- The 13 players Arsenal are signing this summer
- Are some clubs still making illegal payments to parents
By Tony Attwood
So for much of the season, Arsenal have lost their entire forward line with injuries and just as they are coming back to fitness, we lose the back line. And yet Arsenal are the second highest scoring club in the league and have the best defence in the league.
And even though we all know the list it still looks utterly horrible. Gabriel got a hamstring issue, Timber had problems with his knee, Calafiori had already been damaged on international “duty” which of course is not a duty but a choice, while Ben White has a knee injury. And of Havertz there is no sign. Calafiori has a return date of later this month. Otherwise…
In effect we have had months of having lost the entire attack and how we seem to have lost the entire defence. It appears to be bonkers and bizarre and by and large it actually is.
But the point that seems lost on a lot of people is that DESPITE this run of injuries – which is not just a run of a lot of injuries but injuries coming in clusters around one part of the team – Arsenal are still second.
Can you imagine what anyone would have said if you had told them that Arsenal would be second at this stage of the season after this run of injuries? Not much probably as they would have been laughing.
What’s more, Arsenal are the second-highest goal scorers in the league and have the best defence in the league. Or if you want to put it another way Arsenal are 27 points ahead of Tottenham, although Tottenham do have a game in hand.
Of course, this doesn’t look good for the Real Mad game in a week’s time although before that we have a warm-up against Everton NewGround as I think they are now called – a team doing so badly they are actually below Tottenham in the League. (Everton incidentally have scored fewer goals at home than Arsenal have away, so with Saka back that could be fun).
In fact, although the media is already focussed on Arsenal’s patched defence being meandered through at will by Really Mad’s attack, our forthcoming league games are actually looking quite attractive… Everton, Brentford, Ipswich, Crystal Palace…. It could be a lot tougher.
There is of course the question of whether opposition clubs are now targetting Arsenal players with awful tackles, feeling that they are susceptible to injury but I doubt it, since to do so would primarily give a benefit to those teams who come along later. Although I still think there is a question about referees, but we will come back to that later.
But for the moment we really do need to focus on the League table and consider the fact that in spite of Arsenal having the worst injury record that we can recall in quite a few years the League table looks ok.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal 2025 | 30 | 17 | 10 | 3 | 55 | 25 | 30 | 61 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2024 | 30 | 21 | 5 | 4 | 72 | 24 | 48 | 68 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2023 | 30 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 72 | 29 | 43 | 73 |
| 5 | Arsenal 2022 | 30 | 17 | 3 | 10 | 45 | 36 | 9 | 54 |
| 10 | Arsenal 2021 | 30 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 40 | 35 | 5 | 42 |
The club is down of course on the last two seasons which can be put down totally to the injuries suffered in the attack – for the defence is in fact within a goal the best it has been at this stage across the last five years. And yes of course I know everyone is going on and on about not scoring as many goals as Liverpool – but here is a thought to remember….
Even with our team totally stripped apart by long-term injuries to senior players throughout the season, Arsenal have easily the second best goal difference in the League. Here’s the league table just in case you have not seen it of late…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 29 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 69 | 27 | 42 | 70 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 30 | 17 | 10 | 3 | 55 | 25 | 30 | 61 |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest | 30 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 50 | 35 | 15 | 57 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 29 | 14 | 7 | 8 | 53 | 37 | 16 | 49 |
| 5 | Manchester City | 29 | 14 | 6 | 9 | 55 | 40 | 15 | 48 |
| 14 | Tottenham Hotspur | 29 | 10 | 4 | 15 | 55 | 43 | 12 | 34 |
So maybe it isn’t quite so bad as some make out.
Thank you for pointing all that out again, although by and large, as you are well aware Tony, on here you are preaching to the converted.
As we have been pointing out, even with our drop in goals for this season due to all the injuries, our ‘goals for’ over the last 3 seasons, still dwarfs any other season we have had in modern football, including every season played with a ‘proper’ number 9. And as we all know, we have had some seriously PROPER number nines!! Even if they did all wear all manner of different numbers.
But to know these things you have to look at the numbers rather than listen to the numpties.
And talking of numbers, I nearly made a rash observation on yesterdays match, until Mikey put me right.
I, like the rest of the UK couldn’t watch the match on TV, and I never listen to commentary only, so all my info on the match came from a stats sight. By the end of the match I couldn’t help but notice that the referee that cant stop giving out cards had only given out 3 in total. 2 to Fulham and 1 to Arsenal. Blimey, a leopard can change his spots.
How wrong I was, and this is what can happen if you don’t check these things properly. What on the surface seemed like a change of behaviour from Brooks was in fact nothing of the sort.
As Mikey pointed out:
Arsenals ONE card was on the back of us committing just TWO fouls in the entire match. Those 2 fouls were as a result of 13 tackles (At least I think that’s bit is correct.”
Therefor 50% of our fouls ended up as a card. So actually not great and pretty standard for how we are punished.
We don’t tackle that much. When we do we don’t get overly punished with fouls. But when we do get called for a foul the referee’s simply cannot resist pulling out their cards.
Fulham’s TWO cards was on the back of them committing TEN fouls. Those 10 fouls were as a result of 16 tackles.
Therefor just 20% of their fouls ended up as a card.
So, Fulham were pulled up for 10 fouls from their 16 tackles. A much higher rate than us. But again, as is par for the course with nearly every other team, it takes much longer for the referee to issue a card.
Thanks to Mikey putting me straight, what I thought looked a reasonable performance form Brooks, was anything but.
I think biased, and inconsistent would sum him up perfectly, just as it does every other referee when it comes to Arsenal and cards.
Brooks performance can be well summarised by the fact that twice, when Arsenal players went down off the ball, he continued until the ball went out of play. When a Fulham player went down off the ball, he stopped play (it wasn’t a head injury either).
Also, as a side note… HAPPY St TOTTERINGHAM’S DAY!!
Still curious to hear what is happening with Newsnow?…
I’ve lodged my complaint (you can contact them by using their url with /contact added to the end) and would urge everyone else who uses them to as well.
Seems mad that they carried a banner (for months) proclaiming their support for journalism (Free Assange etc), and to this day advertise a subscription in order to help give misinformation ‘the red card’, yet ban statistical analysis based blogs. Something fishy is afoot!!