by Tony Attwood
Now I may have miscounted, but it seems to me there is only one Arsenal player in the top 37 scorers in the Premier League this season. Just one.
Which is normally the cue for bloggers and journalists to start demanding that a) Arsenal need to buy more goal scorers, b) Arsenal need a new manager who knows how to recruit and use goal scorers.
Of course, such journalistic outpourings can be halted by journalists taking a quick glance at the league table, which highlights goals scored. This shows Arsenal slipping down to second place, although still five goals above the third-placed club in terms of goals scoring compared with being 14 points above the team in third placed team when measured in the conventional “points gained” method.
Here’s the top of the table by goals scored….
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Manchester City | 35 | 22 | 8 | 5 | 72 | 32 | 40 | 74 |
| 1 | Arsenal | 36 | 24 | 7 | 5 | 68 | 26 | 42 | 79 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 36 | 18 | 11 | 7 | 63 | 48 | 15 | 65 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 36 | 17 | 8 | 11 | 60 | 48 | 12 | 59 |
Now I suppose the reason this is never published, nor indeed mentioned (although I guess I may have missed an article since I don’t read every newspaper every day) is that it shows just how good Arsenal have been on a much lower budget than Manc.
And the fact is that Arsenal are the second-highest scoring team in the league, only four goals behind the club with the top individual goal scorer in the league. And yet Arsenal do not have a single player listed in the top 31 goal scorers in the Premier League this season. But at the same time Arsenal are top of the league on points and second in the league if measured by goals scored. All without a goalscorer in the top 31!!!!!
The fact is, of course, that Arsenal has, this season, adopted a different tactic from that of having the recognised goal scorer that so many bloggers and journalists were demanding that Arsenal should sign. For Arteta and co recognised what correspondents could not see, that there is an alternative approach to having the number nine who could score 20 goals a season. That is having half a dozen players who could each score a more modest number of goals, but whose goals together would exceed the total of virtually every other club.
And I thought I would bring this up now, not just to say that I was right – Arsenal didn’t need to buy a recognised goal scorer, which so many other correspondents seemed to be demanding. For they could be better off than virtually every other club by having a variety of goal scorers.
Arsenal’s top scorer is Viktor Gyökeres with 14 goals in the Premier League, 12 goals behind the leading goal scorer. Four players have scored more than Viktor has, two from Manchester City, and one each from Brentford and Chelsea.
Now that little list alone is enough to suggest that having a top scorer doesn’t take the club to the top of the league. But here is something a bit strange, because Arsenal are the second-highest goal scorers in the League this season.
Could that be because Arsenal have two players knocking in a large number of goals? Well, actually no, because Arsenal’s next highest goal scorers are each on seven goals and there are 32 players who this season have scored more than seven goals each.
Yet Arsenal have scored 68 league goals this season, just four fewer than Manchester City, with their top two league goal scorers. In fact Arsenal’s top scorer is 12 goals behind ManCs top goal scorer.
So how can a club have the second-highest number of goals scored in a season (so far) and be just four goals behind the highest scoring team this season, when at the same time their top scorer has scored 12 goals fewer than the top scoring player for the season?
The answer is two-fold. First, Arsenal do have a goal scorer: Viktor Gyökeres with 14. But Arsenal also have a range of other goal scorers – far more than other clubs in fact.
Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka each have seven league goals. Trossard has six, and after that, the numbers just mount up. Trossard has six, Zubemendi has five, Merino and Rice have four each… and I am only counting league goals here.
The fact is that journalists like simplicity because they tend to think their readers are a bit dumb and have attention spans of only a few moments. So they go for simple ideas – like Arsenal need a goal scorer. But they don’t look at alternatives to having just one goal scorer who gets most of the goals, but who might just get injured.
And this is often how it is. Journalists point out very simple issues, but leave the complex underlying issues unreported. Having a top goal scorer can be highly beneficial, of course… unless he gets injured. Having a multiplicity of goal scorers works better since it offers protection against injuries – and indeed against any referee bias that one might spot
Thankfully, Arteta either doesn’t read the newspapers or else reads them and does the opposite. Whichever it is it has, for the moment at least, taken Arsenal above ManC while spending far less on transfers.
I agree we just about have enough to win games, BUT! Where’s the excitement of a goal scorer, where’s the Henry type scare factor to scare the opposition?
Could Arsenal improve even more with an additional out and out goal scorer. The answer is Yes. It’s about improving to a level of world class football.
