Debate – Bergkampesque

Remember how we blitzed Napoli almost five months ago? 15 minutes of fantastic, high-tempo and aggressive football and the game was more or less in the bag with two fine goals by Ozil and Giroud.

And what about our recent away match at Villa: two goals in equally as many minutes – in the 34^th and 35^th minute by Wilshere and Giroud – and the game was practically won (although we still made it hard for ourselves in the second half).

But these examples are among the few exceptions to the rule, as Arsenal tend to start slow and seldom score during the first third of our games.

Of all our Premier League goals, only 20% are scored during the first thirty minutes of the games; and between the 30^th and 60^th minutes we score 28%, which is relatively low as well. So, believe it or not, 51% of our PL goals are scored between the 60^th and 90^th+ minutes.

This raises the questions why this is the case, and whether it is good or bad.

Looking at our title rivals this season, it becomes clear Arsenal score more goals in the final third than the other teams by a margin, and we are the least prolific of all the teams in the first and second thirds of the games in the 2013-2014 season (stats from http://www.premierleague.com):

**Team/Period of games when PL goals are scored**	First third	Second third	Final third	Total PL Goals	Total PL Goals Conceded
*Arsenal*	20%	28%	51%	48	26
*Mansour* *City*	27%	39%	34%	68	27
*Chavs*	24%	37%	40%	48	21
*Pool*	38%	38%	25%	66	32

What is also quite interesting to note is that simply scoring a lot of goals is no guarantee for success, as MC and Pool demonstrate: both have scored significantly more than Arsenal and the Chavs and yet they are not in the lead.

This season, Arsenal and the Chavs play a more defensively solid game and both teams score the majority of their goals in the third part of their matches (especially Arsenal). MC and Pool play a more ‘full on attacking’ style of football and score more goals, but also concede more.

Despite Arsenal having conceded almost as many goals as MC – mainly skewed by the losses to Pool and MC – we have managed an impressive 46% of clean, whereas the Northern Oilers only achieved 36% of clean sheets (Chavs 42% and Pool a meagre 27%).

As the above demonstrates once again, there is a fine balance between attacking and defending and non of the current top four clubs have been able to get it right until now, which in my view is the main reason why it is still so tight at the top.

So, just for a bit of fun, here are some questions for a ‘heated debate’ 🙂 :

Why do Arsenal score relatively so few goals early on, and so many late in the game?
Is this good or bad, or does it not matter at all?
Should Arsenal start more aggressive/take more risks in games and try harder to score more goals early on?
What would be the overall effect?
What would you do for the rest of the season, to remain defensively solid and yet score more goals?
How should we play against the ‘top teams’ to get more points in these games?

TotalArsenal.

Two Arsenal players with great shooting ability

Only 11% of all Arsenal Premier League goals are scored from outside the box. Of our direct title competitors, Everton score 30% of all PL goals from outside the box, Chavs 29%, Liverpool 22% and MansourCity 17%. A number of Gooners on Bergkampesque want our players to take more shots at goals from outside the box.

The question to debate today is: is this a good idea?

A few years ago, I read somewhere that Arsene discourages his players to take shots from outside the box and he will confront his players during post-match analysis if they took a shot from outside the box, when, in his opinion, a better option had been available. I am not sure whether this is true, but it does seem that our players have become reluctant to take a shot from outside the box in recent seasons.

Most of us love long distance goals; and the further away from goal the better!

Goals scored from well outside the box often become unforgettable ones. As a teenager, I watched Dutchman Arie Haan score an impossible long distance goal against Italy’s Dino Zoff, during the 1978 World Cup. For me, this goal epitomises the long-distance shot, as, at the time, I just could not believe a goal could be scored from so far out. I will never forget this goal:

Bergkamp and Henry scored regularly from outside the box for us. And of course there was Paul Merson who had a great long distance shot too – see from about third minute onwards for some examples:

I don’t know about you, but it always annoys me when I hear a match reporter say: ‘The problem with Arsenal is they want to walk the ball into the net’. Arsenal want to create the best scoring opportunities and the manager appears to believe that just taking a shot now and again is a waste of possession and inefficient.

Having said that, with players like Arteta, Podolski, Ox, Vermaelen and Cazorla in the team, Arsenal could turn shooting from outside the box into another weapon of attack, if Wenger would let them.

So what do you think fine fellow Gooners? Let’s have a heated debate! 😛