A statistical comparison of Arsenal’s 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons

Following the 4-0 final day win over Fulham, I thought it interesting to provide a very brief statistical comparison of Arsenal’s performance in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons.

League Position

2008/09: 4th
2009/10: 3rd

Conclusion: An improvement of one place on last season – in the process navigating the unwanted task of playing early-season Champions League qualifying games after a World Cup.

League Points

2008/09: 72
2009/10: 75

Conclusion: An improvement of 3 points on last season – despite some woeful results since our title charge was ended at White Hart Lane.

Points off 1st Place

2008/09: 18
2009/10: 11

Conclusion: An improvement of 7 points from last season – a marked  improvement relative to the other sides at the top.

Goal Difference

2008/09: +31
2009/10: +42

Conclusion: An improvement of 11 on last season. Interesting to note that Chelsea’s goal difference improved by 27 and Manchester United’s by 14.

Goals Scored

2008/09: 68
2009/10: 83

Conclusion: An improvement of 15 goals on last season.

Goals Conceded

2008/09: 37
2009/10: 41

Conclusion: A regression of 4 goals on last season, despite the addition of the superb Thomas Vermaelen and the inspirational return of Sol Campbell.

General Conclusions

In every single important statistical indicator we have improved – except the number of goals conceded.

The biggest indicator of our progression this season is an improvement of our league position from 4th to 3rd. It is an achievement made more impressive by the improved performances of Tottenham and Manchester City and the prediction by many in the media that we would finish in 5th position and miss out on the Champions League altogether.

Chelsea won the title with four less points than Manchester United did last season despite scoring a record number of goals and having a quite remarkable goal difference of +71. That we managed to close the gap on the Premier League champions from 18 points to 11 points is a good indicator of our relative improvement in a league that has tightened significantly.

An improvement of 15 goals on last season indicates a good improvement in the attacking third, even despite a barren mid-season period where we struggled without Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner, and a quite horrendous end-of-season run that has yielded poor results.

As I mentioned the one area that we have regressed is defensively, with four more goals being conceded than last season. There are a multitude of reasons why this has happened – Johan Djourou’s early-season injury left us a little short on depth at the back and our goalkeepers have been extremely disappointing – yet the simple fact is that it is an area of our game that needs to be improved.

Overall though, we should be relatively happy in the knowledge that 2009/10 has been a significant improvement on 2008/09 even despite the huge increase in the number of injuries we have suffered.

Thoughts?

Have your say on the 2009/10 season by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. You know you can’t be writing positive thoughts about our season. You’ll have Arsenal Action here ranting about what a disgrace we are and to sack Wenger and the board and the coaching staff and all the players and the tea ladies.

  2. Good analysis. I thought it was a definite improvement on last season. But clearly our defensive play has to improve markedly next season for us to challenge for the title.

    Good to see certain players breakthrough (notably Song), and others show enough glimpses that they can cut it at the top end of the league.

    Our injury list was a continual joke but if we can stay fit, seal up the defense , better goalkeeper and defensive tactics then I think we have a good shout next term.

  3. Yes, you are right. We have exceeded expectations this season, but for some reason most of our fans think we have a divine right to win the league every year despite only winning it 5 times since 71… or the Champs Lg despite never winning it. Part of me hopes we do the Carling and FA Cup double next season but finish 5th. How good does your tacky silverware make you feel while Spurs are in the CL?

  4. I’m quietly optimistic as I forgot how good Van Persie is with him being out for such a long time. THAT was our tragedy this season. Bendtner is very poor and as I’ve said before, we’ve made a mistake signing him for a number of seasons when he’s Championship at best. Chamakh looks good and Remy also would help off the bench. Shaun Wright-Phillips looks good for 5m pounds too. Hopefully they can keep Bendtner out of the starting line up.

    One covering midfield hard man and two centre backs. I don’t think Wenger has to spend a great deal. Just 30m. Not 100m.

  5. Chamakh is a bigger addition than some are admitting. He would cost 10-15 million pounds if he wasn’t out of contract, just because we are getting him on a free transfer some are writing him off but he is the same player either way. Scored a ton of headed goals this year and was the target man of a team that went far into the champions league. Adds a dimension in attack that we were lacking. With Fabregas, Arshavin, and van Persie, our attack is more than good enough and tough to stop.

    Add a big CB to pair with Vermaelen, Sol and Djourou are adequete cover at the position with Clichy and Gibbs at LB and Sagna and Eboue at RB.

    And the biggest part, add a world class GK. We need a GK that earns us points, not hold us back and lose points.

    Do those things, and the sky is the limit.

