Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine games for Arsene Wenger: Time to say Thank You!

March 19, 2014March 19, 2014TotalArsenal

To me it is incomprehensible that a modern day manager can last a thousand matches; and it remains to be seen whether anybody will ever do it again at a top club. It is a shame that Arsene’s 1000^th game has to be away at Chelsea: the cauldron of disloyalty and classlessness. Of course, it would be very, very sweet if we were to beat them on Saturday, but given Maureen’s record at the Bridge, our current injuries and lack of attacking thrust in recent games, this is unlikely to happen, unfortunately.

But, whatever the result, nothing will take away the significance of managing our beloved club for 1000 games. Wenger has won 572 from his 999 in charge, a win percentage of 57.26. Alex Ferguson, who managed the Mancs for an unbelievable 1500 games, has a win percentage of 59.67. Given that the club has reached a new era now, with a strong financial basis and being fully able to both hold on to our players and buy quality additions, what is the bet that, if Arsene – eight years the junior to SAF – were to manage the club for another 500 games, he will equal or even improve the Scotsman’s win percentage?

Whether Arsene will stay for that long, or even beyond this season, remains to be seen. The secret of a long life is knowing when it is time to go; and I hope he will strongly consider his ongoing health status when deciding on the future. Bob Crow’s, RMT’s General Secretary, sudden death last week has made me realise again what demands are put on people who combine idealism and passion with high work demands and expectations by themselves and others. There are not many people left like Wenger, especially not in football, and, whether you are a Gooner or not, they need to be cherished and protected. Something that does not happen enough.

Even if Arsene was to stop at the end of the season, his legacy would easily be as big as Ferguson’s. He might not have won as much as the Scot, but he has introduced a style and quality of football that brought an enormous beauty to these shores, which is now copied by a number of PL clubs, most notably by Pool and the Northern Oilers. He was able to win heavy silverware with this style of football, which was all epitomised by the 49-games unbeaten run of the Invincibles. In twenty, forty, sixty years from now, true footie lovers – Gooners and non-Gooners alike – will still remember Arsenal under Wenger; you can bet on that.

He also stuck with the club when it would have been a lot easier to go somewhere else, where money is no object and life is a lot easier. He saw us through a very challenging period, which was made a lot, lot harder by the arrival of the Oil-For-Cups era. In stark contrast, Van Gaal left Ajax soon after the new stadium was completed, back in 1997; and although they have done okay domestically – which is not that hard – they appear to have lost the battle for European silverware for good (despite the odd peaks in performance).

Whether Arsene is still the right man to take us one step forward again is open to debate, but whatever lies in the future, we should be very thankful for what he has done for our club in the last 999 games, both on and off the pitch and in terms of laying the foundations for our long term position among the domestic and European elite. Everything is in place to make that step and let’s hope that Arsene makes the right decision, as it is up to him; this he has earned.

But from Saturday onwards it is one game at a time (OGAAT) again: for ninety plus minutes we’ll forget about our past and future and fight for every ball. Come on You Rip Roaring Gunners – Victoria Concordia Crescit!

“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.”

Albert Camus

Written by: TotalArsenal.

Come On You Rip Roaring Gunners! Predicted Line Up

March 16, 2014March 16, 2014TotalArsenal

Let’s make it Three out of Three NLD victories this season!

What it means in a nutshell:

A glorious Sunday morning carries the promise of a fine day of football. It is the NLD: a game outside of time and space – ninety plus minutes of pure here and now football. Yes, the despicable Chavs have just lost three very valuable points and had two players sent off (especially Ramires missing next week’s game is a real bonus); yes, Mansour City lost their best player for the next few games; and yes, Pool are likely to get beaten by the Mancs this afternoon. All interesting (potential) developments, but for us only one thing matters: do everything possible to win the game against the Spuddies today.

Let's make it three out of three today - Let's do it for Theo. — Let’s make it three out of three today – Let’s do it for Theo.

Much noise has been made about our injuries, but I reckon there is no such excuse for today’s game. Our back five will consist of: Szczesny, Mr Reliable, BFG, Kozzer and Nacho – maybe even Gibbs is fit again. At this stage of the season we are really lucky to have all our defenders available, and especially against the Spuds, who only scored on average a little bit more than one goal per home game this season (16 goals in 14 home games), this will be vital. The mean threat will be Adebarndoor but the BFG and Kozzer will be ready for him, whilst the former – our real captain – also likes to score against our North-London enemies and celebrate it in their faces.

