By Tony Attwood
You may recall – since I have mentioned it about 2000 times – last year the Guardian printed the comment that Arsenal had only two strikers who finished 2015/16 in double figures – in terms of goals.
I took exception to the “only” in that comment since it implied that most other clubs had at least three players in double figures. In fact only one did so (Southampton with three on 10 goals each), and four teams other than Arsenal had two players who got into double figures. Everyone else had just one player with 10+.
So I thought I would take a look at this season’s figures before the Guardian has a chance to dish out more malicious gossip.
Looking at Arsenal’s figures overall…
Alexis was the third highest goal scorer in the league, and of course he was our top scorer. He was also fifth highest assistant – or should that be assist maker. Or maybe assister. I’m not sure.
Granit Xhaka made the second highest number of passes in the league.
The player who played the highest number of minutes in the league for Arsenal was Alexis with 3223 minutes – but he was only 19th in the whole league. The player who spent the most time on the pitch was César Azpilicueta with 3420. Alexis was the only player in the league to appear in the top ten for the Premier League for both goals and assists.
Here’s the Arsenal list…
| Player | Goals | Assists | Passes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexis Sánchez | 24 | 10 | 1644 |
| Olivier Giroud | 12 | 3 | 369 |
| Theo Walcott | 10 | 2 | 538 |
| Mesut Özil | 8 | 9 | 2112 |
| Alex Iwobi | 3 | 3 | 896 |
| Santiago Cazorla | 2 | 2 | 561 |
| Laurent Koscielny | 2 | 1667 | |
| Shkodran Mustafi | 2 | 2 | 1564 |
| Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain | 2 | 7 | 774 |
| Danny Welbeck | 2 | 2 | 191 |
| Granit Xhaka | 2 | 2 | 2298 |
| Héctor Bellerín | 1 | 4 | 1392 |
| Calum Chambers | 1 | ||
| Lucas Pérez | 1 | ||
| Aaron Ramsey | 1 | 4 | 921 |
| Nacho Monreal | 1784 | ||
| Francis Coquelin | 1180 |
I can’t find the details for Chambers and Lucas to complete their time on the pitch.
So now on to the all important double figure list showing how many players made it into double figures for goals this season in the league.
- Liverpool: 3
- Arsenal: 3
- Tottenham: 3
- Chelsea: 2
- Manchester United: 1
- Manchester City: 1
I am scouring the paper to see if there is an article that talks about the failure of Manchester City in only have one player in double figures. It doesn’t seem to have appeared yet.
Much was also made last summer about our inability to score, and the need to find a natural predator. And yet when we look at the table we were not massively off. Here is the table in order of goals scored.
In fact we were just nine goals short of Tottenham across the whole season. One more goal in every four games would have made us top scorers. In fact it was the defence that was the problem – we conceded 11 more than Chelsea who of course won the league.
Chelsea were of course a long way ahead of us – no one tries to hide that, but the fact is that they had no European games this season, just as with Leicester last season. All the main teams have Europe next season, so if the pattern is to continue it will be another outsider who emerges.
Last a curious table from the Telegraph – curious in the sense that at least at the time of writing, the layout on line is a horrible muddle, and curious in the sense that it is the sort of thing that Untold normally does and everyone else ignores.
How much did it cost each team in wages for every point achieved.
| Lge pos | Team | £m wages | £m per point |
| 4 | Liverpool | £166 | £2.2 |
| 1 | Chelsea | £218 | £2.3 |
| 5 | Arsenal | £200 | £2.7 |
| 20 | Sunderland | £68 | £2.8 |
| 3 | Manchester City | £225 | £2.9 |
| 6 | Manchester Utd | £221 | £3.2 |
In this table the most efficient team was Hull, spending £0.7m per point on wages. Mind you, they were relegated.
- Now it’s over, how did our players out on loan do?
- Get out of our club, get out of our club, Stan Kroenke, get out of our club – and Ferguson weighs in with support!
- Tony Adams does himself no favours as the Wenger, Wenger, Wenger fixation goes on.
I like believe that the manager and players did try their darnest best to bring some improvement, quality and success to the club, while fighting the good fight against some hereto yet unknown factors , situations and persons .
Most of all I’d like to thank the true Arsenal fans , especially the AKBs on here , who against great odds ( and insults ) stood firm in their faith in supporting the players , managers and the club. As I only read this blog, I probably better not comment about other ‘positive’ blogs or their band of followers.
That they didn’t ‘give a damn shit ‘ for all that unwanted and unsolicited advice of ex-players ,so called experts , commentators and reporters . The fact that all these morons were again proved so badly wrong and having failed in their attempts in trying to destabilise the players ,the manager and the club, is the united support of the true fans .
I do hope that the players , manager and hardcore fans are rewarded with FA cup this weekend.
