Morning all.
Pbarany has written today’s article.
After a terrible 2020/21 season, ending with the lowest points and league position in 30 years, last week we concluded a more interesting, more controversial and – untill the (pen)ultimate round – more exciting and hopeful campaign. But how should we assess the season gone by?
If we compare most aspects with the previous season, the progress is obvious. However, bearing in mind the previous season was the worst in the clubs history in a long time, we should look beyond that one simple comparison.
Here is my take on the season evaluation. Some are facts – thus undeniable, yet open to interpretation and some are subjective perceptions. (Therefore challenges are welcome and encouraged.) I admit some of my disappointments are related to this unique opportunity of having no European distractions, unprecedented spending in the transfer window with 6 reinforcements coming to support Arteta’s vision in all necessary departments, and key opponents like Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd struggling big time, which might not happen next year. Anyway, I’ve tried to put the trends into perspective from Wenger’s last campaign (WL), through Emery’s and the joint year to Arteta’s second full season.
The good:
- After an amazing run of good games Willock was sold well over his reasonable market value.
- Games won this season (WL: 19, E: 20, E/A: 14, A1: 18, A2: 22)
- 6 points against strong opponents like West Ham, Leicester, Wolves, Aston Villa and Leeds.
- Not conceding goals from corners the entire season.
- Mature and conscious display defending set pieces, limiting shots following them.
- A reduced squad enabled fringe players (like Tavares, Lokonga, Holding, Elneny, Nketiah) getting valuable minutes.
- The high press seems to be working more often than not, leading to costly mistakes by the opponent.
- Saka and Smith-Rowe becoming reliable performers – and recurring England nationals – despite their young age.
- Odegaard proved to be a master signing: key passes, relentless pressing, leadership abilities – what a class of a player.
- Nketiah getting his chance and scored 10 goals in 1280 minutes (compared to Saka’s 12 in 3360), albeit way too late.
- Partey, Xhaka and Elneny performing exceptionally well in some (critical) games, strong midfield partnerships.
- Tomiyasu hit the ground running, had a few fine games when fully fit.
- Arteta acknowledging mistakes after (lost) post-games press conferences.
- Academy players – probably due to the thin squad and injuries – often called up to train with the first team.
The bad:
- Games lost this season (WL: 13, E: 10, E/A: 10, A1: 13, A2: 13)
- Goals conceded (WL: 51, E: 51, E/A: 48, A1: 39, A2: 48)
- Goal difference (WL: 23, E: 22, E/A: 8, A1: 16, A2: 13), and 2-3 should be realistically deducted due to the nature of the last game.
- Points against Top 6 teams (MC: 20, L: 18, Ch: 13, T: 11, MU: 11, A: 9)
- Surprisingly frequent and recurring injuries, too many illnesses.
- Lost 12 games out of the 13 when we conceded first – unsatisfactory mid-game change management.
- Lousy displays against Brighton, Crystal Palace (1 point in 2 games) and Southampton (3 in 3)
- Ramsdale and White – after a few good games – failed to live up consistently to the hype and expectations.
- 4 red cards a PL season is one less than the previous 2 campaigns, but still a lot and the second highest in the league.
- 6 red cards (4 in PL, 2 in the League Cup) a year – without European football and long cup runs – is just simply unacceptable.
- Penalties conceded (WL: 6, E: 7, E/A: 8, A1: 3, A2: 7), too few favorable VAR decisions.
- Some players seemingly overused (Saka, Gabriel, Ramsdale, White), some underutilized (Pepe, Leno, Holding, Nketiah)
- Overly predictable line-up and tactics exploited by experienced managers.
- No Arsenal player in the team of the season.
The weird (neither positive nor negative, rather strange or interesting):
- The least games drawn in the 7 top leagues (3), tied with Borussia Dortmund and PSV Eindhoven (but those are 18 teams / 34 games leagues)
- Balanced scoring distribution; only 2 players reaching double digits in the PL (Saka: 11, ESR: 10), 3 More players with double digit goal contribution (Odegaard, Martinelli, Lacazette)
- We have 5 full (adult) internationals without playing a single minute for our first team in competitive games: Ballard (Northern Ireland), Hein (Estonia), Rekik (Tunisia), Flores (Mexico), Saliba (France)
- Even though we didn’t win many more games or played more convincingly compared to the last few seasons, the chronology/distribution of our performance resulted in Arteta winning PL manager of the month twice this year – September and March – while the previous Arsenal MotM was Wenger back in 2015 (!) October (fun fact: Nuno Santo won this in August, but neither Conte, Klopp nor any MU managers won this season)
- Decreased French and African contingent, while the Brazilian unit keeps getting bigger and younger.
