Bergkampesque

At the end of my last post, I asked supporters to support. That’s what my blog is about. I have no time for entitled, know it all fans who just expect Arsenal to make them happy, or else…

Look, it was a disappointing result. I get that. Not the start we needed, I get that too.

But I saw a team that worked hard and played good football at times. Our midfield played very, very well and we passed the ball round well.

The unavailability of both Laca and Auba was a major blow. Having to play both Martinelli and Balogun didn’t help. We had a very young attack and it showed.

At the cauldron of the Bees it was very important to score first. Had we played them at the home of football I believe it would have been completely different, and VAR would have actually played the role it was introduced for. The refereeing was a disgrace. The second goal would have been chalked off in each and every game last season, but Arsenal didn’t get any protection last night.

Our defending was below par, especially from our right side. Clearly, it is a work in progress, but no need to get your knickers in a twist over it yet. They will bounce back.

Many top teams would have struggled yesterday. The first game of the season, away, first time with full crowd against a team that has nothing to lose and full of beans, two main strikers missing and Holding missing, White’s first Arsenal game and Riley doing VAR.

It was very tough for the boys, and not what we needed, but it is just a game.

Let’s lick our wounds collectively and in harmony and keep believing AND supporting.

By TotalArsenal.

Finest of the fine fellow Gooners, the new season is upon as and we are kicking it off against newly promoted Brentford. The PL and media picked this match as the season’s opener for only one reason: hoping for an upset and having a laugh at us.

The Bees have of course nothing to lose and their manager has announced they are going to attack this season. Tonight’s game is easily as hard as the next one up v mega-spending Chavs, believe you me. We need to show character and be ruthless and never allow the Bees near our roaring cannon.

I am very glad we have Granit to lead the team tonight, especially now that Partey is out with injury. We will need him to coordinate our play from midfield, and it would be nice to see him paired up with the former Anderlecht captain, Lokonga, in de ‘DM-pivot’. If it is Xhaka’s long term friend Elneny instead, it would also be fine with me (but not JNYC’s 😉 ).

Defence picks itself with the exception of our right back: will it be Bellerin again or will Chambers or Soares get the nod? If it was me, it would be Soares for his better crossing and passing in attack, or Calum who adds another defender in the box for set-pieces.

The nr10 position and other attackers are a bit harder to determine. The big question is whether Arteta will select both Auba and Laca or just one of them. I am hoping he does the latter and brings on either Auba (ideally) or Laca as our ‘super-sub’ later on.

So here is my desired line-up v the Bees:

Enjoy the game and let’s all get totally behind our manager and the boys. Supporters support.

By TotalArsenal.

So the new season is upon us and the question is are Arsenal ready to go?

It is not easy to answer this question just based on the preseason friendlies. The Millwall and Watford games saw us score loads of goals but they are not deemed equal opposition; and the Chavs and Spuds games we lost both narrowly in tightly fought encounters. Feel free to pull conclusions from these games but I cannot do so.

The squad was good and has seen good improvements in defence and midfield. Keeping Xhaka will provide great continuity for the Arteta philosophy – Granit is his embodiment on the pitch – and IF (and it is a big IF) Partey can stay fit for most of the season and Sambi Lokonga can hit the ground running in his absence, I reckon we will see a step improvement in deep midfield.

The big remaining questions are:

1. Will we get an extra ‘nr10’ midfielder, given that ESR, Azeez and possibly Saka are all still very young (but super exciting prospects)?
2. Will we get an extra ‘more allround’ CF?
3. Who is going to be our nr.2, and even our nr.1, goal keeper?

I would like to hear your views.