Of course, it would be great to have the likes of Ozil, Rambo, Jack and Theo available for today’s derby game, but with Arteta, Santi, Ox and Rosicky available we have still good alternatives. It also looks like Kim Kallstrom might be available, and who knows, he might become an instant hero today… On top of that, Pod, Giroud and possibly Sanogogogo are available, and I really don’t see any reason to be worried about our ability to field a strong line-up today.

The Spuddies were outplayed by a very fit and impressive looking Benfica less than 72 hours ago. They played compact against them and never gave the ‘skinny chicken on a ball’ shirt wearers much time on the ball. That is exactly how we should play them: press them hard in midfield, keep it tight and give them no time to settle. I feel we need to take the initiative in this game rather than sit back and absorb their pressure initially, as this might give them time to settle into the game and play away some of their post-Benfica nerves and worries.

On the other hand, it might be better to sit back a bit and kill them off with counter attacking football/ quick switchovers, as Benfica – typical Portuguese football – were also able to do. I am not sure whether we have the right players available for this, though, and prefer us to take a 4-5-1 approach today.

So for me, the preferred line up is:

The five of Flamini (deepest), Ox, Arteta, Santi and Rosicky in midfield should allow us to dominate this crucial area and create plenty of opportunities. I am going with Sanogo upfront, as I felt Giroud looked knackered against Bayern throughout most of the game and things are clearly not right with him at the moment. He might be a bit of liability today, and I feel he might start on the bench.

The only doubt I have with this line-up is the lack of regular goal scorers. Ox has started to score and we know that Santi can be lethal, but Arteta, Rosicky and Sanogo cannot claim to have been prolific for the club. So maybe Pod will start instead of Sanogo or Rosicky, or he will be used as a super-sub – his best role in my opinion – later in the game.

I am really looking forward to this one: a great opportunity to make it three out of three against the Spuds this season and to create a nice, large gap between us and them, bringing the next St Totteringham’s celebration really close. 😉

So let’s focus on just this game, give our all and show them who the Kings of North London are.

Come On You Rip Roaring Gunners – Up The Arse! 🙂

TotalArsenal.

Be a man and stay on your feet! How to stop the divers?

March 14, 2014TotalArsenal

Please note that this is not a post where I will ‘name and shame’ habitual divers and talk about how disgusted I am by diving.

I will also not be talking about diving in relation to cultural differences/what is culturally acceptable in different parts of the world or try and talk about how to stop diving in the game through educating the young who play football; although, looking into both of these issues and other issues in great detail and finding methods of getting through to young players and solutions to breaking cultural barriers, will help to decrease diving from occurring in football matches in the future and can have long term benefits, but we need to focus on the ‘here and now’.

If a player chooses to dive that is his choice, however this player should be punished for his actions and/or the ‘would be’ victim of a successful dive and his team should be given some sort of advantage and this is what this discussion post is about.

‘Be a man and stay on your feet’

The famous ‘Archer’s bow’ in action. This is probably the most obvious sign of simulation as this action is contradictory to normal reflex mechanisms e.g. putting you hands out in front of yourself in a fall to protect yourself.’

Simulation (diving) is an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by diving to the ground and possibly faking an injury, while exaggerating the amount of contact made in a tackle by an opposing player (if there has been contact at all) to make it appear as a foul has been committed, in an effort to provide a goal scoring opportunity for himself and his team, by deceiving the referee in the hope of receiving free kicks (in dangerous areas) and penalty kicks as well as getting players booked and/or sent off.

The football rule book currently states that any attempts made by players to deceive a referee by pretending to have been fouled and/or feigning injury must be sanctioned as behaviour which is unsporting and equates as misconduct and is punishable by a yellow card (an official caution).

Numerous studies into diving have identified many traits which are recognised and can easily be seen when a player dives. These common traits are:

1) Lack of ballistic continuity, which is where the player diving moves across the pitch at a distance further than the distance that would normally be expected in relation to the momentum from the tackle.

2) Lack of contact consistency, which is where a player will ‘nurse’ any part of his body, apart from the actual part of his body where the impact from the tackle occurred.

3) A separation in the time between the impact (from the tackle) and the simulation.