- Playing out from the back is established (albeit not always followed), however I couldn’t find data showing its superiority, and sometimes causes nervousness among players and spectators alike
- We had the youngest squad of the league which is to be proud of, but not the academy lads adjusted the average but purchased young players, which is a bummer
The ugly:
- We played 45 games in all competitions this season, the fewest since 1988/89.
- Missed out on the Champions League and finishing below Spurs 6 times in a row.
- Uncharacteristic poor run in domestic cups.
- Academy players were given a shameful and pathetic 79 competitive minutes.
- Players sent out for loan or exiled seldom (if ever) get the second chance to prove themselves.
- Only 3 games the entire season with an xG of 3 or higher (Cicero, look away!!!): Aston Villa (H), Leeds (A), Everton (H), and the last one being a gift.
- Lack of long-term thinking prevented form-timing, hence winning critical games.
- Still burning cash to dispose players: Willian, Kolasinac, Chambers, Aubameyang.
- Players not in the plans are rumored/communicated publicly, thus minimal income is expected for Leno, Mari, AMN, and Rúnarsson, and limited (less than fair) fees for Bellerin, Torreira and Nelson.
- Excellent players were sold for a fraction of their true value: Guendouzi and Mavropanos were treated unfairly and sold in a humiliatingly amateurish way, jury is still out on Saliba.
- Arteta’s inability to rotate the squad (you read it well: not dispreference or reluctance; inability)
- The first team achieving the lowest rank within Arsenal: Women: #2, U23: #3, U18: #4, first team: #5.
The Problem:
Everybody has his/her own hypothesis what is the biggest issue with the current team, what is the main obstacle to compete with the very best clubs. And rightly so, it’s not just the usual “everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion”, but I’m not sure there is a single best answer. For many it’s the lack of funds. For others it’s the American leadership culture, a.k.a. the incompetence of the Kroenkes. Some slate the quality of the team – apart from the new signings – while other name Arteta as the main obstacle to progress. There is even a small group romanticizing a conspiracy theory against Arsenal on journalist, pundit and matchdayofficial level. Probably the most common answer is the lack of a clinical striker; as we are allegedly losing games without a proper heir to Wright, Henry and RvP.
However you haven’t seen me writing “no forward reinforcements in the winter” among the bullet-points above. And the reason is my answer to the ‘ultimate problem’ is the sharp and consistent decline of chance creation. So even if we had bought a world class striker in January, we might only have been a couple of goals better off. Or less if that player wasn’t keen on pressing. The sad truth is that we are not scoring 13 goals less in the PL compared to Wenger’s last and Emery’s first season, mainly because Lacazette and/or Nketiah are bad finishers, but because they don’t have many chances to score. They key passes leading to big chances are painfully rare. In fact we have just 2 players in the PL’s top 65 for the ‘most key passes per 90 minutes’ department.
I struggle to put it in a different way, but not just the numbers, the displays – especially in games with superior ball possession stats – also show as if we don’t know what to do with the ball, how to drive a decent attack, how to translate ball possession into promising shots on goal. The home game against Leeds is the perfect example, but there are countless others, as after scoring twice in the first 10 minutes and Leeds being reduced to ten men, we were expected to massacre them. But we didn’t score and we didn’t even create major chances yet managed to concede a goal in the ‘last’ 70 minutes. And not because the boys went lazy and waited for the final whistle. I won’t be shy to criticize them for the lack of trying. But they did; just didn’t seem to know how to break down a proper and desperately defending team.