For what it is worth, here are my views:

1. With the imminent departure of Joe Willock it looks like we are going to get a talented, youngish creative midfielder before the TW shuts. We need a player who is two seasons ahead in their development compared to ESR and will give him healthy competition. I like the sound of Maddison but reckon that we are actually after somebody else. Adding a ready to hit the ground nr10 is of course very exciting so let’s hope it will materialize.
2. This would not surprise me, but I reckon we will get goals from the current squad. With 1.7 PL goals per game since Christmas, the boys know how to find the net again. The big question is what to expect from Auba. He has had a poor season and seemed not really present for some (good) reasons. His confidence may still be low but I predict another 19-25 PL goals this season. Letting one of Auba and Laca go soon would also make sense, as long as we replace them. In a nutshell, I don’t expect a extra CF to join us anytime soon.
3. I really don’t know. Leno seems to be aware he is not regarded as automatic nr1 anymore…. and the club have been linked with other established goalkeepers. It would not surprise me if a quality GK is bought in the next two weeks and I hope Arsenal do.

And yes I do think Arsenal

What do you think?

Finally, where are Arsenal going to finish this season?

By TotalArsenal.

Well… almost so!

I know there are plenty of doubters out there, but the signing of White, Lokonga and Tavares have me in a very positive mood.

We need another left-footed LFB and Tavares could be a very good piece of business. Time will tell of course but first signs are good.

We needed a quality allround midfielder and Lokonga looks the bee’s knees. He will compete with ESR, Willock and Azeez to play in the centre of mifield. Again, looks like a good piece of business to me.

We needed a player who can play out from the back and Ben White is just that. With Holding in good form, I would expect him to play a lot in the coming season, so maybe White will play ahead of the defence instead… or maybe he will play in a back three of White-Holding-Big Gab. Whatever it is it will be exciting.

I would love us to play the Barca-style of a deep-laying midfielder, say Partey or White, with two pretty allround players in front of them. If I was to spend anymore money it would be on such a player and it looks like Arteta is looking for one right now. If Xhaka gets sold, which will depend on Roma being able to free up the cash (by selling a player themselves), expect a new midfielder to arrive. Of course we also have Azeez, Willock and AMN to fill the gap left behind by Xhaka but the question remains whether they are good enough to do so in the coming season. Elneny will be good cover in midfield too. I predict that two out of Xhaka, AMN, Elneny and Willock will be sold or put out on loan and a quality CAM will be bought.

Our attacks sorts itself out and either Eddie or Balogun will try and dislodge first choices Auba or Laca. I would also not be surprised to see one of Auba or Laca leave in the next five months or so and Arteta adding another, more allround, attacker to the squad.

Finally, we need another keeper who will put Leno under pressure.

So Arsenal are almost there and I cannot wait to see the season start. Yippie! 🙂

By TotalArsenal.

I don’t know about you but I quite like it that Arsenal have not traveled to the USA and instead played a few local friendlies v Millwall and Watford.

A lot of time gets wasted by travelling so far away, and with all the Covid risks and disruptions this should ensure a more relaxed and focused preparation. Next up are the Chavs and the Spuddies and so we just stay local all the way till the opening game v newly promoted Brentford.

The mission for our team is clear: finish in the top four and try to win a cup. It is a bit ‘back to basics’ without the European ties but the good thing is that we will not be playing games on Thursday anymore. Spursday is for late shopping and getting all your crisps and beer in for the weekend, not for watching football.

Arteta is of course building something very big and I have a lot of trust in him to get it right. We really needed to strip things back and start again and I think that he is making fine progress. Since 26 December, Arsenal have played 22 games, won 12, drew 5, lost 5, scored 38 and conceded just 20 goals. This would have seen us finishing third in the League. Mikel can build further on this and he has made some good squad signings to strengthen the team in areas in which most of us believed the team needed strengthening. If he adds Ben White, a decent keeper and creative attacker in the coming weeks, we should indeed be in a good position to finish in the top four.