You are correct that we may not “need” a 20 goal plus striker, with our sharing of goals from set pieces and the likes,
But who cares about having just enough. We should always look to up grade and improve on what we have, and we need improving on the left wing and upfront to add world class greatness to this better than average team of goals scorers and tactical defensive play.
Our left wing has been ok, our striker options have also been ok, but not great and not world class, but instead of accepting that, let’s be Terry Henry brilliant up front, or Robert Pires, Mark Over Mars brilliant on the left.
What we need is to be the same next year for team contributed goals ( nothing wrong with that), but what we want is more Saka type players in the team.
We want more than just Saka scaring the opposition to death with his goal threats and the other players just chipping in with the goals.
Arsenal have not had that scare factor for a long time, and every time Arsenal play their is that element of doubt, even against teams like Bournmouth etc. who we should be laughing at and battering to death with goals galore.
But even Bournmouth are not scared of us, because we don’t have that world class goal threat apart from Saka and they all mark him out with a minimum of two defenders on his back all the time.
Can you imagine PSG or Bayern Munich playing and loosing against Bournemouth, no never!
So why do we get nervous when Arsenals play the likes of Bournemouth?
It’s because we don’t have that same scare factor as PSG or Bayern, and because we don’t have those brilliant individual goal scorers that we still need (for that confidence and for that scare factor that’s missing)
All we have that’s scary is Saka!. We need some Mbappe, Haaland, Vinicius Junior type players, you know those goal scoring scary type forwards in our team for next season, to bring back that scare factor to finish teams off 3 or 4 goals, not just one nil to the Arsenal and hold on to the one nil lead whilst being frightened.
I mean, sideways and backwards passing in the hope that someone will get the important goal, is not the Arsenal we are looking for.
Just my opinion. Bring back the Henry Bergkamp excitement days, not the one nil to the Arsenal and hold on to the (nail biting) lead heart attack watching days. IMO.
Need an Mbappe or Haaland type goal scorer and a victor junior type left winger to both keep up with the goal threat of Saka, to actually put fear to teams like Bayern, PSG and of course the not afraid to have a go at us, Bournmouth!
We are a top team for multiple reasons: solid attack, top ball retention, top pressing, great defenders…but control games but we do not dominate often. We do not have a world class striker…we have a very good striker. We have Rice but our midfield could improve and our left side is average.
daveg : are you saying we need a halaand that can out haaland the real haaland? because our team is doing better than haaaland (sememyo) lead city.
we don’t need a center forward, we would like one, but that’s completely a luxury. the next side needs adjustment to match the right side, and in that regard I am all for the right purchase for the club, financially and playing wise.
we need another midfielder plus a right back, just that, those are our needs.. 3 players.
one more point, I find it amazing that people will say, 1)guardiola is the one of the greatest managers of all time, 2) arsenal has no world class players .
3) arteta is making too many mistakes with team selection etc
if the first two are correct then due is to be where we are over the past 3 session and this one, then the the third must be that arteta is a football coaching God. but if that is not true then which one if the first 2 is false?
coyg
If Saka, Havertz, Odegaard and Timber hadn’t missed significant time through injury we wouldn’t be having this conversation because AFC would have out scored City. If Haaland missed significant time through injury we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
@Daveg,
another striker ? So that they can mow him down, and he is out for 10+ games like Saka ?
Right now, the season shows that squad depth is more important then an individual player.
Without it, we’d not be looking at a double. Everytime a player was hurt, another player stepped up.
And as far as we can see there was no drama like in so many other teams.
Furthermoremore, one thing we see is that the there are players coming up from the Academy who look like the real deal.
Henry the day he came was not Henry the day he left…. he was coached, trained, nurtured. Do you beleive Gyokeres will stay at that number next year ? Or Havertz ?
If I am not mistaken, PSG scored 71 goals so far in Ligue 1….Arsenal 68…. ad we are taling about the PL level. So for all these experts expecting PSG to rout us… let them fantasize.
I think that once we get over this season with significant wins , the entire attitude would change . That we go on and play with the attacking freedom and panache that was ours once . To get to the promised land we win all our next games. We already have the squad depth , a few smart buys and we will keep on challenging .
Up the Gunners !
All I am saying is that we need to improve each year because other teams will.
Just because we may win the league, doesn’t mean our team is complete and dominating games.
Leicester City won the league, would you have said they were complete?
