It is more than likely that Arsenal’s new players are taking a while to adjust to the ways of English officials

 

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By Tony Attwood

As you might well have realised, one of the prime driving forcesof this site is that the media not only omits some important news from its daily coverage, but it also by not running most stats it is able to manipulate the football news to its own benefit.  The aim is simple: to ensure that the readers don’t just believe what the media says, but that readers also believe that the football news in the mass media is all the news there is, with nothing left behind

Take for example, this statement from the Guardian today.  “Arsenal have improved their squad in all the right areas, but must now cope with the pressure of having improved their squad in all the right areas.”

That statement and indeed the rest of the article make no mention of the fact that the dominant factor last season for Arsenal was the fact that the club suffered a catastrophic run of injuries last season, getting 28% more injuries than their nearest rival in the injury table.   Once that issue is factored into the equation, it becomes clear what Arsenal are really doing, which is buying enough players so that they can cope with being top of the injury league again – something that arises because of the lack of protection offered by referees.

Factor in this issue, and it becomes clear that it is obviously harder for Arsenal to bring in players who don’t fancy being chopped to bits match after match without much more being done than a finger being wagged at the opposition player.

And although the media won’t cover this, the fact is that so far this season in League games, Arsenal have been fouled 14% more than last season, a clear indication that the opposition are thinking, “we nullified them last season with injuries, let’s see what we can do this year.”

But of course, Arsenal don’t just sit back and accept that; Arsenal are also changing, although it inevitably takes us a few games to see what is happening.  

Obviously, there is a danger with measuring the club over just three games, and we have to take this approach with some caution, but nevertheless, we can begin to get some ideas of what is happening.  Here are Arsenal’s figures in recent seasons

 

Season	Shots pg	Shots OT pg	Dribbles pg	Fouled pg
2025/26	12.7	3	8	9.3
2024/25	14.4	4.9	8.4	10.7
2023/24	17.3	6	7.4	10.4
2022/23	15.6	5.4	9.4	11.4

 

First and most obviously, the number of shots which reached a high in 2023/24 is now running at 73% of what we were seeing last season.   But this is not as disastrous as it sounds, because in the opening three games of 2024//25 Arsenal scored five goals and conceded one.  This season it is six scored and one conceded.

No, what actually is changing is that the number of shots per game across the opening three games is half of what we saw in 2023/24.   And there is a point in this in that it has been achieved with a very similar goals scored total, and in both cases just one conceded.

Of course, the level of shots per game is going to be affected by the clubs played.   This season it has been Manchester United, Leeds and Liverpool.  Last season it was Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Brighton.  So clearly a much tougher start this season.   And that too is part of the explanation of fewer shots.

But Arsenal have also managed to get themselves fouled less often.  Not a huge amount less, but continuing the general trend of a decline in the number of times they have been fouled.   And this is essential if the club is going to escape from this constant round of long-term injuries, which are often caused by fouls.   And yes, of course, I accept that not every injury comes from a foul, but reducing fouls against the team is just about the only thing a club can do in this regard.

The level of fouls against Arsenal players is around 18.4% lower than it was in 2022/23 and although this does not measure the severity of the fouls, it clearly is a step in the right direction.

And in a more intriguing development, Arsenal’s approach to home and away games seems once again to be quite different.

This season our possession at home is 67.5% but away is 43%.   Last season the home and away possession were within 0.8% of each other (57.5% at home and 56.7% away).   

Team	Yellow PG	Possession%	Pass%
Home	0	67.5	91.7
Away	3	43.0	78.5

Last season

Team	Yellow PG	Possession%	Pass%
Home	1.63	57.5	87.8
Away	1.79	56.7	86.4

 

I suspect what this probably means is that many of our new players are taking a while to adjust to the oddities of the different ways PGMO referees react to home and away teams.  And of course, we are only measuring one home game against two away games.  But early indications are that Arsenal might well be adopting one style of play at home and another away, to cope with the different refereeing standards – and that our new players are taking a while to adjust to the way PGMO does things.