  6. Dave M, Bendtner will be out of the starting lineup next year for sure. The best way to explain is just map it out,

    Starting Lineup: New GK, Sagna, Vermaelen, New CB, Clichy, Song, Fabregas, Diaby, Nasri, van Persie, Arshavin.

    Bench: Almunia, Sol, Gibbs, Eboue, Walcott, Chamakh, Denilson.

    Players like Bendtner, Eduardo, Rosicky, Vela, and Djourou won’t even make the bench with a full squad.

  7. Andy:

    I´d like to point out that a lot of those statistics are a little off (in a good way) considering our last month of the season was horribly unusual and that it would´ve easily been 4 straight wins… ok, being a little pessimistic it would´ve been 2 wins and 2 draws, rather than the 0 wins we achieved…

    Taking that into account, our improvement from last season was even better and the distance between man utd, chelsea and us is narrower than it looks…

  8. a world class keeper and CB will complete the team. Youngsters are growing up and improving allthe time. And, reserve players will also be stepping up, esp, those who were out on loan. I think Norvelt, Wilshere, Lansbury, Borthelo willgo out on loan again. They will return in Jan to help in the final half of the season,when injury and tiredness takes its toll.

  9. Andy, Can you also publish how many points arsenal would have gained, if we had a decent keeper if you have the statistics

  10. Fair analysis but on the whole all teams improved this season. Most fans are probably content although it dosen’t hide the fact of ‘non’ statistical issues such as the fighting spirit and the inconsistent showing on away games both to top tier teams as well as the top two. If we can learn how to win a cup next season I believe this team will have the camdarie and spirit to sustain for few more seasons.

    Looking at the Chelsea winning the Epl or Fc Twente winning the dutch league, I can see the importance of why this current Arsenal squad must win something together. Looking at the Twente players as they achieve their first dutch championship there’s this certain human emotion of intense teambonding that can only be achieved through winning and if Arsenal next season manage to go through the season without injuries to the chosen first 11, I don’t see why they can’t achieve what Chelsea achieved.

  11. @ Ricky, we lost points in 9 games in all competitions because (could be up for debate…) of our keepers.

    These are the games:

    *man utd home (almunia turns into his own net a cross from nani)
    *Hammers away (mannone saves a free kick from diamanti and instead of palming the ball outside, he leaves it in cole’s feet)
    *stoke away fa cup (Fabianski and delap´s throw-ins)
    *man utd away (almunia “fouls” rooney in the box while going after a ball that wasn´t dangerous at all)
    *Porto away (the infamous campbell and fabianski back pass move)
    *brum away (90+4 mins and almunia isn´t able to punch clear a rebound ball)
    *barcelona home (first goal, when almunia can´t decide if he goes for the player or stays in the goal)
    *Spurs away ( punches the ball weakly from a corner, falls down and… you know)
    *Wigan away (Fabianski giving the ball to bramble for him to head home)

    What may cause different points of view is that wether these games mentioned above (all of them, some… whatever) would´ve been lost because of these goalkeeping mistakes… but anyway…

  12. The main difference between this season and the previous is that we were out of the title race by november in 08-09. It was only a great run in (when it was too late) that we closed the gap on the eventual winners. This season we were in the hunt until about game 34 when we lost to spurs. Still feels just as disappointing though.

    Chelski deserve the title – you can’t argue with >100 goals but there is nothing likeable about them. They are the Leeds of our time (just watched The Damned United – great film if you haven’t seen it btw). Drogba is pathetic – talk about putting yourself above the team.

    Look forward to the transfer silly season and hope we get two or three good ‘uns. Someone who can catch the ball would be nice.

  13. Our goal conceded is due to the fact of our superstar keepers…we had some defensive trouble but our keepers were just too outstanding

  14. Ok i t shows progress but compared to MU and Chelsea not good enough.Arsens says he is frustrated but the blame lies with him for his failure to shore up the team with experienced ones rather than over the hill crocks.
    The competition is going to get fiercer/tougher and all teams will strengthen. Ready made to go into the first rather than kids with unbelievable talent will go some way to making the team strong.
    Btw Chelsea have all their major rivals home and away.First Arsenal will have to avoid defeat or beat Chelsea next season.

  15. Yes, improvement was had. But could it have been better considering our rivals relative weaknesses compared to last season? The final quarter of the season has been disappointing – the defence has to be overhauled.

  16. What have we come to when finishing third is considered to be ‘exceeding expectations’ for our great football Club? This is the problem with the culture that Arsene Wenger has created at the Club. The bar has been lowered and we are told to be happy because we finished one place higher and a few points closer than the season before. Bollox. More of the same next season and Wenger should be told to get on his bike in no uncertain terms. Finishing third and fourth each season and saying we should be relatively happy with that is NOT good enough for Arsenal F.C.