For the lack of better words: while it seems we have a world class member in the coaching staff responsible for defending against set pieces and attacking corners (maybe 2 different persons, I don’t know), we don’t have experience or proper competency in the “how to lead an attack?” course. We like to believe that Arsenal is full of top dibblers (Pepe, Tierney, Saka), but even our best, Martinelli is only #27 on the dribbles per 90 minutes list. We often revert to the ‘crosses from the byline’ strategy, which is not simply boring and unattractive, but apparently inefficient, too. Maybe a tall striker like Isak or Scamacca would help, but Jesus wouldn’t, unless we bring back the creative spark to our game, which is painfully missing. Arsenal scored 61 goals this season. 6 of them were penalties, 1 own goal, but the 41 assists are alarmingly low. On one hand it is great that we can force the opponent to make that many mistakes in their own third, but we really should be more conscious when developing attacks, resulting in more key passes, more attempts, more shots on target, scoring more goals, and ultimately winning more games by gathering more points.
Summary:
I hope I could support the mixed bag metaphor with facts and arguments. The picture is rarely black or white, therefore insisting on a biased and extreme narrative is seldom wise, and unbecoming to such a decent blog. Yet you have the luxury to interpret the shade of grey: whether it was great year, and albeit could have been better it was still beyond – your very own expectation, or, that the missed opportunities overshadow the undeniable progress on some fronts, and you had higher expectations which generally left you disappointed.
It doesn’t make much sense to squawk about Arteta’s new contract as the decision has been made. Sorry to say though, but currently Arsenal has the weakest manager among the top 6 teams (no disrespect here, it’s a quite exclusive group), but Mikel is improving month by month, so he will hopefully close the gap.
Let’s also hope for a productive and fruitful transfer window where we buy quality players to those positions where we truly need (external) reinforcements, and for a reasonable price. Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham are expected to spend heavy – probably Newcastle too – so let’s not compete with them on overpaying primadonnas, but resort to smart spending, and integrate the new players into the team during an effective and entertaining pre-season. I happen to disagree with our last transfer window being the obvious success everybody believes it to be, but maybe this time… Anyway let’s hope that despite other top 6 clubs having bigger budgets and higher fan pressure for crazy transfer spending, we are supposed to be ahead of Spurs, Mancs and the Chevskies in building the foundation of the next golden generation.
Yet, I hope that Saliba, Nketiah and Ballard stay – but you may have different aspirations.
By Pbarany.
Morning all.
Thanks Pbarany, good read.
Personally, I think there is little benefit from comparing Mikel Arteta’s time with that of either Unai Emery or Arsene Wenger.
When Arsene arrived, there was no City or Chelsea money and Liverpool were very up and down. Only Man Utd were ever present at the top. (Ish)
Arsene inherited one of the best defences in the league, if not in Europe and he could build around them whereas both Emery and Arteta inherited what can only be described as an unbalanced, weak and pretty poor squad.
Wenger didn’t need to coach his defence as George Graham had done that for him and then Adams took Ashley Cole under his wing.
The league position tells us that Arsenal improved last season but I’m on the fence here because apart from a handful of games, I wasn’t watching great football. We’re mentally and physically frail imo but I put part of that down to having such a young squad. Re Mikel, I didn’t see much improvement from him really, not as far as game management and team selection goes and if we’re to have a much better season next time, he needs to learn a lot about himself during the summer. A great coach he might be, but football is often won by having a manager who is a great tactician too.
Also, I think a class striker in January would probably have made a big difference to our results.
Morning Rico. I agree with you that January, especially in retrospect, looks like an opportunity lost. At the time it seemed very risky to me. With only 2 windows to strengthen and with the team punching to get Europe and with the whole tedious Auba saga, who can really see it as a success.
One of our issues, that could well become even more significant if more clubs come under the control of Sports Washers, is that the Top 4 isn’t really that at all. With Man City and Liverpool more or less a shoe-in for the top 3, Chelsea, under new ownership probably up there, a rejuvenated Man Utd undoubtedly throwing money around plus the artificial rise of Newcastle it’s hard not to see it as a struggle for a single place. This is of course if we are talking about CL.
Lurking in the background is the arrival of yet another bunch of anti-democratic dictators from somewhere east of Southend on Sea who will be welcomed with open arms by the government because (no doubt) of huge trade deals that can be traded against it with billions being creamed off. It’s not hard to see one of these being seduced by the Americanised toilet bowl up the Seven Sisters Road.