4) A player taking up the ‘Archer’s bow’ pose which is where the head is tilted back, the chest is thrust forward, both arms are raised and both legs are bent at the knee to lift both feet off the ground to the rear.

Further studies and research have shown that simulation is more prevalent in leagues where simulation gets the highest rewards. With the current benefits of diving outweighing the costs of diving, the most effective way to decrease the level of simulation in football is to increase the punishment served to those who choose to participate in the act of simulation, as well as helping and aiding referees in their ability to detect simulation.

When it comes to diving I am just quite frankly sick of diving. I am so sick of it that it does not even make me angry or disgusted with the player who has dived. Instead I pity him. You should have respect for your fellow footballers and even if you do not (and there are quite a few) you should have respect for yourself. Diving means you do not.

I can talk about numerous incidents where a dive has screwed over a team and prevented them from getting a draw, a win or progressing in a tournament but I will not do so, as I would be here all day.

Let’s not dwell on the past but look forward and see how we can punish those who dive in football matches. So what punishments could be put in place for those who are found guilty of diving during a match, and after a match has finished?

I’ll start us off with some suggestions to get your juices flowing and then you guys can get involved.

Bans imposed for players who repeatedly dive.

Players who repeatedly dive get suspended. For instance a player caught diving twice in a season would get a one match ban, a player caught diving more than two times in a season would get a two match ban etc.

Teams who have a player or a number of players who repeatedly dive are deducted points.

Some sort of time out could be put in place for players caught diving in a game.

This would really motivate teams to make sure that their players do not dive and receive a punishment that is harsh enough to deter them from diving again.

Any player caught diving by the referee in a match would be given a yellow card and made to leave the pitch temporarily for a period of time e.g. 10 minutes, leaving his team to play with ten men for this period of time.

Teams could be given a challenge which they could use at any point in the match.

How this would work is that both teams are given one challenge which they can use at any time in a match. This would allow teams to question a referee’s decision on a foul (deemed by the team to be harsh or wrong) which results in a free kick or penalty kick for the opposing team or a booking (either yellow or red card) for one of their players. This would not really be a punishment for the offender but would render the offender’s action pointless. The offender could then also be given a yellow card for his actions.

This would not take too much time and cause too much of a disruption to a game. Experts and former referees have said that the option of an instant replay looking at a challenge or potential dive could be looked at several times and analysed by referees and officials in a matter of seconds, which is enough time for a decision to be made.

What rules and regulations would you put in place now to try and combat the problem of simulation?

Any ideas of punishments/or advantages for the team targeted by diving I thought of, and want you guys to think of, should be realistic, but should also be harsh enough to make potential offenders think twice before deciding to dive.

Additional thoughts relating to the topic of diving which I might not have discussed are also welcome.

Written by: AFC.

Superb Ozil, Uber-Cool Arteta and Gunning Giroud take Arsenal to Wembley

March 9, 2014March 9, 2014TotalArsenal

A glorious win on a glorious early March – late winter – sunny day.

The superb but always humble Ozil played one of his best games for Arsenal against Everton.

The line-up promised an ideal balance between solidity at the back – with both Flamini and Arteta providing extra cover in the centre – and attacking thrust up-front. The inclusion of Sanogo, Ox and Ozil, supported by the fast and attack-minded full backs Sagna and Gibbs, offered a lot more driving force and speed than our line-up against the Orcs a week ago, when the combination of Pod, Santi, Giroud and – to a lesser extent – Rosicky made us look one dimensional and slow. What a difference a line-up makes?

We scored a sweet early goal from a quick move that saw Santi delivering a perfectly weighted forward ball into the path of Ozil: the German genius, who had already produced a number of fine passes and near-assist, finished calm and with precision, and it was good to see what the goal meant to him, the rest of the team and the fans. Let there be love!

Everton are strong through the middle and have plenty of thrust and speed themselves, and especially Arteta and Flamini had their hands full. They both worked hard and put their hearts and souls into each and every game, but it was still clear that if we have an area that needs attention for these sort of games – or indeed even harder ones – it is the double DM pivot.

