potatoes” this is all a diversion from the fact that Girona is owned by the City Group, which also owns Manchester City and who, you might recall are currently involved in legal action against the Premier League, and an internal action by the majority of League clubs against the club over matters of finances and the like.
But for journos these are details, and thinking of details, did you know or indeed are you surprised that ManC have had the most touches in PL games this season? 5641, according to the Premier League chart. And that might make you think that maybe Arsenal players should touch the ball (with feet and head of course not hands) more, given that not only are ManC top but Liverpool are second.
Except that third place in the “touch table” is Southampton Arsenal are 12th and Chelsea are 13th. So maybe the number of touches is not important at all. In fact, utterly and totally irrelevant.
Arsenal are shown as having 4171 touches and ManC 5641. So ManC lead by having 26% more touches than Arsenal, and Southampton have 23% more than Arsenal. Which suggests that as a measure of anything, the number of touches is utterly and totally irrelevant. And yet the Premier League official site gives us this data – while deliberately giving us nothing about referees at all.
Of course the Premier League might say they leave that to the PGMO – except PGMO don’t have a website.
Anyway, I wondered if there were other ludicrous facts provided which are either misleading or have no consequence, given that so much data on referees is missing, We certainly have a measure of own goals (half the league got one or two last season, and the only one with over four was Sheffield UItd, which tells us that Sheff U had a bad defence, which I think we knew from the fact that they leet in 104 goals.
Yellow cards are there – showing Arsenal and ManC have 17 each for fouls…, but hang on a minute. If we go to WhoScored they are showing that Arsenal have 20 yellow cards, with eight being for “other” offences, which means not for fouls, and one for unprofessional conduct. That leaves Arsenal with 11 yellow for fouls – not 17.
Manchester City have nine for fouls seven for “other” offences and one for being unprofessional. So this is getting weird. Let’s try and see just how many yellow cards Arsenal have.
Whoscored: Discipline total is 17 yellows. Of which 12 are fouls, eight are unprofessional and 1 is “other” So suddenly that is 21. That’s odd except that Arsenal have had two reds, so if each of those two reds was for two yellows, yes we are back to 17.
What about the Football League figures. They just say Arsenal are 17, which does accord with the Who Scored total, but it is extremely misleading.
And my point is that I got there in the end with a fair bit of working out, but I guess most people won’t do this. So why publish these numbers?
And here’s another that I touched on earlier.
Last season Arsenal had (according to WhoScored) a possession rate of 58.7% at home and 58.1% away. OK that looks very reasonable and easy to understand. But using the same source of statistics, Arsenal this season are on 56.5% at home but only 39.5% away. Now that is a dramatic change, and surely a most interesting one, and yet I can’t find much if any discussion about this. Or actually any discussion of this.
Instead what we do get is an endless stream of chit-chat about who the clubs could sign in January (but if previous years are anything to go by, won’t) but nothing about Arsenal’s dramatic change of away performance.
One might ask why Arsenal need to change away from home – after all they were the second most effective away club in the league last season, and with an away goal difference that was twice as good as Liverpool’s and three better than ManC’s. So why change?
It is the question that the media won’t even admit exists, let alone answer, while all the while they chat about transfers that we all know Arsenal won’t make.
In fact no one seems to be asking “why?” This is an important tactical move by Arsenal, and yet it is disregarded. Is it because the media haven’t noticed? Or the journos are too thick to understand? Or they think we are too stupid to be able to appreciate the point? Or because it doesn’t involve ManC and therefore is not newsworthy?
On the face of it, Arsenal are engaged in a significant tactical change, and yet no one is saying a word, while all summer they told us that Arsenal needed a new centre forward. Isn’t that odd?
Could the reduction in away touches be because
1) we played Villa , Spuds, 115 FC away
2) we played with 10 for 50+ minutes v 115 FC
To be detailed we need to know the number of touches had in same games last season
Thanks Tony. Great bit of editorial of the true facts as usual.
I may have read this wrong, but here is my 2 pence worth of facts.
If last year’s figures of away from is apx 58% for the whole season and this year’s away possession is only for games played so far, then it may still pan out the same come the end of this season. So maybe too early to compare.
Mind you, the possession figures were lost in the away game to Man City, when we were down to 10 men, so that could have also had a dramatic effect, seeing as that was one sided possession. Not sure of the exact figures for that particular game, but we are only a few away games into the season so far to be able to calculate a shift in change and the way we play, I would guess.
They will never give true detail about their crooked referees and the teams they really support and hate as they are picked to be neutral in games, yeh right! We should be calling them “The Untouchables” because I have never heard of a ref getting the sack or even being investigated, so like 007, they took have a licence to kill games, without being investigated by a neutral committee.
Sorry, the last paragraph should say “they too have a licence to kill” NOT “they took have a licence to kill”, bleeten spell checker!