So, it’s not going to get any easier. Competitive sport? No, not really. Football has been hi-jacked by these people and also the worrying and increasing influence of the bucketloads of money surging in and around football in this country from the betting industry who exploit the very people who can afford it least to wreak social havoc on society. These leeches have been welcomed by the PL as we all knew they would.
Arsenal have billionaire owners too but I doubt the Kroenkes want t get involved in a competitive arms race of ‘my dictator’s richer than your dictator’. They know that, for them anyway, oblivion lies that way because a top PL club can suck up money and spit out managers with alarming speed.
The overall picture can look quite bleak. Any attempt to regulate the financial madness is likely to be as successful as FFP. In other words Man City and others will ignore it and it will remain within the domain of the lawyers, those wonderful people who only have the good of society at heart.
It’s been dirty for a while but the PL battlefield is going to get right down in the mud and the crap and the PL are going to get even richer and then start crying and claiming foul when some bright spark says “Hey, why don’t we have a European Super League?”. That’s when Neville and Carragher will be wheeled out and really start crying and pleading for a level playing field.
Excuse me while I vomit.
Good morning Rico, raking over the ashes has never been a priority for me. I’ll look in tomorrow.
Morning Adam.
I can’t recall which game it was but we had something like 24 shots on goal but couldn’t finish any of them. That’s what goes through my mind when thinking about a striker. Yes, Nketiah did well in the end but how many more goals might we have scored with a different player to Lacazette up front as soon as the TW opened. History now though I know but in many ways, Arsenal only have themselves to blame for finishing 5th instead of 4th.
As you know, I hope for a super league but not one with Arsenal in it. The big money clubs can bugger off and play each other, leaving behind a level playing field imo.
Morning Cicero, ok.
Ah the great Super League in the sky.
How would we feel if one of these blokes came in and bought Arsenal before throwing money at players?
No way! or, ‘ if you can’t beat them’ ?
It could happen.
If you can’t beat them, join them springs to mind but there’s something about it which doesn’t sit comfortably with me Adam so I’d say no.
Adam’s synopsis is as telling as Pbarany’s, Both are correct in their own way and both relevant.
Time for a cuppa ?? . To digest all of it will need a pot full and possibly a packet of biscuits later.
I will read it for a third time before coming back with my own comments.
Too much , too early .
Rico. It’s an odd one alright. Would we stay true to Corinthian values or go for the money? 😀
I’d settle for a new set of referees that have absolutely nothing to do with the present cabal of half-wits and match influencers.
Listening to Peter Walton during the CL final was excruciating. And he’s employed as the Expert Voice of football. The arbiter of the rules. The Godhead of officiating. The Guru of the Laws.
Hobnobs Potter. 😆
Absolutely agree Adam, the officials have been jolly unkind to Arsenal over recent years but even so, we do give them a helping hand too often.
Did you see the playoff yesterday? Moss and VAR were shocking. Thank goodness he’s now retired…
I didn’t see it Rico, but I read about Moss and his penalty decisions. Thank gawd he’s gone back to his shop in Manchester where he sells vinyl records.
Nice piece Pb.
Godhead Adam. Reminds me of David Icke. 😂
Morning Pete. Very similar. 😀
He was awful Adam and VAR didn’t even bother reviewing one of the penalty decisions. With so much money at stake in the game, the officiating really needs improving.
Some insight into the problems at the Champions League final in Paris. I was at the 2006 CL final and CWC final in 1995, both in Paris.
Paris is easy to get to for football fans from England. They can travel in vast numbers. In 2006 there were thousands of Arsenal fans who had driven (ferry) to Paris for the game without tickets. Many of the Arsenal fans were searching for tickets and were very aggressive. One tried to steal my ticket the night before the game.
English fans abroad in numbers tend to act in a Neanderthal way. Pubs are taken over, locals heckled and the boozing gets OTT. There a fine line between exuberance and violence.
Paris in places (like many other large cities) is quite rough. In 2006 there were gangs of youths trying to get Arsenal fans on the wrong metro so they could be robbed.
For the big matches the French CRS are deployed. They are military style police. Very violent in nature. I saw them assault a number of Arsenal fans in 1995 and use CS gas liberally when they were outnumbered. They do not engage in debate.