Everton’s equaliser was a good example of this. Ozil plays a straightforward ball along Everton’s box towards Arteta. The Spaniard does not fancy shooting with his left foot and lets the ball run past his body; and with two touches he tries to get himself in a good shooting position. His shot is easily anticipated and subsequently blocked, and from this Everton break forward through a determined run of the promising Barkley (leaving Arteta well behind). Ox and Flamini chase him initially but it is left to the Frenchman to sort Barkley out – Ox, in hindsight, would have been the better option. The Flame is already on a yellow card and cannot afford to make a risky, incisive tackle. Barkley is left free to put a good ball into the box from which Everton score with a little bit of luck in the process, although our defenders did not cover themselves in glory either. 1 – 1 and not totally undeserved.

Game on, and Everton deserve respect for the way they play us and try to dominate the game before and after the break. After the equaliser and until our penalty goal, the game is quite even. What decided the match was that we got away with our big mistake in defence and Everton did not.

Vermaelen somehow lost his footing and ‘air-kicked’ the ball, leading to a quick and decent chance for Barkley who had been fed the ball nicely by the always impressive Lukaku; fortunately ‘the new Rooney’ over-hits the ball and a decent chance is missed. Everton, however, do not get away with their defensive cock-up: Ox puts a lot of pressure on Barry in their penalty box to which the former English international player buckles, resulting in a ‘tired’ foul on the dynamic, full of thrust, AOC.

Arteta had to take the penalty twice – ridiculously, Clattenburg somehow felt like punishing Giroud for entering the box too early – but he put both away with calmness and precision: 2-1 to the Arsenal, and we all feel good again.

Arteta was under enormous pressure, given the recent big penalty miss by Ozil, the nervousness of the crowd, and the necessity to take two penalties in a row; and he did fantastically well. I dread to think what would have happened if he had missed the second one.

After that the game is played. Arsenal get more space, the crowd oozes confidence in the team through their passionate singing, the Everton legs are getting tired and the pure class we have in this team comes out – epitomised by the brilliant team-break goal for our fourth and last goal; especially Ozil’s assist for Giroud was sublime – stuff of football dreams.

Before that, for the all important third – two goal gap – goal, Sagna had applied great composure by holding the ball long enough right inside the box to pick the perfect pass for the fully refreshed and focussed Giroud, who only had to tap in once he received the perfectly weighted ball from his fellow Frenchman.

Arteta stepped up and kept his cool, twice!

A great win on a glorious day and fantastic performances by Ox, Santi, Giroud and especially Ozil, who produced some exquisite football throughout the game. My man of the match performance goes to Arteta, though. Not just for his committed performance during the entire game (which was not without its shortcomings) but especially for his cool-headed and decisive penalty conversions. That made all the difference.

TotalArsenal.

Should Arsenal have offered £42m for Suarez – will lessons be learned?

March 3, 2014March 3, 2014TotalArsenal

Looking back on the season at this point at the beginning of March, one can say that there have been positive signs in terms of us being competitive with Manchester City and Chelsea, two clubs backed by enormously wealthy owners. Some say that this was a season of opportunity with management of Chelsea and both Manchester clubs in transition, but at this point it could also be said that we could have been standing in a much worse position at this juncture, not least taking into account the mood of the club after our season opening loss at home to Aston Villa. The 2013/14 season as a whole is now very much in the balance following the disappointing away loss to Stoke, but we still have a decent shot at a trophy, most likely the FA Cup, with the Premier League title still an outside shot.

Over the weekend we have had a revelation courtesy of Liverpool’s club owner, John Henry, who said this in a filmed panel discussion at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference:

“Luis Suarez is the top scorer in the English Premier League which is arguably the top soccer league in the world”

“And he had a buy-out clause – I don’t know what degree I should go into this – but he had a buy-out clause of £40million – more than 60 million (US) dollars. So Arsenal, one of our prime rivals this year … they offered £40million and one pound for him and triggered his buy-out clause.”

“But what we’ve found over the years is that contracts don’t seem to mean a lot in England – actually not in England, in world football. It doesn’t matter how long a player’s contract is, he can decide he’s leaving.”

It is very rare for us fans to know details of the ins and outs of backroom dealings, but by John Henry being so clear in his own words we now have some explicit clarity with regards to the Luis Suarez transfer saga last summer.

One can only imagine where we would be placed at this point in the season if we had pulled off the signing of Suarez. It is largely water under the bridge now but I do think the rare clarity of information we have received courtesy of John Henry enables a revisit of what likely happened from our side, as a club, in attempting to pull off the Suarez signing, but ultimately failing. The most important thing is that there are lessons to be learned, and perhaps justifiable calls for some accountability.

