Being better on paper doesn’t win games…

Morning all.

I watched Sunderland v Coventry last night. The game was the second leg of the playoffs with a final at Wembley for the winners along with an opportunity to make it into the Premier League. Ex Arsenal academy player Daniel Ballard scored Sunderland’s winner in the dying seconds of extra time. The game itself made enjoyable viewing, it was end to end at times and a lot of good football was on show.

After the game, Frank Lampard said his Coventry team was the better side in both legs and the defeat was cruel. He wasn’t bitter, how could he be but from what I watched last night, Coventry were indeed the better team. Lampard has done a great job bearing in mind the club were sitting 17th when he took over in November last year.

His comments made me think of Mikel Arteta’s after we were knocked out of the Champions League by PSG as he too insisted we were the better team over the two legs. I’m not sure I entirely agree because ultimately, Arsenal were beaten and not by luck either.

One can look at the statistics after a game and use them however they want but only one statistic matters really and that’s goals scored. Goals decide games not possession figures or chances created.

Coventry had plenty of opportunities to win the game last night as did Arsenal during both ties against PSG, but they don’t count unless they’re converted. It’s been the story of our season really, the lack of a killer instinct in front of goal.

It’s easy to point the finger at the defence when we concede goals which better defending or focus might have prevented them but only the whole, we’ve defended better than we’ve attacked.

The transfer window is just weeks away now and I think its safe to assume Arsenal will finally sign a striker, two if we’re really going to go for the title next season or at least a striker and a more prolific attacking player but who he/they will be is anyone’s guess really. The newspapers constantly link us to Benjamin Sesko, Viktor Gyokeres, Leroy Sane etc etc, but until a player is actually through the door, there’s no guarantee we’ll sign any one of them. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what name the players we sign have as I only care about what they do on the pitch. I also believe that a players price tag means little too after all, look at Utd and Liverpool – their multimillion pound strikers have hardly justified their price tag have they? Declan Rice however has more than justified his but then with him, we all knew what we were getting as he’d been doing it for years with West Ham and England.

At the other end of the spectrum, Jurrien Timber, who joined us from Ajax for a reported fee of £34m, has been brilliant. Jakub Kiwior has been really good too since coming into the team and going forwards, perhaps Mikel Arteta will use him more, assuming the player stays of course.

This summer should be about signing players who Arteta will trust and not players who are bench warmers in my opinion. Sterling will be gone, as will Neto thank goodness but we need a keeper whose only intention is to take the number one spot off of Raya. In fact every player we sign this summer should be about making the strongest starting eleven next season stronger than it was at the start of this one. Stronger and deeper so that Arteta is more willing to rotate more than he has in previous seasons.

As much as the club needs players to be 100% fit at the start of the season, it needs them fully fit at the end of it too.

Catch up in the comments.