But that is enough talk about the end goal. It is of course all about the journey and the football itself. That is what I am looking forward to. So many things to look forward to and focus on:

1. Will Auba and Laca have a super season?
2. How will our ‘new’ nr.10 do in his second full season? And who will join in that position, if anybody?
3. How will Partey do in his second season in the PL? And how and where will Lokonga play in midfield?
4. Will Xhaka still be around and if not will Lokonga be his natural replacement?
5. How will the full backs do this season and who will play right FB most of the games; Bels, Chambers or Soares?
6. How will White fit in in a four or a three/five at the back? Or could he be used in midfield instead?
7. Can Saka and Pepe put real fire into our attack this season?
8. Will Eddie and Balogun be firing from all cylinders this season?
9. What roles will AMN and Willock play in our midfield?
10. Could Willian have a much better season – early signs in our friendlies are promising?
11. How are we going to deal better with setpieces delivered into our box (lobby to ban all headers this season? 🙂 )?

Alas, so many questions and I have not even started about system of football for this season.

We have it all to look forward to fine fellow Gooners and I cannot wait for it to start again.

What are you mostly looking forward to?

Who is the one player you would like to add before the season starts?

COYRRGs!

By TotalArsenal.

An Arsenal Blast from the Past

1947/48 League Division 1 Championship

One night during WW11 I was lying in bed when the room was suddenly lit up with a nearby searchlight coming on. Thinking it was a raid coming, I jumped out of bed and I started to get dressed. Looking out of the window, I saw dozens of searchlights sweeping the sky and waving backwards and forwards. I went into the front room where Mum and Dad had the radio on and they were just announcing the end of the war in Europe. Our next-door neighbour rushed in and everybody sat talking until the early hours of the morning. The next day nobody went to work and we had an impromptu party down at the corner of the road. People took cakes and sandwiches down to be shared out and a radiogram was fixed up to provide music for people to dance to.

Germany had officially surrendered and Londoners could now try to rebuild their damaged City and lives.  Life was still very difficult, good jobs were scarce, food was still rationed, we still used Cow and Gate powered milk, and bomb sites were scattered all over town. But gradually life was returning to the streets and the daily fear of bombing raids, and having to dash to air raid shelters for safety, was now just a horrible memory.

The Arsenal ground in North London was not spared from war damage as the North Stand was extensively damaged by fire and the roof had collapsed, the South Stand terracing was also badly damaged and in need of repair.  The debts from the construction of Highbury and the costs of repairing the war damage were a heavy financial burden, and Arsenal struggled when competitive football resumed. The war had cut short the careers of many of the club’s star players, including Bastin and Drake and nine of the pre-WW11 had been lost during the war.. They lost 6-1 on aggregate to West Ham United in the third round of the 1945-46 FA Cup, and upon the league’s resumption in 1946-47 the club finished a disappointing 13th.

After close to forty years with the Arsenal George Allison decided to retire from football at the end of that season, and was replaced by his assistant Tom Whittaker, who had been the clubs trainer under Herbert Chapman. So Tom Whittaker took over the reigns at Highbury with Joe Shaw joining him from Chelsea. Arsenal kicked off the1947/48 season with a 3-1 victory over Sunderland at Highbury, an ideal start for the new management team. Leslie Compton, the previous club Captain who had been playing cricket for Middlesex Cricket club, returned to Arsenal and they won the next six games.  Joe Mercer had been Arsenal’s Captain in Compton’s absence but Whittaker felt that now Compton was back he should, once again, lead the team but Compton felt differently and persuaded him to keep Joe on as the clubs Captain.

1947 was a milestone year in the life of GunnerN5, I was nine years old and, for as long as I could remember I’d spent endless hour’s playing football on Avenell Road with my mates and kicking a rag football (made by my Mum) about and using the main gate into Highbury as our goal. We were in awe of all the grown ups as they streamed in and out of Highbury on Saturday afternoon’s and wished we had the few pennies it cost to get inside. The different noises coming from the ground always left us wondering what was happening inside but we always knew when the Gunners had scored as that caused the biggest roar of all.