Obviously at some point last summer we had been tipped off about a £40m release clause in Suarez’s contract, most likely by Pere Guardiola, his agent. One would suggest timing linked with a rather suspect flurry of betting activity in Spain, reported in various media sources in early July of that summer. The fact that we were tipped off indicates that Suarez was at that time very interested in a move to Arsenal. Based on this information our club proceeded to the infamous £40m + £1 bid which we rightly expected would trigger the release clause. However, John Henry refused to cooperate and Liverpool used the media to embarrass us regarding the nature of the bid, and by doing so the suits in executive offices of our club (our executive management) were instantly rocked back onto their heels; a position from which they never recovered in regaining an upper hand.

Refusing to allow a player to proceed to negotiate personal terms with a club that has triggered a release clause is pretty unprecedented. John Henry has boasted that words in Suarez’s contract counted for little, but I take this as bluster. Liverpool would have been left wide open to pressure, be it from the PFA, the FA, UEFA, FIFA, or even a combination of these bodies because challenging the whole framework of contracts is not something that authorities can readily accept, as it would ultimately risk chaos in the professional sport as a whole, in England, and possibly globally. One has to ask, when it was clear at the time that Luis Suarez very much wanted to join Arsenal for Champions League football, why pressure, with or without legal recourse, was not exerted on LFC. I will explain why it probably was not, at least not to any significant level.

For all we know, there could have been some action behind the scenes, at least a lot of discussions amongst executive management at Arsenal as to potential strategies of how to outmaneuver Liverpool. However, this tracks back to our bid of £40m + £1. The nature of this bid was an overt admission that we had been tipped off on Suarez’s release clause, and by the letter of the law of professional football such tip offs are illegal. Although technically illegal, it is pretty widely known within the football community that players’ agents talk with clubs and divulge contract details, and such communications reside in a gray area which is largely tolerated. Murky gray area notwithstanding, there was no way that we could deny that we had been tipped off regarding Suarez’s release clause and that very likely put our executive management in a bit of a legal straightjacket.

In hindsight, although we know that any money included in a bid over and above a release clause is perhaps unnecessary money spent, if we had put in a bid of £42m there is no way that it could have been definitively proven by Liverpool that we had put in a bid for Suarez after gaining inside information. A bid of £42m in all likelihood would have secured the signing of Suarez in my humble opinion. Arsenal’s backroom were outfoxed by Liverpool’s backroom despite having a strong upper hand initially because of poor strategic thinking that allowed an opportunity to slip through our fingers. Remember Arsenal did not reveal the +£1 bid, that was John Henry and Liverpool, in a very high profile manner, i.e. they used the media to outfox us.

I wanted to share this revisiting of the Suarez transfer saga last summer, because it is very rare that fans know all the ins and outs of transfer dealings; but in this case, we have John Henry in his own words as firm evidence. The opportunity for signing Suarez has in all likelihood come and gone. While we hope that the suits in our executive offices have reflected on how they were likely outfoxed, I believe it is right for fans to have confidence that indeed lessons are being learned moving forwards. We should demand some accountability, so that improvements can be built into our overall approach, and perhaps a review and reorganisation of individual staff responsibilities. Doing so can only help, in terms of future transfer dealings.

So where should accountability lie?

Personally I do not lay any blame with Arsène Wenger. Where we fell short in the Luis Suarez saga was in poor strategic thinking, and although the football manager may play a role, responsibility for such strategic thinking should lie within a core team within the club’s executive management. If the football manager overtly oversaw the process then that is not necessarily his fault; he is an employee of the club and those higher up in the club’s structure should understand his limitations and recognise the need to assert themselves more. Ultimately in this case, I believe we have clarity that points us to our Chief Executive, i.e. Ivan Gazidis (IG). One could perhaps consider Dick Law, but IG should have been in the loop of details every step of the way. If IG wasn’t, one has to question his oversight as Chief Executive. One could perhaps consider Stan Kroenke, but I don’t believe Kroenke should be expected to know every detail; he employs IG and should trust him to perform competently with a degree of autonomy in the lofty, well paid, position of Chief Executive.