  17. in some ways a disapointing season but overall a positive season. in retrospect this was not our season to win it. we are certainly on our way though

  18. @ ricky / juan – You make some good points but I really wanted this article to be about cold hard statistics, rather than any sort of opinion. The opinions are much harder to measure and back up (things like team spirit improving, impacts of goalkeepers, injuries, poor results after Spurs game).

    I think it’s great that we can measure just the numbers across the two seasons and see a CLEAR improvement.

  19. @ Womble – I haven’t mentioned anything about ‘exceeding expectations’. The post is a simple comparison of the past two seasons to indicate the concrete improvement of our performances and results.

  20. Finish in the 3 or 4 is the some 2 the fans becouse din’t win anythint so fans are eger 2 see some tropy

  21. There is a massive difference betweeh 3rd and 4th to any footballb literate fan. With an injury record like ours, it is important that we play as few games as possible on our way to winning titles. We have effectively cut out 2 banana slip games from next season. On that token, there is no difference between 2nd and 3rd, other than prize money.

  22. Definitely need a solid goal keeper and a striker. Not picking up Bellamy & Shay Given were costly mistakes in hindsight!

  23. Points won against the top 2 or 5 would be interesting.

    I think we did worse here than usual.

    Otherwise great fact-based article, a rarity.

  24. the facts and figures can be misleading and they point out one thing, the squad is just not good enough to win trophies. Winning trophies is everything and placings do not matter. Andy very conveniently forgot to mention our results against manu, chelsea who did the double. manc taking four points. If finishing in top four is good enough then I do not agree. great club arsenal must win trophies not every year but going trophyless for six years is not acceptable by any standard.

  25. There are lies, damn lies and statistics.
    Was Seaman a great keeper? Did we ever lose games through his mistakes? Answer yes and yes.
    My point is that it is impossible to say what would have been if….. (possibly might have been).
    Yes, we need to improve, both inside the squad and by additions.
    But if you want it all, and you want it now, then it’s time for you to grow up.
    Now, if I’d been manager……

  26. This is probably the first season where i have attentively read this blog. All in all i was really pleased with the coverage of the season and the calibre of discussion on here. I think that this has been an improvement.

    If you look at the squad from last year we had one major addition plus two “major” losses in Toure and Greedybayor. However we have still managed to do much better. Cesc is a shored up captain. And song has been a pitbull standing at the gates of our defence. Our covereing players apart from the defenders have done really well. look at Eboue.

    But no more baron seasons

  27. Yes, the statistics show that we’ve made a small improvement on last year, but I can’t help feeling that this season was an opportunity missed. Chelsea scored a lot of goals and are worthy champions, but I think both they and Man U were weaker than in 08/09. No team bossed the season in the way we’ve season recently and I really felt we had a great chance up until the Spurs game. The loss to Barca in the CL seemed to drain the confidence and the belief of the team, and it’s no coincidence that our collapse coincided with Cesc being injured. Next season will be much, much harder with Man City no doubt spending squillions and Spurs now possibly able to attract top quality players now they’re in the CL. Man U and Chelsea will strengthen and the challenge for Arsene is to match their ambition. He’s failed to do that in each of the last 4 summers and he can’t afford to do it again. We now have money to spend (anything from £30M to £50M depending on what you read), but we most definitely need to invest. A GK, a CB, another DM and Chamakh has to be the minimum.
    Up until the Wigan and Blackburn games, I thought we’d improved greatly on last year’s inability to get maximum points from “smaller” sides (West Ham away was an exception), but our failure to compete against Chelsea and Man U was a big worry. Chelsea slaughtered us both home and away and although we were unlucky at Old Trafford, Man U humiliated us at Emirates. The disappointment at our dramatic drop-off at the tail end of this term shouldn’t mask the fact that we have improved on last year, but we’re still a long, long way from Chelsea and Man U.

  28. Good post. Statistics reveal what we all know – the one area where serious improvement is required is in defence. New GK, new CB, new defensive midifelder. But all this talk about barren seasons need to stop – it will continue to be very difficult to compete with Chelsea because of their money, and Man City will become increasingly competitive because of theirs. As AW said yesterday, there are two important trophies to win: (i) the Premiership; and (ii) securing a place in the Champions League. We won automatic Champions League qualification yet again this season – given the growing strength of the competition, that is no small achievement.

  29. I’ve read with interest that Arsene Wenger is ‘preparing a cut-price £5m move’ for Shaun Wright-Philips.

    The source has come from the ‘very reliable’ Sun newspaper, which probably makes the story about as reliable as a chocolate fire-guard. Yummmm, chocolate fire-guard.

