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By Tony Attwood
There is a line in the Guardian’s preview of Arsenal for the season that says that “there remain concerns about a lack of creativity in the squad.”
There is no recognition that Arsenal were the third highest scorers in the league despite losing all three of their main target men to injury at different points in the season, having a total of 27 different injuries during the campaign (their nearest rival on that score being Brighton with 22), and despite being the third highest scorers in the league, having the best defence in the league, coming second in the league table and ending up five poionts and 14 goals clear of Chelsea in fourth. (A club which, incidentally, spent a quarter of a billion pounds more than Arsenal on transfer fees last summer).
It is of course, a journalistic game – plough through the statistics and find one that proves your point and then ignore all the rest. “If only” the implication is “the club had listened to this journalist, they could have done so much better.” But it invariably turns out the journalist is living in a fantasy land in which the majority of factors affecting the club can be ignored.
And all that is before we contemplate the fact that the club now has Max Dowman, who has taken Nwaneri’s record as the competition’s youngest ever player last season.
That is not to say that young Max might steal the headlines this coming season, but the two youngsters who have graduated before him will do so, And you neer know…
Last season, Arsenal used 25 players in Premier League matches – only three clubs used a smaller number (Liverpool, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest). This compares with 31 players for each of Manchester United and Tottenham Hots.
That does suggest that keeping a regular squad together, even when the club gets more major injuries than any other side, is a good thing. And there is another good thing: only seven teams had teams with younger average ages across the season than Arsenal. Which means that the experience and knowledge gained by those young players is going to be of use this season. The club is not full of older men coming to the end of their careers.
Now, although these are fairly simple issues to notice, they are a little too complex for the media, which is a shame because they will have a great impact on Arsenal this season, for in 2025/6 Arsenal will have a much deeper squad to choose from than in previous seasons. And given that Arsenal came second in the last three seasons, that is not a bad sign.
There is a line in the Guardian’s preview of Arsenal in the coming season that Martin Ødegaard was the first to admit that his performances last season lacked their usual sparkle, with a return of three league goals his lowest since he joined Arsenal. They also note that he was substituted 12 times, as he made his long and slow return t the team after being injured on (of course) “international duty”.
What could be happening now would be the talking up of Arsenal on the basis that they came second last season, had the best defence despite the injuries, had the third best attack and have now signed another attacking player, and they drew 14 games last season – some of which under normal circumstnaces (ie with only an average number of injuries) they surely would have won.
But those 14 drawn games are not mentioned – and yet self-evidently in each case a single goal would have given Arsenal another two points. So in fact, just six more goals – one in each of those six drawn matches could have given Arsenal the title. And likewise, just a slightly lower number of injuries, or some less severe injuries, could have done the trick. Two more goals each for Saka, Martinelli and Havertz, turning those draws into wins, and Arsenal would have been there.
And yet the journalist says, “There remain concerns about a lack of creativity in the squad.” One might be tempted to ask if that will be the same comment about Manchester City, who scored just three goals more than Arsenal across the whole league season. Or Chelsea, who scored five goals fewer. Or in fact all of the 17 clubs that each scored fewer goals than Arsenal, and had fewer injuries to their forward line than Arsenal, and conceded more goals than Arsenal.
The fact is that the media now depend on football fans not looking at the statistics, so the journalists can say anything they like. Or maybe we just need a little less creativity among the journalists.