To make it clear, I am not asking for IG to be sacked. Indeed, one can point to much good that he has done for the club in enhancing commercial revenues. Perhaps what is needed is a little restructuring of our executive management with someone with ultimate responsibility for transfer dealings, at an organisational level in between IG and Dick Law. Many clubs nowadays employ a Director of Football, but I do not recommend one. I prefer a football manager to have full responsibility for players he wants to sign because he has to manage those players. A person in between IG and Dick Law wouldn’t be a Director of Football; indeed, he would be more like David Dein. Last summer we hired Chips Keswick as Chairman, as successor to Peter Hill Wood. I do not know what Chips Keswick exactly does, but perhaps we can question this hire and whether we should have brought back David Dein (or someone similar to David Dein) at that juncture. Nevertheless, there is room for IG, Chips Keswick (as successor to PHW), as well as a David Dein. This would take any ambiguity of transfer dealing oversight largely away from IG, so that he can focus largely on continuing to grow commercial revenues.

On a side note, obviously John Henry felt free to divulge details at this juncture because Liverpool are in a good position in the Premier League table, Luis Suarez appears fully satisfied there now, and they are in a good position to secure Champions League football for next season. John Henry had an up close and personal view of effectiveness of our executive management in transfer dealings last summer, outsmarting them in the process – one could argue very easily. He used the media very well in going so public with our £40m + £1 bid, perhaps with a level of faux outrage.

Ultimately, he made our executive management look like a bunch of amateurs, and in saying what he did in a filmed panel discussion at MIT over the weekend it was the equivalent of him smoking one of his cigars while enjoying how he got one over on Arsenal Football Club. We should perhaps see the glass half full and draw on this as motivation as fans to demand from the club’s executive management some transparency of lessons learned and associated adjustments, in line with my humble suggestions, or otherwise.

Iceman_10

TV5 back, FlamShere DM pivot, Ox and Rosa on wings? Match Preview.

February 28, 2014February 28, 2014TotalArsenal

After a well earned ‘rest’ the boys are back in action against Stoke tomorrow. Never an easy and seldom a pleasant game, but I feel good about this one. Despite some Gooners believing we have a ultra-thin squad, we are once again able to both name a strong squad and bench for tomorrow’s encounter.

We are also able to select a large number of men rather than boys – as we so often couldn’t in the past – and this will make a big difference I reckon. Another PL away win – 9th in this campaign – will make us joined best away performers (together with that other North London team), but with Chavs and Mancs already losing there, we will have to give a full-blooded, yet controlled and clinical performance to take home all three points.

Predicted Line-Up

This team will do it tomorrow, I reckon:

Probably no Gibbs and Monreal, and TV5, although available, is likely to be rusty. So he needs good cover, which Rosicky will provide. On the right are Mr Reliable and the Ox to provide thrust and speed. Ozil back in the hole, OG up-front (no risk for late hotel adventurous in Stoke – Ollie has style 😛 ), and FlamShere in the double DM-pivot, protecting the golden-triangle of Koz-Sz-BFG, whilst providing central thrust and organisation as much as possible.

I expect Ozil and Jack to run the show, with Flamini providing controlled physical and positional support behind them. Ox and Rosicky will offer a lot of energy and speed and OG will be needed both up-front and at the back.

These eight men and three near-men know what is at stake and what they have to do. Time to slay the Orcs.

And on the bench we’ll have the likes of Santi, Pod, Gnabry, Sanogo and Arteta to make a difference if required.

Up The Arse!

TotalArsenal.

Arsenal start games too slowly and need to be more aggressive: debate!

February 17, 2014February 17, 2014TotalArsenal

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.

Ozil’s Silver Service Goes to Waste: Arsenal – MU Afterthoughts

February 13, 2014February 13, 2014TotalArsenal

Happiness and expectations are closely linked. Cockie Monster, BK’s nutcase blogger formerly known as GLIC, desperately sticks to low expectations in order to secure a permanent level of low, stable happiness. At the other end of the scale is the uber-optimist James Bond, who almost continuously adorns the site with his high hopes and expectations. Both approaches to Arsenal’s future performances and achievements have their merit, and we are lucky to have them blogging on BK. Variety is the spice of life after all. 😀

With thanks to Voetbal International for picture.

My expectation for last night’s match was a draw. It was clear that both teams wanted a win but, above all, were keen to avoid defeat. In my view, a point for us was a far better outcome than a point for the Mancs. They now have an almost impossible climb to make in order to reach the top four, especially with Pool winning three vital points against Fulham – the team who took two points away from the Mancs themselves, just a few days ago.

