Gabriel Jesus 5 goals, 5 assists
Leandro Trossard 8 goals, 8 assists
Granit Xhaka 4 goals, 5 assists
The Øde 10 goals, 6 assists
Bukayo 12 goals, 10 assists
These are the current player stats for PL games only. It’s remarkable. No other team comes even close to having such a fine balance between goal scorers and assist makers (all in one person) in the PL.
Only 🌗 half moon face Kane (23) and Berserker Haaland (33) have more combined goals and assists than Saka. But they score many more goals than they produce assists. They are typically selfish CFs. Goal machines of whom their teams depend, and a bad day of the office can cost them dearly. Yet Saka delivers in almost evet game, and for me he is the Best Player in the PL.
I think it’s revolutionary how Arteta has changed the team into a goals-from-anywhere/anybody team.
Arsenal have become almost totally unpredictable and robust. And when our main CF, Jesus, became seriously injured the team absorbed the loss instantly. His replacements, firstly Eddie and then Trossard, did a great job, but it was the collective sense of responsibility and ability of the team which really kept us going, and that’s why we are still within distance of Man City’s incredible, Haaland-power-fed goal difference.
Goals and assists are every midfielder and attacker, and even defender’s, responsibility. And that’s a main driver behind our current success.
Ooh to be a Gooner.
By TotalArsenal
Bergkampesque 
Just coming from the previous thread.
GN5, you did not state your predicted scoreline for the England v Ukraine game.
Kev, Lol. Sometimes, one gets lucky; the rub of the green. Hope we get a photo finish this season, where everyone wins. 😉
It’s amazing to view those stats, TA; and to think you left out Gabby Martinelli from that grouping. He is also into double figures for goals and not bad on the assists front either.
No team comes close, for sure. Many fans feared the worst when GJ9 was injured long term but against all odds, the team is still in control and top of the league, going into another international window.
Ooh to be a Gooner!
Yes Eris, Martinelli also plays a big role.
Thanks Total. Mahrez comes pretty close: 12 goals, 7 assists, but that’s in all comp’s. Salah: 11 and 7 in the EPL is a useful comparison. Our Starboy is shining in a pretty impressive firmament.
Nice TA, this brings me think which I have been saying for long. Jesus may be the best signing we have done in Arteta time but it’s the system and coaching that makes this team much more transformational. Jesus’s absence and yet the team performing at the same level, finding solutions is exceptional. What needs to be clearly said is that any other team losing their main striker would be disaster. Take Spurs and imagine without Kane where would they be. So kudos to Arteta, coaching staff and the whole squad to where we are.
This is yet again a stark remainder to everyone that in a team sport individuals should not matter, its the team that matters. No prima donna s but all hard honest workers who work towards a single goal and for each other. Kudos to Arteta and his actions against Ozil, auba etc which has vindicated beyond any arguement. In a team sport Sum af parts is always greater than the whole.
Thanks Eris here it is:-
England v Ukraine * H (2-0)
Yes Stu, these are just the odd players in a team, but we have half a team doing it. It’s just remarkable!
Well summarised, Madhu.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/24/an-ode-to-mesut-ozil-the-frictionless-footballer-not-designed-for-the-age-of-rage
Fine article, Total. Love the “…wide eyed ghost…” line.
Bukayu was majestic against Italy in what was a very good game of football. Interesting to see the English employing the dark arts of time wasting, something the Italians once held as a sacred tactic of their own.
Dutch getting their botties spanked by LG’s mob.
My overriding feeling towards Mesut Ozil will be one of a sense of feeling cheated, that he never really left everything on the pitch and I saythat because there were games when he did, when he did show you what he was capable of but those occasions were for me fleeting, that’s why I’ll never consider him a legend, he was just another good player passing through but was never really an Arsenal man…
Total, you have mail, hope it helps.
From J.Bird
Auston Trusty made his international debut and got an assist in USA’s 7-1 win against Grenada. Matt Turner also pla… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 8 hours ago
From J.Bird
Ethan Nwaneri scored a brace again for England U17s v Northern Ireland. 2 hours ago
We need to push out the boat to keep this boy!
That Guardian article did Ozil dirty so, it is fair to say he wasn’t the writers favourite player (and neither was Arsenal the writer’s favourite club). The Guardian loves nothing more than to tear down our club, its ideals and to accentuate its failings.
Mesut Ozil may not be many people’s cup of tea but his arrival excited the fan base and players to raise their game a level. I feel his biggest negative is (was?) his inability to be in for the fight. That’s where, like Kev, I felt cheated with Ozil. How can you have a footballer who ducks out aerial duels regularly, looking so fragile as he does so? He won’t go into 50-50s either and would have his shoulder drop the minute things looked hopeless (as against the current side who score last minute goals).
However, when he is on song, Ozil purrs and goes about things effortlessly gliding past markers and giving the right pass, at the right weight and at the right timing. That’s a rare skill. I’d say Odegaard is everything Ozil had but with some physicality and a furious pressing ability; not to speak of his goals.
I won’t rank Ozil an Arsenal legend, but he wasn’t too far down the rungs of the ladder/scale for measuring those. His goals and assists, when you see them as a reel, just makes you appreciate the man more. No one else scores one-on-ones like he does; deliberately disguising his shot as if hitting the ball into the turf so it goes over a sprawling keeper. I had to check a few of those to realize it was a skill he alone probably dared employ.
Godspeed, Mesut.
Oh, and he backed us to win the title. That means a lot to me….and I hope every Gooner.
New Post 🙂