My maternal Grandfather then changed my life and gave me the best present I have ever received, for my 10^th birthday he took me to my very first Arsenal game it was November 22^nd 1947 Arsenal vs Huddersfield Town and we won 2-0. My memories of the game are somewhat of a blur but we stood, in what was our family section under the Clock, (you see nobody ever told my Grandfather to move – he was a 6”5” local coalman and made of steel).  I often feel that the young Paul Ashworth, in the movie “Fever Pitch”, was none other than a young GunnerN5 because after being inside Highbury for the first time there was nothing that was going to keep me out, lack of money, broken glass topped brick walls, turnstiles, stewards, were just mere obstacles to be overcome – I was hooked for life.

Tom Whittaker enjoyed immediate success with the club, winning the League in 1947-48; led by Captain Joe Mercer and with goals from the attacking front two of Reg Lewis and Ronnie Rooke, Arsenal topped the table from October and never looked back beating second place Manchester United by seven points. Given the age of the Arsenal side at the time (Rooke and Mercer were both over thirty, as were Denis and Leslie Compton), it was a remarkable achievement however long-term success was never on the cards. In response, Whittaker started to rebuild the team with younger players and brought in Doug Lishman, Alex Forbes and Cliff Holton.

In a remarkable family double Denis and Leslie Compton played alongside each other at football in Arsenal’s League Championship of 1947/48 and at cricket in Middlesex’s County Championship title in 1947.

The highest ever Football League attendance was on Saturday January 17^th 1948 when a crowd of 83,260 watched Manchester United play Arsenal at Maine Road the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

GunnerN5

10 observations from the pre-season friendly against (Glasgow) Rangers FC

The game was an improvement over our first pre-season friendly against Hibernian FC. Our defence improved and we created more clear-cut chances, too. And we eventually took a point home, however we deserved more.

Here are some specific observations from the game:

1. Nuno Tavares blew me away with his MotM performance. Maybe he was already in peak form due to his medical earlier that week, or he is really this good. While he wasn’t really tested defensively, the way he created his chance and the way he converted it were equally promising.
2. I really like Rob Holding, and he was a true leader in the first half. He wasn’t particularly tested either, but he tried to impress with no-nonsense defending, and his long(er) range passing, which was a hit-and-miss this afternoon (but a fine assist). I’m not that hard to impress, but the new haircut has to go.
3. If it weren’t a pre-season friendly the media would have crucified Aubameyang. He was wasteful beyond interpretation. The only promising sign is that there is only improvement from here, but our captain and top earner must put himself together – preferably in the USA already.
4. The other player who didn’t seem to suffer from post-holiday fatigue was Pepe. (The Scottish commentator kept calling him ’Pépi’ – it was a real joy to listen.) He wasn’t as dangerous as against Hibernian, but he was surprisingly active in defending. Which might be a sign that he doesn’t want to lose his hard-fought place in the starting line-up.
5. After his nightmare performance Okonkwo didn’t put a foot wrong, but couldn’t really redeem himself due to the tame attacks of the Scott team. The goal conceded was not his fault though, the other Balogun’s (Leon) header was a rare beauty, simply unstoppable.
6. We conceded the second goal after a corner too, the defense didn’t tick yet, however neither Chambers nor Kolasinac are classic, tall man-marking central defenders. Hein couldn’t save the header, but later made a crucial stop that would have put the game to bed. Other than that the Estonian teenager didn’t have much to do either.
7. While the majority of the fans would like to see Nketiah sold or even released, I’m not afraid to say that the majority are wrong (again). Eddie created his chance from nowhere – like he did against Hibs, but he couldn’t convert that – and posed a bigger threat than any other forwards in his 30-minute cameo. Maybe he could benefit from a quality loan, but selling him would be a major mistake.
8. Willian, Willock and Nelson also had the same half an hour to impress, but only Reiss managed to do that for me. Lacks a killer instinct at the moment, but always willing to take risks in the final third. Willock wasn’t bad at all either, but couldn’t live up to the crazy hype around him.
9. I admire Elneny as a person, but he didn’t contribute to either game. It was not Mo’s fault, let’s be clear on that, we simply didn’t need another DM against 2 slow pre-season Scott teams. He couldn’t prevent the headers (nor the quasi own goal vs. Hibernians), and he could’t improve neither the quality nor the quantity of the chances. If he was sent of in the first minute, the result would most likely be still 2:2 against Rangers, but a closer to equal ball possession.
10. After his dominant display against Hibernians Lacazette was rather anonymous facing the Scottish champion. I expect more impact from him in Florida. He has only one year left on his contract, so he could be sold in this window, or sign an extension. But it’s Arsenal, so we cannot really rule out that he runs out his contract and leaves on a free.