The general view is that the current Manure team is a weak one and that we should have beaten them yesterday. The (pathetic) booing by the Arsenal fans at the end of the game is evidence of this; it’s an indication of how low our toughest rivals in recent history have fallen under Moyes.

Arsene knows that his team has a lot of resilience and is the best of all the ‘big teams’ in winning points against the ‘weaker’ ones. As long as we stay close to both Oiler teams we have a chance to win the league.

It is clear that we do not have a team currently with the belief and/or qualities to beat the bigger teams in the league. Five points from eighteen against Pool, Chavs, Mancs, and Mansour City until now is not great. Or maybe, it is not to do with belief or quality but Wenger’s inability to get the best out of his players…?

However, it looks like we could win the league this year IF we keep beating the ‘non-big’ teams, as both Mansour City and Southern Oilers are prone to dropping points regularly in those games.

I will stick to what I said a few games ago, that the Southern Oilers beating the Northern Oilers would probably mean the former will go on and win the PL. However, the not totally unexpected Chavs’ draw against West Brom has given us renewed hope. Wenger is banking on his team’s consistency (currently his beloved word, it seems); and I also reckon that if we can continue to be consistent during the last third of the season, we could well win the title after all. Two draws – against MC at home and Chavs away – whilst winning almost all of the other games, might be enough to hand us the title come the end of the season.

I was very pleased to see the team play a lot more compact and organised against the Mancs than against Pool. We defended the set-pieces significantly better, despite the strong aerial fire-power of Moyes’ men. Arteta also had a much better game, despite his early give away to Van Judas; and Wilshere stuck a lot better to his defensive duties. Yes, he was ‘turned over’ a lot, and he did not add as much to our attack as we would have liked, but he played with positional discipline and passion, and still made a difference on the night.

I have never felt Mikel and Jack get the best out of each other when they play together though, and we should be buoyed by the imminent return of the Flame. The Frenchman allows Wilshere to be more effective in the box to box role, which in turn will mean more support for Ozil. These three midfield roles are intricately linked and getting the balance right is absolutely pivotal to the success of the whole team.

Last night we played with too many CAMs in my opinion: Ozil, Rosicky, Jack, Santi, and later on Ox was added as well. All of these players have a natural tendency to move towards the middle of the pitch, and play the ball through the funnel: the ‘D area’ of the opponent’s box. Manure were expecting this and made themselves hard to penetrate there throughout the game, marshalled by the seemingly rejuvenated, and brilliant on the night, Vidic. We lacked width and speed/penetration, but also support in the box for OG, as the likes of Ozil, Rosicky and Jack, and to some extent even Santi, are more natural creators than ‘fox-in-the-box’ finishers.

It did indeed feel that we were desperately missing Theo’s and/or Aaron’s speed/engine and ability to turn up at the right place and time in the box. they both also have the experience and maturity now to score goals in the big games.

I thought Ozil had a great game. He was constantly ready to dish out the finest delicacies but there are not many in the team/ the current formation who are able to anticipate and appreciate what he has to offer; something Wenger needs to address rather sooner than later. Not seeing this by some of the fans says more about them than Ozil.

I would also like to point out that, despite our current perception of Manure, they are not a weak team, but simply struggling with coming to terms with the new leadership/playing style of Moyes. I thought that the likes of Vidic, Evra, Rooney and VJ had very good games, and if I am fair I believe they had the best chances to win the match. Luckily they did not take them, as Szczesny had a superb game. They were clearly tense themselves and also desperate to avoid defeat.

I thought we got better towards the end of the game as we started to get closer and closer to their box and create some good opportunities. The fact that Manure still had the best chance to win the match during the same period shows us how delicately balanced it all was – and is; and how much work Arsene and Steve still have to do to get us winning the big games any time soon.

Bring on Pool – CoYG!

TotalArsenal.

Time to play Jack in the hole, Ozil and Pod on wings, Rosa and TV as DMs?

February 12, 2014TotalArsenal

Thanks to our midweek friend Anichebe, Arsenal can take a breath again, and approach tonight’s game with a bit more calm. Even if we lose tonight, the gap with the Chavs and Mansour City will/can only be two points, which can still be overcome during the remainder of the season.

But that is just the mathematician in me. We all know that we need a convincing win tonight to fully revive our believe and hope in our team, and wash away for good that horrible taste of the embarrassing loss on Saturday.