    Anyway, over the past decade we have been linked with SWP probably over a million and one times so where is the harm in linking him to Arsenal again? After all, it’s almost silly season!

    I think in the past Wenger has admitted a fleeting interest in Ian Wright’s son. It’s a bit like when you catch a glimpse of a ‘beautiful’ women, turn to check her out, only to realise the women looks as good as a cross between Harry Redknapp and Iain Dowie.

    You thought you saw a sort but in truth the reality was different. These mistakes can happen. We are homo-sapiens after all.

    I can’t see it happening but I wonder whether Ian Wright might actually start to like us again if it did.

    Wrighty gets a mixed reaction from Gooners these days. Some still worship him, others think he has become a turn-coat. Some people think I named this blog after Ian Wright. I didn’t, Wright is my surname too and Wrighty is a nickname of mine.

    Sometimes I wish I still had my child-hood image of Ian Wright ingrained in my mind. Then he could do no wrong. I loved him, like a brother.

    These days I have a different opinion of him. He seems bitter about Arsenal to me and never hesitates to stick the boot in. I think he might be bitter because we never signed his son and let him leave.

    Of course, he is entitled to his own opinion but I just wish he stuck up for Arsenal more than having a dig.

    As a matter of fact a lot of ex-Arsenal players who go into the media seem to take up the trend of having a pop at us whenever possible. I think its wrong.

    Enough of the media have a go at us already without Arsenal ‘Icons and Legends’ taking the same route. It’s almost as if its the way to remain in your job. They probably get a pay-rise for every anti-Arsenal remark they make.

    Charlie Nicholas is the exception. That man sticks up for us all the time and in my view is the benchmark for how the others should be.

    You will never hear a former Manchester United player having a pop at United or a former Liverpool player having a go at Liverpool and that is how it should be.

    Why do these former Gunners go into the media and constantly whinge about Arsenal and what they should do?

  30. Guys where has the pride and fame of the once cherished gunners gone. Why should we forget how much we pay to watch an arsenal game compared to other teams, why how we relegated ourselves to accepting mediocrity as good enough? You are either a champion or a loser which we are. Wenger shouldnt fool you fans that a club competing on all fours is as well as good by improving a league position.This is all pathetic .We should detest this no sense otherwise next season we may finish third but with a huge goal difference and that will be an improvement.I really feel sorry for the fans because it is unlikely that there will be a great change cause even the board doesnt seem concerned as long as they pay themselves hefty dividends while fleecing the fans of their hard earned money. Wenger shouldnt have thanked the fans but he should have apologised to them because of the glaring mistakes obviuosly made right from his tactics and team selection.Every fan could see the deficiency in the team apart from Wenger. I am one of the proponents for his dismissal.I just hope he has saved enough for his retirement in France. We are tired of rubbish and lame excuses season in season out.

  31. Arsene should aim for FACup or CarlingCup and a finish above fourth in next season and not league cup and champions league.First he should teach the team on how they will feel winning a cup.Or what it takes to win a cup.This is very much needed for the team.The boys have never learned till now.A season before they lost their hope after Eduardo incident.This season they lost it when they got thrashed by Barcelona.Arsene should not aim for the big ones first .He should proceed step by step.Because this team lacks cup experience and if they win a cup their attitude changes a lot and makes boys as mens.

  32. Or else we will else see the same improvement year after year but not the cup.As the team will continue to lose hope and at one stage they don’t know what to do, to get the cup and eventually players move to other clubs to see how they do it.

  33. Thanks for a season of balanced, thoughtful, positive-minded analysis, even in some difficult times. If I wanted to read constant criticism of my team, there are so many other sites I could go to. Well done for rising above that.

  34. Overall an improved season. A bad run of injuries impacted how we finished but the most dissappointing part of the season was our overall defensive result.

    When we conceded goals it was usually multiple and while Vermelan was a great buy and Song had a terrific season we needed more depth & experience as back up from the defensive midfield to the centre backs and the goal keepers.

    I hope we do buy in all these positions as we will need more back up in the new season after the upcoming world cup.

  35. Very interesting stats. Not bad, particularly considering how we limped across the finish line. I’m very optimistic about next year, with one caveat – Cesc stays.