By PBarany

By all accounts Arsenal are close to signing Ben White from BHA for a huge amount of money, reportedly around the £50m mark. If money is tight then that seems a weird choice by Arteta and Co. Surely, Arsenal could really do with a quality ‘nr10’ type or a tall beast of a CF instead?!

Arsenal to sign Brighton’s Ben White in £50m deal – BBC Sport

We don’t know what the club’s plans are this summer and how much it is willing/allowed to spend. We have been linked again with Aouar and a return of Odegaard seems also on the cards. I was also pleased to see us being linked with Tammy Abraham who I rate highly.

But why spend so much money on another defender? If you look at this footage of Ben you may get an idea.

Arteta has of course a vision of football for Arsenal, and key to it all is being able to build up the game from the back. For this he has relied a lot on Xhaka and also Partey rather than his central defenders. But getting this done mainly from midfield slows us down as they will have to find space and the defence needs to be able to get the ball to them quickly and accurately. Mari, Holding and Big Gab are decent at this but certainly not great. Rob is probably best at playing out from the back but I am pretty sure Arteta wants more. Holding’s final ball is below par and he seems to get over-cooked when he is blasting forwards.

Now look at how White runs so well with the ball. He is fast, very ball-tight and his final pass is razor sharp. This is exactly what Arsenal have been missing and having such a threat from the centre of defence as well as the flanks (through Tierney and co) will make us play a very different game. White is not the tallest but seems to have a good jump and timing when he is defending set-pieces. Furthermore, he is a strong and fast tackler and puts his body on the line. Actually, White reminds me a bit of Thomas the Verminator in his best years for Arsenal.

He is right-sided CB and we do need an extra man there. Holding and White can compete for the RCB spot but I can also see them both play in a 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 formation.

I trust Arteta to make the right budget choices and Ben White may well the man he wants more than anybody else, right now.

Let’s wait till it’s formally announced at Arsenal.com but I am all for White joining us this summer.

By TotalArsenal.

The Euros are over and we have a winner. Football came nearly home but the lure of the eternal city was simply too great. Did the best team of the tournament win? Well if you set yourself up hard to beat but can also play good attacking football you will have a very good chance. That is what Italy and England did and that is why they ended up in the final. The best teams were probably France and Spain, and especially the latter showed some fabulous football at times, but they did not have the bounce of the ball and probably also not the best system of football to win the Euros. The French did not look like a team and Spain lacked a bit of luck. But then again, if you lose out in a penalty shootout against a team that misses two out of five, you don’t really deserve to go through. Italy won’t believe their luck that they got away with missing twice two out of five pens and still ended up lifting the trophy. It was definitely the tournament of the demise of penalty taking.

England are a work in progress and that seems to have been forgotten by many of the fans. This team benefited from being on the easier side of the draw, playing most games at home and Gareth Southgate’s fine management. Better preparation with the pens could even have meant the ultimate victory, but it cannot be denied that this England team is strong and will only get stronger given the age profile.

From an Arsenal perspective, Saka did very well and so did Xhaka for the Swiss. I am glad that Granit is still a Gunner as I write this and that Saka signed a long term contract. I think Holding could have done a good job in this England team and it is only a matter of time before Emile will become a member of the national squad. Tierney played well for Scotland, and all three Euro internationals will have grown during the tournament.

