By Tony Attwood
I wouldn’t have guessed it but looking at the stats it seems that Arsenal had 62% of the possession and there were 10 goal attempts for each side. Arsenal had six on target to WHAM’s five.
But the most noticeable statistic I think is that West Ham fouled Arsenal 15 times, to Arsenal’s eight fouls. Quite rightly they had three players booked – it could have been a lot more.
As they said on the TV commentary, Chambers was something of a surprise – both in terms of his inclusion and in terms of his performance.
But there is something still very much not right with Aubameyang in my opinion. Although this was compensated for by Odegaard playing like two men at once.
I saw the comment written that In fact Chambers is the new Beckham judging by his crosses from the right, he certainly was something. It was a hell of a way to prove that it is possible to come back from the dead.
We’re not out of the race for sixth place yet, but every failure to pick up all three points makes it all that much harder…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 30 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 64 | 21 | 43 | 71 |
| 2 | Manchester United | 29 | 16 | 9 | 4 | 56 | 32 | 24 | 57 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 29 | 17 | 5 | 7 | 53 | 32 | 21 | 56 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 29 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 44 | 25 | 19 | 51 |
| 5 | West Ham United | 29 | 14 | 7 | 8 | 45 | 35 | 10 | 49 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 29 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 48 | 36 | 12 | 46 |
| 7 | Everton | 28 | 14 | 4 | 10 | 40 | 37 | 3 | 46 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 28 | 13 | 6 | 9 | 47 | 30 | 17 | 45 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 29 | 12 | 6 | 11 | 40 | 32 | 8 | 42 |
Four points behind Liverpool! doesn’t look too bad, and Tottenham could well be having one of their declines, but I am not sure about Everton.
It hasn’t done anything for our proud boast about having one of the best defences in the league, which we have been able to say all season; now are now seventh in the defensive league table.
Next up is Liverpool at home. Home or away doesn’t seem to be making any difference to us, so the question is can we beat Liverpool?
That’s the most positive thought I can leave you with. After the ludicrous international stoppage of matches, we play a Liverpool very much in decline, and as long as half of the Arsenal team are not crippled in the international matches we might stand a bit of a chance there…
Here’s the last table of the last six league games.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| 2 | Leicester City | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 13 |
| 3 | Manchester Utd | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 12 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 12 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 11 |
| 6 | WHAM | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 10 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hots | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 9 |
| 8 | Everton | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 9 |
| 9 | Wolverhampton W | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 8 |
| 10 | Crystal Palace | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 8 |
| 11 | Brighton & Hove | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 12 | Leeds United | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| 13 | Burnley | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 7 |
| 14 | Fulham | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 7 |
| 15 | Aston Villa | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 6 |
| 16 | West Brom | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 6 |
| 17 | Liverpool | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 6 |
| 18 | Southampton | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 12 | -6 | 4 |
| 19 | Newcastle United | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | -7 | 3 |
| 20 | Sheffield United | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 13 | -12 | 3 |
Phew. A glass of wine is called for I think.
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Chambers is no surprise to me. I’ve always seen him as the next Beckham. Well, maybe not the next Beckham, but I’ve always rated him extremely highly. Great to see him play so well.
As for Auba, you’re right, something not quite right. So pleased it was he and not Laca taken off by Arteta because that would of been unfair. As it was it seems Arteta could see what everyone else could see.
As for that 35 minutes ? God only knows.
When Calum Chambers first played for Arsenal he was played at right back and won a few England caps in that position .
It was in a defeat at Swansea where we took the lead that Calum Chambers was roasted most of the second half after Swansea brought on a South American player ( can’t remember his name ) Calum Chambers had no help at all during that second half and really lost his confidence , the South American player never produced a better game for Swansea .
I think it was at the end of that season he was loaned out .
@Steve, I think the guy you have in mind is Jefferson Montero. I think Bellerin felt his wrath more.
In other news Man utd getting beat by Leicester
@ Arome
Thanks , your right , it’s an age thing .
0T
Kane has just “won” a penalty by cheating. Not a surprise. Abetted by the great Mike Dean.
Even G Neville called it correctly, but stopped short of referring to it as cheating.
OT – Spurs being gifted points by Dancing Dean. Kane jumps over the ball into the path of Villa’s Cash to get Dean pointing to the spot. VAR eating burgers in Stockley Park. Poison dwarf Neville says it like he sees it and states that the wiley forward ‘won’ the penalty.