In 1995 at the Parc des Princes the police locked the Arsenal fans in the stadium after the game then CS gassed all the fans when they opened the gates. Families, children etc.
In 2006 the police made it as hard as possible for the Arsenal fans to enter the Stade de France. The Barcelona fans were moved in easily. There was crushing outside the stadium. A number of Arsenal fans broke through the cordon (jibbed in for free). Some scaled the fences. One guy got impaled on the spikes (ouch).
The scousers have a reputation for rushing turnstiles to get into games for free. They tried it at Arsenal a few years back. A number of them bragged of doing so at the Champions League final in Athens. Counterfeit tickets are also rife at these games.
It all adds up to a perfect storm, that could lead to injuries and deaths.
Paris should not be used as a final venue for football again, until they sort out their organisation. Liverpool fans (and English fans abroad in general) need to get a grip on their behaviour. But we know this will be brushed under the carpet because UEFA are only interested in the money.
This happens because of corruption.
Morning, Rico and all, and thanks for the opportunity.
First let me update on one of the ‘weirds’ above: as Omari Hutchinson was called to Jamaica’s team, he will most likely pop his cherry later this week, hence becoming the 6th full adult international without playing a minute for Arsenal’s first team…
On the Wenger, Emery and Arteta comparison, you are right Rico on the league balance point of view (as clubs don’t have to compete for players and funds only via PL results, but owners’ cash injection and other financially shady ways), however the comparison might be apt when it comes to conceding goals and creating chances. The playing field is less even than it was 5 years ago, but attacking football still exists, and even if we disregard the top 3 (albeit I’m not sure we should), when Tottenham is capable to reach +30 goal difference then we shouldn’t accept the 8-15 ballpark as the ‘reality’ given by factors outside our control.
I agree with your point on it’s no longer enough to be a good coach, Arteta must become a good tactician and game manager to bring Arsenal forward (and keep his job). It will be an uphill battle, because United and Newcastle will be desperate to close the gap, and Villa isn’t playing around with its early and competent signings either. Nevertheless Mikel has the brains and alleged humbleness to develop himself, let’s hope he will understand the severity of the situation.
Regarding the potential class striker signing of January… I don’t think it failed due to the lack of trying (we engaged Vlahovic, but didn’t come, not sure others at his caliber were both available and willing to join a – then – mid-table PL team). And I’m still not convinced that the few extra goals he would have scored would balanced the lack of chances created and losing Nketiah. We surely would have lost him as the new guy would have absorbed both his and Lacazette’s minutes. If Nketiah leaves this summer anyway then giving him the opportunities didn’t make any difference, however there is a fair to good chance that he signs the new contract and with a class striker signing we would have a player in the squad who is Arsenal DNA, would have no problems playing in European and cup games (as long as we provide him enough competitive minutes), and would enthusiastically challenge the new guy.
@Rico & Adam
Moss was poor as usual. There were two ‘penalty’ decisions in the 2nd half for Huddersfield that were waved away (he booked one for a dive) that I suspect would have been given as penalties in the PL with their version of VAR. In fact if Salah or Son were involved they would definitely have been given.
Hi Pete, that’s awful…
Morning Pbarany.
Not really though as look at the players we had compared to those at other clubs other than a handful who had good strikers. Arsene was battling with Fergie only imo whereas now, so many better managers are around and more clubs with vast amounts of money to throw at them. As soon as Chelsea were taken over, things changed and not for the better.
Imo, Arsenal either need greater investment on players who have enough about them to play the game, as Keown, Adams etc etc did, or a manager who can adapt his ways to the players he has like Graham Potter etc. or dare I say, Conte.
Afternoon Rico and all
Rico you mentioned grab a cuppa but you forgot to mention try the toilet first
Pbarany Thanks for the article,
It’s good to look at stats some times however the problem with them is it does not show the whole picture like what players were missing from our opponents. While Wenger may have stayed 5 years too long and set us back a bit we need to remember that When Wenger joined one of the first things he did was try to change the culture of the players from wanting to drink, smoke and eat meat pies to a more healthier diet and getting fitter, while Emery was not really supported by the club, However while Arteta has been supported by the club, he was left with the trouble makers that Emery tried to get rid off.
