Arsenal made a mess of the transfer window as recent failures show

Posted on by Tony Attwood

 

 

Introductory note: there may be something wrong with that headline.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the minority owner, of what is supposed to be the biggest club in the kingdom, is said to be about to remove a further 200 staff roles at Old Trafford.  Which suggests something is seriously wrong at the club and has been for a long time.

Tottenham Hots have lost eight of their last 14 games and the only headline the Guardian can find about them today is “Levy’s second-class Tottenham Women mired in mediocrity.”   Which again suggests something is wrong and has been for a long time

The question therefore arises – why haven’t we been told about such awful failures for a long time.   And why has the big story this week been about Arsenal all week has been that the manager has utterly screwed up and that he has no idea about recruitment?

Of maybe people don’t look at a last six games table – although it is such an important little statistic because it actually does tell us something about form at the moment.

Now form is important because apparently Arsenal don’t have any players left – or at least certainly no centre forwards.  In fact we haven’t had any of those all season.  Or indeed last season.  Or the season before.   Just think what Arsenal could do with a centre-forward.  For with a centre forward instead of being in such a lowly position as second, we might even be, well, higher.

And yet, with all these injuries and no centre forward, and with everyone who could possibly be injured, being injured, Arsenal won yesterday.  But of course it was against a very minor team.

Still, let’s do what we often do at this time and check on the last six games table, just to get a view of how Arsenal are doing overall.   And let’s also include some of the other BIG clubs where, presumably, the manager has been getting it all ok, because they are a BIG club, and if only Arsenal had a manager like one of the BIG clubs, well, you know where we’d be.

 

Premier League Form (Last 6)
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Arsenal 6 4 2 0 13 5 +8 14
2 Manc City 6 4 1 1 20 9 +11 13
5 Liverpool 6 3 3 0 13 6 +7 12
12 Newcastle U 6 3 0 3 10 12 -2 9
13 Chelsea 6 2 2 2 9 11 -2 8
14 Manc Utd 6 2 1 3 7 10 -3 7
15 Tottenham Ho 6 1 1 4 9 11 -2 4

 

In fact, it seems that while the journalists were spending all their time looking at Tottenham, and writing wonderful admiring prose about how utterly gorgeous and stunning amazing Liverpool are, Liverpool have only managed to win half of their last six games.

But we all know that you can prove anything you like with statistics.   For example you could prove the earth is flat with statistics, although come to think of it I am not sure how one could do that.   But I am sure you could prove that the moon is only just out of arms reach and the Americans never visited the place.

As for football, and that business of picking six games – that is clearly irrelevant and picked just because Untold has been saying that not having a centre forward is not the end of the world, as everyone else has said, and does not prove that Arteta is a dumbo manager who should be removed at once.

Indeed, we are told, look at the last ten games and you would get a different picture…

.

Premier League Form (Last 10)
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Arsenal 10 7 3 0 22 7 +15 24
2 Liverpool 10 6 4 0 29 12 +17 22
4 Newcastle U 10 7 0 3 23 12 +11 21
6 Manc City 10 5 2 3 25 14 +11 17
12 Chelsea 10 3 3 4 12 16 -4 12
15 Manc Utd 10 3 1 6 11 19 -8 10
18 Tottenham Ho 10 2 1 7 20 22 -2 7

 

And yes how right you would be.  On the last ten games table, Tottenham are so utterly awful they are 18th – a relegation position.   They are, to put it another way, sinking.   But of course, the journalists, wanting to find something good to say would point out that in those last ten games, the Totts have scored 20 goals.   Two goals a game.  That is just two fewer than Arsenal, who are so utterly stupidly playing all their matches without even having a centre-forward.  So no wonder Tottenham are doing ok.  In 18th, across the lats 10 games.  It proves Arsenal really need a centre forward.

Here’s one final table.   A league table based on goals scored.   So the first column is where the clubs are on a “goals scored” table and the second is where the clubs actually are in terms of what really matters – points.   Arsenal as you can see are an absolute catastrophe.   On this manipulated count they are…. third.  As you can see Tottenham really are doing ok, and all this talk about playing like a relegation team is, well, just media fantasy.

 

GS Pos Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 1 Liverpool 24 17 6 1 58 23 35 57
2 4 Manchester C 25 13 5 7 52 35 17 44
3 2 Arsenal 25 15 8 2 51 22 29 53
4 15 Tottenham Hot 24 8 3 13 48 37 11 27
5 6 Chelsea 25 12 7 6 47 34 13 43
6 5 Bournemouth 25 12 7 6 44 29 15 43
7 11 Brentford 25 10 4 11 43 42 1 34
8 7 Newcastle Un 25 12 5 8 42 33 9 41
9 3 Nottingham Fo 25 14 5 6 41 29 12 47
10 8 Fulham 25 10 9 6 38 33 5 39

PS I think I maybe diddn”t quite get the headline right, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

 

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24 Replies to “Arsenal made a mess of the transfer window as recent failures show”

  1. I did have a chuckle yesterday when the TV commentator said something along the lines of “despite all the doom and gloom surrounding Arsenal at the moment” and then went on to talk about Nwaneri and MLS. And the logical follow one must therefore surmise is that the 18 clubs below them and all those in the Champions League playoffs must be positively suicidal (if that’s not a contradiction in terms?)