  36. I was bracing myself for this. The feeble attempt at pulling positives from another poor season.
    If we hadnt improved on last season then that would have been ridiculous, i mean last season was very poor, so frankly, i dont find any comfort in these ‘cold hard statistics’. Its easy to find and point out statistics to back up your own agendas but often they can be misleading and paper over cracks, like everyone pointing to Denilsons ‘Stats’ last year saying what a DM he is….a DM who cant sprint or tackle and whos ‘successul pass rate’ is so high because he knocks it to Sagna and Clichy all the time.
    Where was the top 4 head to head table from this season compared to last season. Probably the most important and a true guage on where we are because it is based on head to head with your rivals, it makes the fixtures 6 pointers and victory can spur you on or a loss can knock you back.
    This is what we should be looking at because if we continue to be beaten 3-0 and 4-0 at home,aswel as losing away, vs the two teams that finished ahead of us then we are already depending on them dropping points before we even go go places like spurs,city,villa and everton.
    We are already giving chels and utd a 6 point start if we arent good enough to avoid defeat when we meet them.
    Champions win on their own merit, they dont hope that their rivals will drop points here and there. Chelsea proved they were champions yesterday, their fate was in their own hands.
    Is this current team good enough to beat chelsea or utd away from home next season??? They cant even put up a fight at HOME!
    So unless their are changes you want us to go into next season worrying more about utd and chelsea dropping points than us looking after our own business because I can guarantee if our fixture list comes out utd and chelsea in the first two games and we have fellas like almunia,nasri,diaby and denilson strolling and passing the ball from corner flag to corner flag ,whilst displaying a blatant like of ability and drive, then we will be 6 points behind them both after two games.
    Next season has the potential to be disastrous for us if Wenger doesnt add some muscle.

  37. So, there’s this yellow toad wandering around in the forest feeling very fed up because he doesn’t want to be yellow. Life would be easier if he was brown like other toads.. He’d sure be less visible to predators for one thing.
    Anyway…this yellow toad bumps into a Fairy Godmother. He begs her: “Fairy Godmother, please make me brown like the other toads. I am tired of being so visible to predators and such.”
    The Fairy Godmother whips out her magic wand and says “Abracapokus! You’re brown!”
    The toad looks down and sees that he’s brown except for his package, which is still yellow. He says to the Fairy Godmother:
    “Wait a minute! My willy’s still yellow!”
    To this the Fairy Godmother replies: “I don’t do willys. You will have to see the The Wizard of Oz for that.”
    The toad thanks her and hops off on his way.
    There is also a purple bear wandering about the very same woods. As luck would have it, he encounters the very same Fairy Godmother. He implores her: “Fairy Godmother, please make me brown like the other bears. None of the lady bears want to be seen with me on account of the hunters can spot me
    from a mile off.”
    She, being a nice Fairy Godmother, takes out her magic wand and says: “Pokuscadabra! You’re brown!”
    The bear looks down and sees the he is, in fact, brown with the exception of the ole twig and berries, they remain purple. He says: “My willy is still purple!”
    She says: “I don’t do willys, you will have to go see The Wizard of Oz for that.”
    To this the bear replies: “Well that’s just dandy, but how the hell do I find The wizard of Oz?”

    The fairy godmother answers: “That’s easy …..just follow the yellow dick toad!”

  38. Let us cut the bull here
    the bottom line is gunners we cannot score 80 points. what do we do from here. how do we shore the middle up. If we cannot hit 80 points we cannot compete for the title. If we cannot compete for the title we cannot be a force in Europe. I do not care about Spurs and City. If i did i would back them. Man U and Chelsea get 80 and above. We need to investigate seriously how we compete

    Is it that as gunners we are now the ‘club of compromise’?
    Every F)_*()*(&^ year it is the same thing

    “ooh there were positives from last year”
    For those who are new to this. there are no positives if you cannot win
    neophytes – that is life

    I need to know of the policy going forward. i think i support this club when i went to games and when i now buy paraphanelia. i think i deserve to know going forward what personnel changes will be made in making us better. and please do not tell me about chamakh.
    what does he bring.

    Chelsea scored 100+ plus goals because they have 50 per cent strikers (dudes who hit the net every other game) Chamakh does not

    PEOPLE.. WE SIMPLY CANNOT ACCEPT THIS.

  39. Good post.

    I hope next year we will get better Center Backs and Goal Keeper.

    Status quo will not lead us anywhere. Everybody else is trying to improve their team. Arsenal should do the same.

  40. Regardless of whether Willy Gallas stays or moves on, we do need at least 1 CB as none among the trio of Havard Nordtveit, Johan Djourou & Kyle Bartley are good enough to survive the rigors of Premier League football week in, week out.

  41. forget the stats……….take 38 games separately, introspect and analyze. I am sure there would be more negatives than positives this season.

    The kind of end we had to the season is a disgrace to every gunner……..forget winning title or winning bloody anything………..the fighting spirit is just isn’t there…….without Fab we were nothing more than a championship side!!

  42. The fact that we have gone up a place from last year is not an improvement. Its just another failure that we did not win the title.