Thank you guys , for a such a memorable season . More of the same next year , too !
Up the Gunners !
Brickfields I agree with you 100%, but then you know this. 🙂
Thanks Brickfields. I echo your comment & include the paymasters of the FA & the PGMOL, whom I thank for their subscription toward the entertainment. Without them there would be only one team taking all the trophies.
My sympathy goes out to all those affected by the attack in Manchester & everywhere else around the world when all they want to do is live a normal life. Praying for the safety of all who attend any joyous event including the FA Cup final this weekend.
Take care & remember there is always someone less fortunate that needs help.
The police should be held responsible for that Manchester Arena alleged one man suicide bomber bombing that killed scores of people and leaving many injured and had many maimed. Would the police with all their intelligence gathering and monitoring say they don’t know the danger of this kind of IS suicide killers are still very much around in the UK locking around the corners to unleashed their venom on peaceful abiding people and to have fished out this alleged suicide bomber and apprehended him before he denoted his explosive device? Where is the special police security checks 50 meters away from the Arena on people coming in into the Arena to watch the musical show? And where is the second police special anti-terrorist (using special bomb detection device technology) to run a check on every entrants entering the Arena?
The same scenario that happened last season may play out again next season whereby some top Gunners were late in returning for Arsenal opening season PL campaign due to their participation in regional tournaments of Euro 2016 and In the case of Sanchez, Copa America. Due to their playing agaist Chelsea this weekend in the FA Cup final, other than Chelsea and Man Utd, Arsenal players will lag behind other PL clubs by one week rest when the PL campaign begins next season. Will this affect them in their opening PL game next season as it affected them in this just closed season in their opening PL match at the Ems against Liverpool when they lost 3-4 to Liverpool? Well, I wouldn’t know. But if Arsenal had played that match with a full strength team, they may likely not have lost the match to Liverpool. A win for Arsenal in that match would have seen them qualified for the CL next season.
A fella on a music forum I frequent, commented yesterday that the big story was Arsenal dropping out the top four. This is not accurate. In my view, the big story of the season is Manchester United finishing sixth.
Having spent £157m since the end of last season and employed one of the biggest names in world football management, one could reasonably expect them to be challenging for the title. Given that they also top the wages per point list above, their league performance is nothing short of a complete embarrassment to the club and it’s fans.
Absolute, abject failure.
The only reason they aren’t being completely coated off in the press is 1/ The media has a hard-on for Mourinho and United generally, and 2/ They reached a European final. Should Ajax win that then their season is legitimately a complete disaster. No CL yet again, with the world’s most expensive player on your books and designs on individuals the calibre of Greizmann…not a good look is it? Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.
Despite Alexis’ apparent attitude issues throughout the season I’d still break the bank to keep him. Worth ten of Pogba in my view.
Shouldn’t the cost per point calculation include the amortised transfer cost of that player as it appears on the club’s books?
As pointed out Man Utd’s cost per point would look a great deal worse if it was included – as would everyone’s of course.
OT: Video content on Internet
Lots of places have video content on the Internet. Arsenal.com is one of them.
Firefox will start being hostile to Adobe flash at version 55. Flash should no longer be produced, and sites with flash content should be trying to move it to HTML5 (or others?).
OT: Corruption News
Former Barcelona man, Rosell, has been arrested on money laundering charges.
Homes of PSG players Di Maria and Pastore have been raided by French tax authorities. The home of Sala, who plays for Nantes, was also searched. Why hasn’t there been any news about the British part of this tax problem? Is The (sweet) FA sweeping this under the rug (again)?
In Ghana, Tony Yeboah is talking about referees demanding bribes when he owned a team (teams?) in Ghana.
The infant one is still in charge at FIFA. No more movement on the corruption front there.
Gord
It was reported on by the UK media weeks ago. West Ham & another team (N’castle?) were named.
Yes, and there was news about the same time about some raids in France. But since then, nothing. This news in France (Di Maria et al) is new.
No updates on new developments in UK media.
Gord – media only looking to sell headlines. Truth is not a big seller. Corruption is the fear of opening a can of worms. Exposing some of the wealthy with silent involvement makes media scared.
Samuel Akinsola Adebosin – Do not fall into the trap of blaming people you are not able to see. The Police are not claire voyants (nor selectively blind) but work on instruction when it comes to security. The incident was not predicted because of human failing to check exits & collection points.
It is areas that are wrongly assumed to be safe as post event exits allow people to flow & clear the auditoriums (stadia). It also happens at Arsenal. The post match flow of people is unhindered & the security is relaxed or ‘stood down’.
In my view, until the families of criminals/terrorists are included in punishment (with appropriate change in Law) nothing will be eradicated. Killing yourself does not excuse your family.