Things Aren’t As Bad As They Could Be?
Every Arsenal fan falls into the trap of looking for reasons behind the ‘problems’ the team might be having - is it because Henry is captain? Do Arsenal over-play? Do Arsenal shoot enough?
It’s easy to look at the negatives this season (I should know - I’ve done it enough!) but looking in perspective, things aren’t actually that bad are they? While Arsenal aren’t firing on all cylinders, we have lost 2 games just like Chelski and Liverpool have already lost 4. Manchester United have only lost one game but only a fool would predict that they wouldn’t lose another game before the season ends.
Statistically, Arsenal are in great shape - with the 2nd lowest number of goals conceded the league, and the 3rd highest number of goals scored.
The problem is according to this table, Arsenal top the table for the highest ratio of points dropped per goal conceded - the six goals we have let in has resulted in 12 points being dropped, which is a huge total.
On the postive side, Arsenal have played some pyrotechnic football (notably against CSKA and Reading) and we have had important players out injured to comeback, including Clichy, Senderos, Lauren, Diaby, Baptista and Freddie - when they come back Arsenal will have a really strong squad.
As I see it Arsenal can only get stronger as the season progresses.
Over the last couple of seasons, Chelski have made The Premiership such a result-orientated league that after a couple of defeats and a few draws fans will start to panic. And I’m one of those who have been sucked into it.
The attacking group of Hleb-Van Persie-Rosicky-Fabregas-Henry will be as devastating as the Bergkamp-Vieira-Pires-Freddie-Henry combination of a few seasons ago but like the latter will need time to gel and get into gear.
The signs shown at Reading are just a taster of what is to come and with Toure, Senderos and Gallas at the back things can only get better!
November 8th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
I think your article although commendable is naive, we have won 5 of 10 games, without playing, Liverpool, Chelsea, Bolton and Spurs. The team play pretty football, but have no strong spine and very little battling qualities. The list of players to come back is deceiving in that in the past few games outside of eboue we have had our best players out there. Freddy is finished and does anyone thing Diaby is going to replace Fabregas or Gilberto, for more than one game at a time. The only player that might make a real Baptista, but we shall have to wait on that one, Wenger was hardly showing great faith in him prior to the injury. The problem is we have no width, no battlers, no out and out forward and are playing completely the wrong system as he is trying to play both Rosicky and fabregas in the middle, at rthe expense of RVP and Henry who are playing totally out of position. He has realized that Rosicky is not a left midfielder and totally wasted there. It is a real mess and I am not sure he knows how to get out of it.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Totally agree, Nice to see an arsenal fan talking sense!
Now i hope we hit 8 against the blues tonight!
November 8th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
You can not just look at the losses you need to look at dropped points, ie 3 home draws against very average teams that we normally beat for fun.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle! The facts arnt great, lilke Dan says 10 games and only 5 wins is not championship contending form, let alone winning it. But we have played some great football this year, and I think the team are capable of going on a decent run. The only problem we have is that Chelski and Utd dont drop as many silly points as we do. All we can do is hope they both have a bad patch at some point. Utd will almost certainly drop points! I think its a good comment made about Rosicky not being a left midfielder, hes capable there but its not his favoured position and we dont get the best from him there. Ribery would have been great for us, but looks like wel have to wait a while for that one! It will be interesting to see where Baptista plays when fit, he could be the physical player we are missing in the middle, but i dont see him displacing any of the current midfield!?
November 8th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
agree 100% with the article, its about time someone said something that made sense.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
as ever it is all about realistic expectations, we were never going to win the league this year, and are going for 3rd or 4th and under those expectations we are where we need to be, but even that is not going to easy (like last year) if we can not sort out the current problems. Ribery is a great player and would certainly fit the bill.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Sound sense…keep the faith in Arsene who will lead us soundly and shrewdly towards more trophies…and what a boost it would be if the kids can get a result at Goodison tonight…
November 8th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
I certainly do not want to get in to a discussion on whether “aresne knows” as clearly he has been amazing etc etc, it does strike me however how many fans just say arsene knows and all will be well. He has so little accoutablility its amazing, no other manager gets given such a free ride, when there is no doubt it has gone severly backwards in the last two and a half years. This was going to happen to a certain extent due to the ages of the players in the invicibles team, however here we are yet again two months in the season and we are out of the championship race already(mind you last year we were out after 1 month) and everyone seems fine with that, maybe not enough anger is shown and that filters to the general malaise the team seem to be in.
November 8th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
that Sierra is a Pink hat Wearing Fat yank Cunt That needs be Put Down imho
November 8th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
GREAT, GREAT READ!!!
It’s great to hear someone with a sensible head on their shoulders, rather than a sack the manager, sack the board, sack the captain shite we’re all hearing on multiple blogs at the moment!
Even thought, i’m a sky + subscriber (and lets face it, you’re not going to get any decent football, on any other subscriber), they have a lot to do with this too! Hence the “Crisis” talk and the stringing up of Wenger with the Pardew incident… and did anyone else notice, sky’s coverage on Sunday? They showed the Van Persie coining incident, a whole “ONCE”!!!!!!
FUCKING DISGRACE!!
Don’t get roped into this “CRISIS” propaganda Gooners! Yeah, it’s a bit of a rough patch, but the team needs us, more than ever!
LET’S GET BEHIND THEM!!!
November 8th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
It’s November, we (pretty much) always have a slump in November, don’t need to panic yet.
Anyone else have the slightly guilty feeling of wanting the Spuds to beat Chelski on Sunday? great game though (All those Chelski yellow cards were also highly amusing!)
November 8th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
I am with Dan on this issue. This squad is good enough to have won more than 5 games this season, but we haven’t done so. we are under achieving now after so many years of over acheivement. just look at the players. we should not be struggling and looking vulnerable against these small teams.
Baptista could be the answer since he is back in 2 weeks while Diaby is out til January. I would only play a maximum of 2 of Hleb, Rosicky and Fab in any one game and I’d have Beast in there. and i would not play 4-5-1 in the premiership with RVP on the wing.
The CL is sorted but we are still a way off the prem and thats not good.
November 9th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Excellent comment gazzap
Well done Dan
But i disagree with you that we will not win the title this season.
I have said this over and over and over again.
“It is far too early to judge this Arsenal side” 10 Prem games played. 28 to go. U may think I’m too optimistic but I bet you we will do very well against the top teams this year. Partucularly on our travels and many of u will remember this comment.
Winning starts from a solid defence. A back four of Eboue-Toure-Senderos-Gallas must be very strong. I’m not so sure about Clichy.
It is a fact that Rosicky is not a winger. Walcott can add pace to the left and link well with TH14, whilst Eboue links up with Hleb on overlaps, as we all know so well. Cesc needs a breather. We will need him later. Prem starting eleven should include Walcott. I’ve noticed our lack of pace on the left side, which often draws TH14 deep into midfield because he is so used to the overlaps of Pires there. Walcott could be our key whilst Cesc takes a rest. Sorry if I offend people here, I believe RvP does not link well with TH14. Hleb may not also play well for 90 mins in some games. We have the men to mix things up but Mr wenger is the one to appeal to.