    Not to be downhearted but i cant be happy about 3rd. Yes i agree we did do better than last year, but if we did not push for the title then… whats the point?

    I really do hope that AW does sign playerS in the summer and he does not say the same old “we have players coming through”.

    We have to compete with the likes of Man City, Chelsea and Man U, and even spurs and you know they will be spending money to bring in new players.

  43. @ unchained – “Every F)_*()*(&^ year it is the same thing

    “ooh there were positives from last year”

    In last year’s season review I stated that we had not moved forward from 2007/08 – a problem caused by the loss of Flamini and Co – so I don’t think this comment is relevant to what has been written on this blog. Therefore, why say it?

  44. @ London Underground man – “The fact that we have gone up a place from last year is not an improvement.”

    I can understand not being happy with third but that statement is just blatantly incorrect.

  45. @Andrew Weber – I appreciate the effort in extracting the statistics. But I’d beg to differ when u say arsenal have progressed since last season..

    IMO, The statistics u’ve shown appear to be too one sided to me. For eg, Its lacking the statistics of the oter ‘lesser’ teams when the intention is to compare the number of goals scored. You know, sometimes relativity is clearer than absolute numbers =)

    I thought this article sums up a bit of my feel for the topic you have brought up. I know you’ve most probably read it. Just another perspective for ur readers.

    http://www.oleole.com/blogs/arseblog/posts/arsenal-4-0-fulham-third-secured-but-frustrations-remain

    It is more of Liverpool slipping that we are able to achieve 3rd. I do not deny that arsenal have progressed in some departments, managing to fight for the title when the spine of the team is missing. However, Having players like almunia, sylvestre and denilson in the team and not replacing them when the previous season had highlighted they are not good enough, proved to be a step backward for me.

    Most of the time ur analysis was good. but this time, unfortunately i dun share ur views. peace. =)

  46. @ gunnerkyv – No problem, thanks for the comments.

    I suppose all I can do is reiterate that this is a simple comparison between this season and last season’s final numbers. It’s a really basic way of indicating that despite a lot of frustration, it’s clear that our results have objectively improved.

    You make an interesting point about Liverpool slipping rather than us moving up, but I don’t think that sort of thing can be gauged by numbers, it requires more opinion and analysis that this article was not trying to provide. Likewise criticising Almunia, Silvestre and Denilson, while potentially correct, is a matter of opinion rather than cold hard statistics.

  47. …hey, just a “fun” fact that i recently noticed (and by “fun” i mean the complete opposite)…if we´d won the 4 games we had to win, (spurs,city,rovers,wigan)… we would´ve been crowned champions on sunday with 87 points and 27 wins.

  48. Well done gunners.I agree with u Andy,am actually proud of another yr that we get champions league football by default!

  49. It’s been a long time coming but it seems that Arsenal have finally grown a big pair of knackers! I couldn’t believe my eyes when scrolling through the Arsenal website I came across a page that shows transfer links to the club. This is a more unusual move than Tom Jones by Arsenal.com. I know that it says the page ‘should taken with a pinch of salt’ but what purpose does it actually serve? I like to think that Arsenal are giving some stick back. In my opinion over the years Arsenal have had more players tapped up and linked with moves away than anyone. Personally I’m happy we are doing the same. It may seem dirty but I reckon Arsenal have been bullied enough and a little fight back doesn’t hurt anybody. The likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid have been doing it since the Stone Age and more recently Manchester City have been publicly declaring their interest in players in a bid to unsettle them. Why shouldn’t Arsenal rock their boats for a change? Yes I know we are more classy than those clubs but I reckon playing them at their own game is a good move by Arsenal. However, the more ‘suspicious’ Gooners may believe this a ploy by Arsenal to get our juices flowing. I’ve heard that Arsenal tickets, and season-tickets, aren’t selling as freely as in the past. Linking big-name buys may whet the appetite again for Arsenal fans. Surely Arsenal wouldn’t be that devious? I don’t think so. It’s nice to be linked with big-names but I wouldn’t get too excited or distressed this summer over transfers. Yes, it’s obvious we could do with ‘freshening’ up the squad but with the World Cup just around the corner I expect a summer of pure transfer ‘speculation’ madness. Try to remain calm. I will. If you don’t you may end up going mental like Britney Spears or something. It’s going to be a long summer, chillax and let it pan out. You may end up being surprised.

  50. ”Likewise criticising Almunia, Silvestre and Denilson, while potentially correct, is a matter of opinion rather than cold hard statistics”. This is a sad sad comment from one fan i respect.

  51. @ SCOPE – You’ve really misunderstood what I am trying to say there.

    What I’ve posted is not an opinion article, it is a statistical summary. I don’t disagree with the comment you’ve mentioned but it is an opinion, which is something I’ve tried not to put into this piece.