Why Southgate thought it would be okay to give three young players the final three penalties is a mystery for me. Yes they may have been good during training sessions but doing it in front of 60k nervous and highly demanding supporters is a totally different ball game. Surely, the likes of Shaw, Sterling and Maguire, all with much more life and football experience, would have been a safer bet?!

It was a high risk strategy by Southgate and it back-fired. The subsequent racial abuse was sadly predictable and this should also have been in the back of Southgate’s mind in my opinion. Saka, Sancho and Rashford will all bounce back and will hopefully get opportunities in their footballing careers to make amends for the national team, but surely they should have been protected from this very predictable outcome at so young an age. Did the older players bottle it or did Southgate really make such a bad call?!

Bukayo we love you man.

The racist abuse may have been predictable but strong action is now required. It is extremely sad that racism is still so prevalent in our times and it really isn’t just a few Twitter idiots. It is a long road to full equality and colour-blindness when it comes to people, and we all need to fight for it tooth and nail.

I found the footie during the Euros refreshing and I am hopeful that we are going to see a slight shift away from the pass-the-ball-to-death-alongside-the-lines that teams like Liverpool and Citeh do twice a week, and Arsenal are guilty of too at times. I saw the ball being moved much faster between the lines and the reemergence of ball-tight dribblers. Raheem Sterling was a joy to watch and so were Grealish and our very own Saka. The Italians had Chiesa and Jorginho, and the Dutch had Frenkie de Jong and (a disappointing) Memphis trying to add a bit of footballing magic to the game. There were more good footballers on display, especially the Germans have some very good dribblers.

So now we have to wait 4.5 weeks to kick-off of the new PL season. First Arsenal will play a few friendlies, starting tomorrow against Hibernian and for those prepared to pay for it, you can watch it life on Arsenal.com.

By TotalArsenal.

Individual achievements and performances in the 2020-2021 – Part III. – Offensive statistics

Following up the general statistic summary and the defensive attributes earlier this week, here are the best players and their Arsenal counterparts with regards to offensive skills and contribution. I will highlight (with bold) if we have our players in the TOP20. Still, every data is from WhoScored.

Offensive statistics

Since the number of goals and assists were already covered among the general attributes I will not repeat the statements/discussions. If interested or have missed that post, please visit it using the link above.

Shots per game:

There is a reason I didn’t mentioned in the lead that I would expect to see an Arsenal player in the TOP20, maybe even in the TOP10 of every statistic. Besides the negative indicators (like yellow cards, own goals, successful dribbles against a player) there are neutral stats where leading the charts is not necessarily desirable. For me shots per game falls in this category. While I don’t doubt that Tottenham and Liverpool fans are proud of Kane and Salah sitting on the top with 3.9 and 3.4 shots per 90 minutes respectively I think this is a sign of being selfish and often making the wrong decision, as I appreciate a smart pass or a cheeky dribble instead of shooting from every possible opportunity. Similarly it is debatable who is considered the better striker, the one who scored more goals, or the one with the superior goals per shots statistics. I wish there were available data on the latter, but apparently I have to research it on my own.

Kane: 23 goals in 134 shots = 17,1% conversion ratio

Salah: 22 goals in 116 shots = 19,0% conversion ratio

Fernandes: 18 goals in 114 shots = 15,8% conversion ratio

Son: 17 goals in 63 shots = 27,0% conversion ratio

Aubameyang: 10 goals in 52 shots = 19,2% conversion ratio

Lacazette: 13 goals in 32 shots = 40,6% conversion ratio

Pepe: 10 goals in 30 shots = 33,3% conversion ratio

I didn’t make a full comparison, but Lacazette (and Pepe) obviously stand out. Would you request it in the comments, I can make similar calculations for a few more players.

Key passes:

An important statistic I have the impression we seriously neglect under Arteta both on the individual and the team level. De Bruyne and Grealish are the key pass machines of the PL with 3.2 and 3.1 major chances created per game. Our best passers are Odegaard and Smith-Rowe with 1.4 each, which gets them to #34-36 position, behind players like Cresswell, Digne, Westwood or Moutinho – who are less known for their creativity.