  2. Just for a bit of fun I thought I’d look at the performance of some of these top class centre forwards (you know, like we absolutely must have according to the scribblers). I decided to compare them all based on minutes per goal whilst playing as a forward in the league….some of you may already have guessed where I’m going with this one!

    Haaland 116 minutes per goal
    Salah 96 minutes per goal
    Isak 111 minutes per goal
    Wood 112 minutes per goal
    Watkins 158 minutes per goal

    Further afield we have:

    Lewandowski 92 minutes per goal
    Mbappe 113 minutes per goal
    Dembele 77 mins per goal
    Kane 77 minutes per goal

    And then, remembering these figures are all based minutes played as a forward, I thought I’d look closer to home, and what do we find?

    Yes, our very own Mikel Merino at 5 minutes per goal….or if you include added time, 7.5 minutes per goal (and he doesn’t even take penalties!).

    Now as people have alluded to before, you may be able to prove pretty much anything with statistics so I’m pretty sure this proves it’s everybody else who has a striker problem, not us LOL

    As I said, it was just a bit of fun….but how brilliant would it be if he kept these averages up for the rest of the season? Assuming he wasn’t injured or rested (or bizarrely red carded) I think 236 goals would get him the golden boot and probably win us the title!! 🙂

  3. Tony

    Talking of a number 9, you should of seen the garbage being talked in The Sun yesterday.

    It was their ever reliable Arsenal hating Troy Deeney, imparting his words of wisdom as to why we are so shite up front.

    Apparently our attempt to sign Watkins was a just a ruse to appease the fans. How he knows this he doesn’t say, but the reason he suggests is that we knew we had no chance of signing him as clubs wont sell such assets mid season, which begs the question why are we being criticised for not buying one?

    Then he goes on to tell us we should sign a player such as Isak at Newcastle but apparently we wont. And why wont we? Is it because:

    -For the last 2 seasons without one we’ve scored more goals than we’ve ever scored with

    -History shows having a ‘proper’ number nine such as Wright, Sheerer, Lineker, Kane, and indeed Isak and Watkins, is absolutely no guarantee of winning anything, let alone a title.

    Nope, he’s missed all that and suggests it’s because…wait for it………”Arteta is scared of stars like Isak”

    Yep Deeney reckons Arteta is scared of Isak.

    It if wasn’t so pathetically, insanely ridiculous it would be funny, but this shite purports itself to be serious football journalism. And not only that, some of our fans actually buy into that crap.

    Can you believe the garbage that comes out of this mans gob!!!

    And regarding the remarkable Isak and the difference he makes to a team, myself and Clerkenwell Gunner pointed out the following yesterday:

    “Meanwhile that 20 goals a season guaranteed goal machine Isak was nowhere to be seen as his black and white deckchair team got flattened 4-0 ”

    Well, this is what happens when you are too reliant on a ‘prolific number 9’.

    Actually, what you need is a prolific team.

    Newcastle scored 41 (GD +9)

    Arsenal scored 51 (GD +29)

    Despite rumours to the contrary it’s a team game.

    —

    And yes I know Liverpool with Salah are top and have scored 7 (possibly to be 10 after today) goals more than us, but given their easier fixtures and our injuries and red cards, I have no doubt we would be on a par, or at least much closer, had all things been equal. And anyway, the point is, it’s not that having a 20+ number 9 cant be a good thing, of course it can be, it’s that it’s not essential. There are other ways. That is the point

  4. Mikey

    Great stuff, and great minds and all that, because believe it or not I had the same thought as you, but considered it to be too ridiculous to make make something of, but you did, and as you say, great fun.

    But the thing is Mike, as I was replying to you I thought, what you are saying in complete jest actually has as much credibility as what Troy Deeney said yesterday in total sincerity.

    In fact, at least what you wrote is actually factual, where as what Deeney wrote was a load of complete and utter made up bollocks.

    Anyway, nice one,

  5. Arsenal ladies kick off against the Spuds in the Women’s Super League at 12.30pm its on BBC2 live.

  10. Half time 2-0.
    Nice to see Saka in the crowd supporting the ladies. Some of our girls wouldn’t look out of place helping out the men during the current injury crisis.
    Off topic but I saw Myles Lewis Skelly’s mother being interviewed, what an articulate classy women she is, unlike all those clueless and classless pundits who criticize her son for getting above his station and being disrespectful.
    There is no chance Myles would ever be allowed to become too big for his boots whilst she has a say in the matter.

  21. The commentator is ‘disappointed’ Arsenal didn’t win by more than 5 goals to nil.

    They just cant help themselves can they.

  22. Kanote does a pull on the Wolves player.

    By the letter of the law an Automatic yellow.

    Immediately kicks the ball away.

    By the letter of the law an Automatic yellow.

    Gets ONE yellow.

    Seems only Arsenal have toface The Letter Of the Law.

  23. Oh what joy to see The pigmob in it’s full glory at Anfield.

    Bent doesn’t even begin to describe what’s going on at Anfield today.

  24. Bet some of those ‘in the know’ types are running the rule over one or more of our younglings , and tipping them to get promoted to CF . Pronto !
    Is there a rule saying that one of our woman players cannot be loaned to the men’s team , as this does constitute an emergency ? A woman can do a men’s job !
    I mean another club has broken ( allegedly ) 115 rules , can we not break one ? Please , pretty please ?

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