    This is simply comparing numbers and making some very basic conclusions.

    The season review stuff – complete with opinions – will be coming soon.

  52. hi guys,its nice and enjoyable to discuss about arsenal with you all.here’s my opinion

    GK-hart(he is the only gk with good quality but not in big club,and he had proven himself in epl compare to those other rumours that link gk with arsenal),almunia(second choice will suit him and relieve his pressure to gain backthe form he used to be,an okay substitute keeper.haha),mannone(wenger should loan him out to primier league team with call back option or until january in case of injury crisis and gain some experience with playing time off the club)

    CB-vermaelen,campbell,djourou,nordveit(same with mannone),a new starting cb who wenger thinks that will suit arsenal

    RB-eboue,gilbert/hoyte(i din see them play a lot,but i would prefer gilbert and do the same thing like mannone),a new starting rb(as i prefer eboue to be included in the subs and sagna did well but not enough for a team that challenge title with such awful crosses.maicon will be great.haha.damn.it will be like having dinner with cheryl cole if maicon join arsenal.)

    LB-clichy,gibbs,traore(same as mannone)

    DM-song,eastmond and coquelin(both of them will improve alot as the competition for backup role)

    CM-fabregas,diaby,denilson(plz dont include him in dm coz he cant afford to play such an important role),ramsey,lansbury and emmanuel-thomas(wenger can choose one to be loan out like mannone),merida(if he still want to play for arsenal,if he choose to stay,he will be a great cover for ramsey before he come back)

    wingers-walcott,wilshere and vela(loan out for half season for final title challenge sprint),nasri(i would prefer him in the cm role but wenger is looking forward him to be the second pires),rosicky(included in the sub role),hazard/zarate/suarez(i would prefer a new world class starting player but i dunno whether hazard suits)

    CF-rvp,chamakh,bendtner,eduardo(loan him out to let him gain the confidence back and come back for title challenge)

    players out-fabianski(this guy got no hope,haha),gallas and silvestre(out of contract),sagna,arshavin(i love this guy,but he keep talking he will join barcelona,juz sell this guy that would affect the team chemistry when he still have the market price.haha)

    beside these player,arsenal will have a bunch of players that can step up such as szczesny,bartley,miquel,angha,ozyakup,galindo,frimpong,wellington silva,freeman,afobe,sunu…oh man,future looks great for arsenal.haha

  53. Puzzling to say the least.

    Neither player set the world on fire, but when you look at the side I can’t see Nasri in an attacking or even central role making the bench.

    Gourcuff has any roaming AM position sewn up.

    Ribery/Ben Arfa/Malouda/Govou will dominate the flanks.

    Toulalan/L Diarra/ will hold the midfield.

    A.Diarra has had a better season and deserves to sit on the bench. I haven’t seen much of M’Vila, but I’m sure he was more consistent than Nasri.

    The positive being that hopefully this time round he’ll have a full pre-season completed by round one, with no Cup fatigue.

  54. How about Nasri not being picked for the French Squad out of a 30 player group..
    What does that tell us about our Young Midfielder?
    Is he really not that good?

  55. thanks for your statistics.
    but for me imrovement will mean when we move from zero to one in our cupboard

  56. I was bracing myself for this. The feeble attempt at pulling positives from another poor season.If we hadnt improved on last season then that would have been ridiculous, i mean last season was very poor, so frankly, i dont find any comfort in these ‘cold hard statistics’. Its easy to find and point out statistics to back up your own agendas but often they can be misleading and paper over cracks, like everyone pointing to Denilsons ‘Stats’ last year saying what a DM he is….a DM who cant sprint or tackle and whos ’successul pass rate’ is so high because he knocks it to Sagna and Clichy all the time.Where was the top 4 head to head table from this season compared to last season. Probably the most important and a true guage on where we are because it is based on head to head with your rivals, it makes the fixtures 6 pointers and victory can spur you on or a loss can knock you back.This is what we should be looking at because if we continue to be beaten 3-0 and 4-0 at home,aswel as losing away, vs the two teams that finished ahead of us then we are already depending on them dropping points before we even go go places like spurs,city,villa and everton.We are already giving chels and utd a 6 point start if we arent good enough to avoid defeat when we meet them.Champions win on their own merit, they dont hope that their rivals will drop points here and there. Chelsea proved they were champions yesterday, their fate was in their own hands.Is this current team good enough to beat chelsea or utd away from home next season??? They cant even put up a fight at HOME!So unless their are changes you want us to go into next season worrying more about utd and chelsea dropping points than us looking after our own business because I can guarantee if our fixture list comes out utd and chelsea in the first two games and we have fellas like almunia,nasri,diaby and denilson strolling and passing the ball from corner flag to corner flag ,whilst displaying a blatant like of ability and drive, then we will be 6 points behind them both after two games.Next season has the potential to be disastrous for us if Wenger doesnt add some muscle.
    +1