Right now Arsenal are carrying more center backs than midfielders. They have Pablo Mari, Rob Holding, David Luiz, Gabriel, Calum Chambers, Konstantinos Mavropanos (on loan to Stutgart) and William Saliba (on loan to Nice). No one carries 7 center backs. On top of it, half the transfer rumors are the Gunners signing another center back.
The Gunners should Carry four at most, with Chambers one of them, as he can cover right back, center back, and holding midfield. The focus for the transfer window should be central midfield, attacking midfield, and goalkeeper.
Ideally, the Gunners would sign Marcel Sabitzer, find a way to keep Martin Odegaard; because the Arsenal need goals from midfield the way most people need oxygen. They also need to sign a keeper who can challenge Leno, because the Gunners will not be a top four team with him as their keeper.
Most of our players played well , that is when they realised the game had started ! But Auba had another poor game by his standard . So I was not disappointed when he was subbed , even if he was the captain.
I truly love it when our fullback rake in the passes from the wings . The earlier the better , to catch them off guard. And most especially those to the far post. Bellerin has just recently rediscovered it again. I just hate when they run into cul de sacs at the corner flags.
That we made numerous chances , and forced them into unenforced errors was testimony of our attacking play. While a win would have been just , a point earned is not too bad for a great’s night’s play.
Up the Gunners !
JohnL
Kane’s ability to get these sort of penalty decisions is not cheating but ‘clever play’. The ability to initiate contact and make it look as though he is the victim is a valuable part of his skill set.
That appears to be the opinion of the ex pro pundits I have heard. I wonder if the players and managers of teams on the receiving end of his cheating view it in the same way.
Because he is England captain he is a protected species so he can do no wrong just the same as Shearer and Rooney before him.
Just for the record, in his last season (and if I remember correctly his last three seasons) in the Premier League Beckham wasn’t in the top ten in the Premiership for percentage cross completions……although the Romford Pele was!
On the Kane penalty; I seem to recall numerous pundits saying Lacazette shouldn’t have had a penalty last week because the ball had already gone. When Kane went down, the ball had actually gone out of play! I questioned this on MotD’s Facebook page and got absolutely hammered by Spuds fans! I think I touched a nerve 🙂
Mikey
Why would you get hammered by the Spurs fans as it isn’t really the validity of the penalty that is the main point here but rather the different interpretation and subsequent reactions of the pundits to the fact the ‘ball had gone’ and was out of play?
As you pointed out elsewhere we had a week of ‘Arsenal got away with one’ where as there is no such debate when it’s Kane.
So what were they so uppity about?
Mikey , I have looked at it a few times and I am not sure that Kane is actually on the pitch. It is close enough that it deserved inspection . That’s 6 this season so far.
That late free kick he ‘won’ against us last week was a blatant dive. He felt Gabriel’s contact a literally threw himself to the ground.
It’s cheating no more no less.
This point about him being’ clever’ is ridiculous because any muppet can throw himself to the ground, the thing you need is another muppet in black that buys it.
The fact the pundits are saying he’s ‘clever’ and ‘winning’ free kicks and penalties actually suggests the complete opposite because they/we can all see what he’s doing. It’s just pathetic the referees can’t.
Nitram – the referees see it but they are the creators of cheats and the false idea that these are great players. Then comes to International competition and red cards that make the whole sham visible to the blind.
Kane should have been red carded for his assault on Gabriel and nothing is mentioned in the unsporting press. They keep feeding the ignorant with fake fodder and glorify the PGMOL officiating. It will all come back to bite them in the bum.
Menace
I agree that 90% of the time they can see it but they just know what is expected of them and what will get them praise, or at least no criticism, and what will get them castigated by the media.
What would you do as a referee if you knew any remotely contentious decision you gave in Arsenal’s favour would see you pulled apart by SKY, MOTD and TalkSPORT etc. ? Following last week’s penalty what is Oliver, or any other ref for that matter, going to be inclined to do next time he faces a similar call for us? Give a penalty and get slaughtered by all and sundry or wave play on?
As I’ve said dozens of times, the media, with their agenda driven post match analysis of every incident, are effectively telling the referees how they want matches refereed, and letting them know just what to expect if they fail to comply.
@ Nitram
I actually got Spuds fans telling me that Laca’s wasn’t a penalty because he kicked their player when he swung his boot at the ball lmao
And Kane deliberately stepping across the player to ‘draw’ the foul was I suppose.
Whether Laca kicked him or not is irrelevant it was a late, above waste high, studs showing challenge. At the very least dangerous play, therefore a foul