I personal don’t think Arteta has improved but hopefully he will buy smart this transfer season and along with the team take the next step to play more consistent games and show that we can compete and put teams away and not let them get back into the game.
Pete, agree re the penalties.
Hi Geoff. I just replied to you but my comment disappeared.
Rico from yesterday I can understand a 16 / 17 year old going out on loan or even a keeper as they tend to develop later than a normal player but at 19 and still being on loan a recon it’s time to move on.
Geoff, Ian Wright and Jamie Vardy might disagree.
Pete, from Heysel to Hillsborough, cities all over Europe and now Paris, it’s always Liverpool supporters involved.
Of course they are never at fault.
vinyl records ? you can make flower pots out of those
Never had a problem with ” los cules ” in 2006 .The day was one big party bit dampened at the end but a good trip anyway.
Here we go , I have had a bit of time to go through the post a couple of times much to the chagrin of the missus.
Firstly the sale of Willock was a steal only outweighed by the crazy deal we did to let Chambers go.
We lost 13 games and only drew 3 which means that we either turn up or don’t and when we don’t it’s been mainly to a lack of direction from the experienced players to help the young ones through.
We burned out too many people and probably caused our injury problems by not trusting the squad and depending on too few, too much.
On one hand you praised Odegaard and yet complain of a lack of creation , what does this tell us other than for a playmaker to be successful he needs movement in front of him which is something that Nketiah has provided of late but too late.
Arteta took too long to realise that Aubameyang was holding the whole process back and only when he introduced Lacazette did the ball retention improve but it was not something that he could do for a long period effectively he is not cut out to be a kind of Mark Hughes forward that can play deep and be prolific scoring at the same time.
5 International loanees , 1 keeper that we will need if Leno goes , 1 attacking midfielder and 3 centre backs not the best mix but it brings the purchase of White into question and perhaps explains why the Gabriel rumour is gaining legs.
With a few decent signings and a couple of tweaks here and there the much famed process should be good to go ,but for how long have we been saying that ?
Peter that was a mammoth post, respect to you, but I’m not sure that I can respond to all of it, so let me put it this way, to me football is an emotional experience, it’s a feeling you get and it’s probably why I’m not into the modern stats game in a big way.
To me you either like a team or you don’t, it’s nothing tangible it’s just a feeling, an emotion and I like this team, I like the manager and I’m beginning to like his staff – the owners, well I’ll pass on that.
I like the work that Edu has done over the past 12 months, I like the young players coming out of the Academy, I like the re-connection with the fans, the younger, more involved support we get at Ashburton Grove and away from home, I like the process and how our players are buying into it and I don’t care about the snide comments from the Press, the Media and OnLine, I don’t give a shit to what the naysayers put forward (AFTV and those clowns) and their negativity (nobody on here btw), I know how I feel about Arsenal at this time and I like it.
Hi Potter.
Like you we had no issues in 2006 with the Barca fans. The main issues we had were with some of the Arsenal fans around the Gare du Nord and the pigalle district and the local criminals that were being drawn in to the rich pickings on offer. We decided to move to another area to get away from the chaos. A sensible move.
In my experience Paris is not much fun for football fans. At the other end of the spectrum are Barcelona and Copenhagen.
Hear hear, Kev. Me too!
Paris really is a toilet these days…
Good points Potter and we’ve been saying that since 2008… imo anyway. Tweaking I mean..
Nice to hear Wavy, maybe it’s because we have actually seen Arsenal teams that are crap.
There is a difference you know. 😉
Excellent Kev. I’m the same re the stats and everything else you’ve said. Saying that, I’m not entirely convinced by Mikel Arteta, but, that doesn’t mean I’ll be moaning about him each week. After all, I’m just an online critic. 🤣🤣
Rico, I’ve never thought of you as a moaner, no, not at all…
You just like a soft grumble from time to time… 😉
Ha ha Kev. Lol
latest rumour
Amadou Onana , Belgian , midfielder ,6 foot 6 inches under 21 interrnational , Not to be confused with Andre Onana who we were linked with from Real Madrid last window.
Onana sounds the kind of name that could lead to some memorable songs, I hope we sign him…
“Push pineapple shake the tree……….. 😝
There’s a new post up.