I do not have much time, so I will leave the pre-match tactics to the BK regulars and catch up with you later. 😀

However, I will give you my predicted and my desired line-ups for tonight, as it will be interesting to see whether Wenger will change anything. I am pretty convinced he will not play Arteta and Jack in the DM pivot again, but other than that I reckon he will not change too much.

Predicted Line-Up v Mancs:

Desired Line-Up v Mancs:

Hope our team wins! UTA.

TotalArsenal.

Still feeling down? Four ways to put things in perspective

February 10, 2014February 11, 2014TotalArsenal

In the aftermath of the harrowing nightmarish early kickoff on Saturday, there were a couple of memes doing the rounds which made me shake my head and laugh out loud in a weird self deprecating frustrated “why-us” kind of a way. The memes fit completely with my lame sense of humor, yet they made fun of Arsenal, so I was at a loss to react. Add to this the fact that the defeat was still too fresh, and I didn’t know which way to turn.

One of the memes had three pictures, the first one had Arsene Wenger shouting “Don’t let Suarez score”, the second photo had Kos and BFG pumping their fists and saying “mission accomplished” and the third photo had Arsene with his head in his hands.

The second meme also had three photos, first one had Mourinho with the caption “The Special One”, the second had Pellegrini with the caption “The Tactical One” and third had Arsene with the caption “Five One”.

I leave you now to shake your head at the sheer apt genius humor behind these two memes and the sheer pain both of them caused me (and all of you)!

But on a more serious note, the Liverpool defeat leaves us rather scarred and demoralized, but it’s important at this juncture for both club and fans to not lose sight of the bigger picture and support our team in getting to gettable goals.

1 – We as a club, supporters and team alike, need to move on from this “we are going to lose” mindset. It’s a game, and Liverpool were masterful even though we were dismal. It seems as if they were playing Playstation football and we were playing Nintendo football. However, this defeat does not take away from the fact that we are second in the league (by one point), still in the FA Cup and still in the UCL. Last season at this point in time we were crying about qualifying for the UCL.

2 – Arsene will do what Arsene does. As someone who works in Marketing and has to make decisions everyday which people don’t agree with, I can empathize with Arsene. At the end of the day we have to have faith in his ability to sort the team out. After all, barring our games against the big teams, we have done rather well. Oh and we beat Dortmund too. So one dire horrendous (add your adjective) game does not make us into a bad squad or Arsene into a loser manager. He is not. He is a smart man who makes smart calls. The smart calls have a certain degree of success, I’d say in the high 90s and it’s a good percentage to operate from. Let’s have faith in him and in the team. If he did not buy in the January window he had reasons. We have to have faith in that. We should not lose sight of the fact that he is the decision maker, not us. And we must also remember that hindsight is forever 20-20.

3 – If we go back to the start of the season, I think all of us believed that a cup was a realistic hope of breaking the jinx, and yet we have been led down the garden path with dreams of an EPL Championship! Well let’s put it all into perspective. For me, the way forward is about making sure we beat United and Liverpool to make sure we stay in the hunt in both the EPL and the FA CUP. It will also give us much needed confidence to take into future games. In fact I’d say the FA CUP is a more realistic silverware hope than the EPL. Having said that, if we lose in one we may lose in the other. Form is connected, so we need to fight on in both fronts. United must be defeated, if for nothing else than for the fact that I want to see the Dutch Skunk (who once upon a time I had a lot of respect for) be on the losing side. Then Liverpool at home. We can win both. We just need to get our head straight.

Sadly, I’d say the UCL has to go. I’m not sure we have the squad to focus on three fronts. And UCL is not winnable (I hope to God I’m proven wrong). Bayern is beatable yes, but not worth diverting resources from the FA CUP and the EPL.

4 – Perspective. The Liverpool game was utterly abject (add your own adjective here), but listen, we have all seen how momentum can carry a team. The first goal was offside, the second one was bad defending and then Liverpool went from strength to strength and we collapsed. My only problem is that we let our heads drop. Heck, we could have been 5-0 in 20 minutes. I want to see a reaction, and all the noises I’ve heard from the team and the manager suggest that they want it as well. This is the only time I can remember in recent history when Arsene has indirectly even blamed himself.

So, let’s not vilify but let’s hope! Let’s back this team and let’s keep believing! It’s got us this far, why can’t it carry us a little further?!