Dribbles per game:

I consider this an important skill to have for wingers and midfielders, but I don’t insist on having multiple players in the top20. So I’m quite pleased with Saka (#42 with 1.4 dribbles), Partey (#62 with 1.2 dribbles), Ceballos and Pepe (#79-87 with 1.0 dribble), and I expect this stat to slightly improve next season. Traore and Saint-Maximin sit on the PL’s throne with 4.1 and 3.8 dribbles per 90 minutes, with Anguissa & Grealish following with 2.7.

Fouls against:

Another indicator where the top 2 sit way up high – Grealish with a shocking 4.2 figure, then Zaha with 2.9 – and the rest of the PL come after quite a gap. And we have a player in the top: Saka was fouled twice every game (on average) making him the 10th most frequent victim of faults. Based on my subjective recollection of Arsenal games I’m not surprised. However this is a statistic I would happily swap for places in the key passes top10.

Offsides ’lost’ per game:

I’m not sure whether this statistic is something to be minimized – like yellow cards – or an indicator that implies predatory instincts that could still improve. Vardy and Mané are the offside collectors with 1.1 ans 0.9 rules against them per 90 minutes. Aubameyang (0.6) and Saka (0.5) take the #14 and #19 positions.

Dispossessed:

Another negative statistic; but don’t confuse this with the technical abilities (see next one), as this rather shows that the player is taking or more than he can deliver. A signature Alexis Sanchez statistic, if you remember the late Wenger years. The 2 persons dispossessed the most were Sterling and Zaha with 2.7 and 2.6 per game (with a large gap behind them). Our only player dispossessed too frequently is Saka with 1.3, and he is only at #41, so I think the coaching team does a quite good job in this department.

Unsure touches a.k.a. bad ball controls per game:

This last offensive statistic confirms that our squad is well equipped technically – unless we consider the low figures a sign of an unhealthy balance n the discipline-creativity scale. But again, we have a single player in the top 50, young Bukayo saka takes the #24 position with 2.3 bad controls. Zaka leads with 3.6, then Lookman, Salah, Watkins and DCL follow with 3.1 clumsy touches each.

Similarly to defensive statistics these figures don’t tell the whole story either. However there are a few of conclusions I can draw. Firstly that we underappreciate Lacazette big time. His insane shot conversion ratio shows that he has the brains to decide when to shoot and when to pursue different options. Were he playing every PL minute, he would have shared the Golden Boot with Kane – reaching 23 goals assuming a similar 1.5 shots per game ’temperament’ and a 40% conversion rate. The other conclusion is that we are behind in the critical offensive indicators, and only competitive in the less important statistics. However this is quite common knowledge, as we have already discussed that Arsenal has a capable defense, now we have to focus on more creative and efficient attacks, including chance creation and long shots.

My last last thought concerns Saka. Since TA gave the title of the last piece ’defensive stats showing one clear winner’, this post might lead to a similar conclusion that Saka is the weakest link since he leads most of the dispreferred or unfortunate offensive statistics within Arsenal. Doesn’t that contradict him being the player of the season? I believe it doesn’t. Most of these statistics can be explained by the combination of youthful exuberance and Saka often being the only player trying to create things even when the rest of the team is in apathy. Nevertheless it shows that Bukayo is far from being a complete product, and him being our player of the season as well as the most valuable Arsenal player should be strictly interpreted in the context of his young age, as Pepe seems to be ahead of him in almost every skill and statistic. Risking to see a lot of challenging comments I sign off with a controversial idea that there might be some bias behind Saka’s comet-like popularity, but this is absolutely fine for an academy player who just turned 19 and has a great attitude and personality.

This was the third batch of statistics.

What is your opinion? Where shall we improve individually next season?

Assuming that WhoScored has no anti-Arsenal bias, where/why do you think it under- or overrates players?

Part IV. will deal with passing statistics.

By PBarany