By Bulldog Drummond
Arsenal, according to the media, don’t have a chance. Not now, not in the future. No one realises that Arsenal’s away form and Tottenham’s home form are virtually the same. It is all doom and gloom.
“Gilberto Silva claims things ‘would be different’ at Arsenal if Wenger hadn’t sold £18m man” announces Giroud, and of course things might have been different. But Giroud is a complex character as his figures show… This data covers his time at Arsenal…
| Season | Games | Goals | Average games per goal |
| 2012–13 | 47 | 17 | 2.76 |
| 2013–14 | 51 | 22 | 2.32 |
| 2014–15 | 36 | 19 | 1.89 |
| 2015–16 | 53 | 24 | 2.21 |
| 2016–17 | 40 | 16 | 2.5 |
| 2017–18 | 26 | 7 | 3.71 |
This table shows how many games it took Giroud to score a goal each season. He’d got better and better to 2014/15 and then it started to slip away again.
So what about at Chelsea:
| Season | Games | Goals | Average games per goal |
| 2017–18 | 18 | 5 | 3.6 |
| 2018–19 | 45 | 13 | 3.46 |
| 2019–20 | 25 | 10 | 2.5 |
| 2020–21 | 10 | 6 | 1.66 |
The issue isn’t in the goals per game, but that number combined with the number of games. Chelsea can afford to have players who hardly play in the squad – which is what he was last year. They have the billions and billions to pay the salary. But to get to this season’s total – which is excellent – he had to go through two seasons where he was simply not doing his job. If he had stayed at Arsenal everyone (fans, journalists, TV people) would have been on his back for how rarely he scored.
It has taken him ten years in England to get to this season’s form.
We had too many foreign players this year and had to have two of them sit out the season while being paid. If Giroud had come in we would have had to drop or sell another. Then maybe he would have dropped to 1.66 games for a goal, maybe not. It was a gamble Chelsea were willing to take, but it was a big financial gamble of the type only they and Man C can afford.
Some might have suggested dropping Pepe this season for Giroud, but watching him in the last couple of games I am rather pleased we didn’t. Beside we have Martinelli coming through.
And there is another thing – some Arsenal fans, endlessly egged on by this sort of stuff in the media, have become endlessly demanding about success NOW. I am not at all sure they would have put up with the drop off by Giroud in order to allow him to return with better figures.
And the reason is the endless knocking. Such as
Arsenal players in ‘angry’ training ground showdown ahead of Tottenham clash (
And the source of that is ESPN whose source is… well you know it goes on and on. The ESPN report adds a “stormy and intense” second discussion took place between players once coaching staff had departed. But actually what the headlines don’t say is that even these raging pieces concede that “The player-only talks started with blame being laid on certain stars but it is believed they ended with the squad on the same page, with a renewed desire to back Arteta.”
Arteta’s job could be in danger if Arsenal are ‘humiliated’ by Spurs, says pundit (
That is on the Talk Sport web site and is written by Jo Moore about talkSPORT host Jason Cundy. So we have one Sprouter spouting forth and then it is reported as news by another spouter spouting on the blog of the same station. The media makes up a story and reports it as news. Would you believe it.
“Paul Merson makes grim prediction for Arsenal’s clash vs Tottenham”
The grim prediction is in the Netro. “I know what’s going to happen tomorrow, I’ll tell you what will happen, Arsenal will have the ball, they’ll pass it around and pass it around, won’t really hurt Tottenham, then Harry Kane will get the ball, Son will make a run, he’ll be in, they’ll score and they’ll win the football match.”
The Mirror tells us how awful Arsenal are with their youth team…
“Former Gunner Yunus Musah signed a contract extension with Valencia this week, taking him to 2026 with a €100m release clause.”A release clause means the club has to let the player go if someone offers that. But no one does. release clauses are always set ludicrously high. It tells us nothing, not least because there is no information on the release clauses in Arsenal’s players’ contracts with which to compare this utter tripe.
Twas ever thus. The team predictions will pop up next.
If Everything happens successfully for Arsenal in the North London big game Derby match at the New White Hart Lane today’s afternoon as planned by Mikel Arteta the Gunners manager and the Gunners themselves, then, Arsenal will beat Tottenham Hotspurs in the match and of course collect all the 3 points that will be at stake in the match.
Last night when I was browsing on the internet, I came across a predicted Tottenham and Arsenal starting XI lineups for the much talk about NLD big game match on Google as follows:
For Spurs:
Hart;
Alderweireld Dier Aurier Riguilon;
Sissoko Hejbjerb;
Son Ndombele Berjwijn;
Kane.
For Arsenal:
Leno;
Gabriel David Luiz Holding
Tierney Bellerin; (For a back-five?)
Partey Elneny; (For DMs?)
Willian Aubameyang Saka;.
My own ideal Arsenal starts for Spurs:
Starts:
Leno;
Bellerin Holding Gabriel Tierney;
Partey Elneny Xhaka;
Saka Lacazette Aubameyang.
Subs:
Runarsson Soares Mustafi Kolasinac AMN Willock Nketiah.
But will Arteta agree with me in my starts and bench of Arsenal for Spurs?
Well, us will find out later in the day when he makes known his starts and bench for the match. But David if Luiz hasn’t recover from his head injury for Arteta to start him, I don’t see Arteta making a change to my back-four for the match. But I wouldn’t he surprised if he decided to start Willian and Ceballos in the match. But all for do, Arsenal will in the PL today will beat Tottenham.
Sorry, I just want to make correctIons to the two typos in my posting.
Everything happens successfully for Arsenal in the North London big game Derby match at the New White Hart Lane today’s afternoon as planned by Mikel Arteta the Gunners manager and the Gunners themselves, then, Arsenal will beat Tottenham Hotspurs in the match and of course collect all the 3 points that will be at stake in the match.
Last night when I was browsing on the internet, I came across a predicted Tottenham and Arsenal starting XI lineups for the much talk about NLD big game match on Google as follows:
For Spurs:
Hart;
Alderweireld Dier Aurier Riguilon;
Sissoko Hejbjerb;
Son Ndombele Berjwijn;
Kane.
For Arsenal:
Leno;
Gabriel David Luiz Holding
Tierney Bellerin; (For a back-five?)
Partey Elneny; (For DMs?)
Willian Aubameyang Saka;.
My own ideal Arsenal starts for Spurs:
Starts:
Leno;
Bellerin Holding Gabriel Tierney;
Partey Elneny Xhaka;
Saka Lacazette Aubameyang.
Subs:
Runarsson Soares Mustafi Kolasinac AMN Willock Nketiah.
But will Arteta agree with me in my starts and bench of Arsenal for Spurs?
Well, us will find out later in the day when he makes known his starts and bench for the match. But if David Luiz hasn’t recover from his head injury for Arteta to start him, I don’t see Arteta making a change to my back-four for the match. But I wouldn’t he surprised if he decided to start Willian and Ceballos in the match. But all for do, Arsenal will in the PL today beat Tottenham.
My take on this is that collectively the media , players and management at epl were all given thorough football management lessons when Wenger appeared in the scene. All their outdated methods, which they thought were superior were thrown into the sewers. All of them had to adjust change adapt and most of all learn new things. Which for the English footballing world was very hard to take. That’s why they will use every opportunity to criticize Arsenal then and even now for obvious reasons. Many of the pundits snigger like little boys whenever Arsenal make an error and reinforce it by churning cliches.
Yes sadly Merson was right. That’s what happened. Don’t remember too many near misses. All rather comfortable – for them that is.
Seems like untold needs to get Merson for its predictive pieces. Sadly, he was 100% spot on