Keep Gyokeres, get rid of the average injury crocks in Havertz and Jesus and buy the next Mbappe that doesn’t keep getting injured.
Improve on the average left wing side to match our brilliant right side.
Get another back up defensive midfielder and a back up right full back to replace the inconsistent and injury prone White.
Don’t be another Leicester City, our defensive brilliance has kept us in many games where we should have lost. Time is now to improve our ordinary injury prone attack, and step it up a level for next year Like Leicester we won’t get lucky again in the hope that our defence will bail us out every time. There were many games we should have lost but came away with a marginal win or draw. Don’t be in denial. We need to step it up, improve on our average departments and dominate the likes of Bournemouth. Also every time you mention league position, I will mention Leicester and every time you mention beating Europes elite, I will mention Bournemouth. IMO.
‘The likes of Bournemouth’ – the same Bournemouth that HAVE NOT LOST IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE FOR FOUR MONTHS, not lost to a top 5 team in 2026, and have every chance of beating Man City next Tuesday?!
‘The likes of Leicester’ – so daveg thinks Leicester’s Premier League title was legitimate?! I think that gives away what kind of Arsenal ‘supporter’ he is: another one who parrots what the mainstream media tell him to think about football and Arsenal…
Arsenal have played with a multiple goalscorer model for FOUR seasons and STILL people don’t understand how and why we do it, let alone ask themselves WHY Arsenal players a) get injured (including ‘crocks’ like Havertz) and b) get so few penalties despite being infringed in the opposition penalty area so often, at the hands of PGMOL referees!!
Also, nobody is denying that we will look to improve the squad in the summer, but signing another striker will make negligible difference due to the reasons stated above! If anyone is in denial, it is daveg…
Vikrant Dobra,
You sound more like a Bournmouth supporter than an Arsenal supporter, and you are arguing for the sake of gas lighting like many false Arsenal supporters.
Even in your argument you agreed with me in the end that we need to improve yet you think the one area that all true Arsenal supporters wanted to improve on was our 20 goal consistent striker issue, yet you are one of a minority that think we should keep our back up strikers in Jesus and Havertz. I did say to keep Gyokeres, but we can see that you missed that sentence.
I only said to get rid of the back up players that keep getting injured, not our first 11. I even think we should keep Trossard but improve on our back up Martinelli and White.
Back up players are not good enough as our main starting 11, but although we can keep our first 11 even if they get injured, the back up players should not be kept if they keep getting injured, because they are not good enough to keep as crocks.
Try and read the statements carefully before making gas lighting comments like your favourite Arsenal hating media. Also don’t be in denial that you are a true Bournemouth fan, because nothing you said supports Arsenal and the fans comments over the past about wanting Arsenal to improve on it’s back up strikers.
I have never Gas lighted a fellow fan before for wanting Arsenal to improve. My comments was just my opinion as an Arsenal season ticket holder and true fan for 65 years.
You should Never Gas light a fan that only mentions wanting his team to improve. Gas lighting is for the pretending fan ( in your case a Bournmouth fan or A wipe Arsenal hating media fan) and the small minded fan that can’t read and just has an unwarranted high opinion of his offensive comments and arguments with many holes that it makes no sense when it contradicts it self in it’s last sentence. IMO from a true season holder fan.
@daveg,
I respectfully disagree with any comparison with Leicester. by the way, may I remind you that Arsenal was the only team who beat them twice. And I can’t remember the number of penalties they got from Vardy running into the box and falling each time someone looked at him. That comparison is, IMHO insulting to the Arsenal team and project.
As for complaining about injured players, it is like wanting to get revenge on the flames burning down a building and forgetting the arsonist. The level of physical abuse the Arsenal players have been subjected to over the years with absolutely NO protection and pretty much no sanction in the perpetrators is documented and part of some opponents strategies. How dare you label them as ‘injury crocks’ ? Why don’t you go to the Emirates and tell them that straight to their face insteady of cowardly insulting them in the anonymous online space ?
Finally I find it gutting that you. who want to sound like a fan of Arsenal, instead of ENJOYING these weeks, emotions, possibilities, games, exploits are here just finger-pointing individual players and describing them disrespectfully. I suggest you move to websites of other clubs. You are the typical caricatural so-called Arsenal fan, never happy, always negative, accusing others and always arguing negatively, ready to break the team, wanting to look like the expert-who-knows-all. Why don’t you just do us all a favor and bugger-off to some other club ?