Tony and A1 m
Could the reduction in away touches be because
1) we played Villa , Spuds, 115 FC away
2) we played with 10 for 50+ minutes v 115 FC
To be detailed we need to know the number of touches had in same games last season:
That’s what I thought when it came to possession, so I did actually look at this back and the 2nd, and the fact is as far as I can see our Away tactics haven’t changed, not if you compare opponent against opponent.
Anyway these are the possession stats for our away matches this season compared to last season, as much as possible, in response to:
“Arsenal are running at 47.6% possession in the Premier League. Last season it was 58.4% – obviously a decline of almost 11%, which is clearly planned for, and not something one often sees”.
This is what I found:
Firstly you have to look at the level of opponent we have played so far, and where. Plus 6 games is a very small sample to draw any solid conclusions, but as that’s all we’ve got that’s all we can use.
Villa, Spurs, and Man City all away. That will tilt the stats ‘against’ possession straight away. But that being said I thought the best way to compare, was match to match. so, that’s what I’ve done. As Leicester were not in the PL last season I have taken the liberty of using the possession stats from our 4 – 2 home win in 22/23. Fair enough I think.
Also, to make things more balanced, I have used just the first halves of the games against Brighton and Man City because as you are all well aware we played the second halves with 10 men. But just to be absolutely fair I have done the stats for the (full 90 minutes) in every game as well.
Opponent – H/A – (90 Mins)24/25 – 23/24
Wolves – H – 53% – 58%……So, we had a little less possession this year.
Villa – A – 61% – 62%……So, almost identical possession.
Brighton – H – (36%) 48% – 49% …..So, almost identical possession with 11 v 11. Less including 10 v 11.
Spurs – A – 36% – 37%…..So, almost identical possession.
Man C – A – (22%) 34% – 27%…..So, more possession this year with 11 v 11. Less including 10 v 11..
Leic C – H – 75% – 50%….So, quite a bit more possession this year.
Average stats for 11 v 11 (10 v 11)
Season 24/25 = 51% (47%)
Season 23/24 = 47%
The 90 minute stats, which obviously includes 2 halves played with 10 men, are identical. The 11 v 11 stats suggest we have in fact slightly more of the ball this year than last.
In conclusion I think we’ll have to wait a little longer to see if conceding possession is indeed ‘planned’ this season?
Well done Nitram.
Although Tony’s figures are true and accurate, your logic in comparing teams and man power shows that the margins are small, but as we can all agree, it is too early to compare with injuries to key players as well as team selections, man power, opposition etc..
But both statistics are true but looked at in a different way. I think Tony was looking at our playing tactics, which has changed slightly to be more counter attack in certain games as we seem to be able to soak up any pressure and have more confident in our defence which is improving.
Perhaps this is a good thing rather than a worry as this makes us less predictable with the usual passing style game as we are having to dig in and win by any means with some games.
We will wait and see, but good analysis by both of you.
daveg
Thanks.
“……which has changed slightly to be more counter attack in certain games as we seem to be able to soak up any pressure and have more confident in our defence which is improving”
As much as I’m like a cat on a hot tin roof whenever we play, especially when out of possession, it is obvious we are solid as a rock. I know recently we’ve let in 3 goals at home we would rather of not, but one was a deflection and sometimes you just have to give the opposition credit. Changes nothing. We are magnificent without the ball. Didn’t Enrique say the best in Europe?
At home to his PSG was a perfect example of what you and he are saying. In the second half they had 67% possession but only manged 5 shots, with none on target. On the counter attack we had 4 with 3 on target, and should of scored twice.
As good as that is, was it a plan to sit back? Concede possession? It doesn’t sound like it is if you read Artetas post match analysis:
“Then we wanted that different second half probably, continue to be that dominant and with the ball to be more composed than we were. ……….they forced us to play again in a different area of the pitch and we had more problems after and to continue to play the way we played in the first half.”
I don’t think that sounds like we had a plan to concede possession and hit them on the break? As you say, we can do it if we are forced to do it, but I firmly believe Arteta is still of the mind that possession is key. It tires the opponent out. They cannot score whilst you have the ball. Eventually, a great team like Arsenal will force an opening.
My honest opinion is, and it is just that, my opinion, Arteta still wants to keep the ball as much as possible.
Only time will tell.
Tony,
Option Two, “the journos are too thick to understand”.
2-0 up at half time and I dispur.
3-2 down at full time brightons my week.
Charles
I know, fun wasn’t it.
Danny boy getting the winner makes it all the sweeter.
And lets not forget Cole Palmer, sorry Chelsea, only drew at home to Notts Forest today.
The only team to do it 10 times when leading 2-0 then end up losing. Well done Spurs.
I do admit that I was slightly disappointed by us conceding against Southampton , but for some reason felt much better by sunday , after all the other games were played !
Up the Gunners !