  57. @IMG,
    Nice to see someone agrees with me.
    Oh and it appears Raymond Domenech does aswel.
    Nasri was omitted from the worst 30-man french squad in decades. At the tender age of 23 and playing at such a big club you would imagine this feat to be impossible, but he deserves it on his performances this season, iv no doubt about that……Diaby been included though is very strange as he is as equally spineless and tactically inept.
    These two have put in some decent performances when were beating lowly oppositon 2 or 3-0 but they have been exposed as mediocre when we needed big characters in the crunch games.
    Im not talking about Diabys shocking og or Nasri making Nani look like Ronaldo at the emirates, although there valid points. Im talking about when they go hiding in games like the barce,utd and chelsea ones and the fact that when we lost a few players and they were entrusted by the manager and called upon to carry the torch that they shirked the responsibiltity and put in disgracefully inept and gutless performances vs Spurs,City,Wigan and Blackburn, in each case having the oppotunity to go out next game and salvage pride for themselves and the fans and for four games they stumbled to a LDLL, the draw coming against a City team who wanted a draw.
    I know there were others culpable for these run of results but their crime is that of being sub standard rather than not trying and showing to not be bothered.
    Once again I ask how these guys can justify the money they look for in these fat contracts, if we were to just tear up their two contracts the 10m or more could be used on bringing in a Scott Parker who has more balls that the pair of them combined

  58. Nasri omission is expected as he is competing with Gorcuff. I mean lets not kid ourselves, Nasri is not really the standard of Gorcuff so its fair. I’ve always wanted Wenger to buy Gorcuff not Chamakh but it is not to be. Even Chamakh said, “I learned the short passing game by playing with Gorcuff..”

    Anyway the transfer rumours page on arsenal.com is really a bad idea. Now we have tabloid news gracing the official site, the editor must be a real i*&ot.

  59. I watched Hangelaand earlier this season against Roma live and was impressed with him, very good in the air, non nonsense, barks instructions around – look a solid defender and even got himself a goal.

    BUT before the game last night they showed how vulnerable he is against good movement up, intelligence and pace upfront (something Roma didnt have that say as they had Totti and a few others out, that Okaka was up front), and I thought that showed last night – he was slow, panicky, didnt hold the offside line and doesnt seem to have much footballing ability on the ball. He certainly didnt look like someone who could play for us at his current level given the way we ask our centre backs to play from the back. He hoofed the ball on a number of occassions despite no-one being around him, lost control, and basically had a bit of a ‘mare. Obviously this is just one game, but as i say they showed this same point before the game of how he has made mistakes against European opposition – and this was possibly the biggest game of his career.

    Im not saying he wouldnt be a good squad player for us (and is miles better that Silvestere obviously), but against top top level opposition he looks vulnerable. Maybe Wenger held off from him to see how he performed in his second season in England – too be honest I see a lot of Senderos in him – not a bad defender on his day and always gives 100% for the cause, but against top level movement and pace seems to have a touch of the “headless chicken” about him – for £10m this summer I think there must be better options out there, as that sort of money needs to be spent on a player who is ready to step in on the opening day of the season. If it was a toss up between TV and Brege for £10m last season….I think Wenger got it right.

    We need at least one centre back next season, possibly two if as expected Senderos, Silvestere and Gallas go, but im not sure this guy is better than what we have, or have had this past season.

  60. @shambo, cold and calculated as usual, just as i like it. I dont either recognise the point of these stats when the boys have fallen short once again. The season is over finished, caput, fin, finito, das ende, belle, owari, koheu,(KAH-NYEHTS) how many other ways do i need to say it. Im outta here people unless there is anything more interesting. Up de ammers

  61. @ice,
    hows tricks mate?
    I think the blogs gonna be quiet a while with the season finished and Andys priming himself for his football Nomad project so i guess theres not much happening…..we could speculate on what Wenger might do this summer but I doubt HE even knows!
    Didnt like the zola sacking at all pal.

  62. Gunnerboss/ice,
    netherlands are a great price for the world cup….you heard it here first….brazil to fail to come out of their group.

  63. The Zola sack was poo. He deserved another year to learn. IMHO he got his tactics wrong quite often but they did stay up in the end and his players loved him.

    I find the inclusion of Diaby intriguing. I hope he gets some time. It will be interesting if he does to see his motivation level as it fluctuated as a Arsenal player.

    Totally agree with Aram. I’m not sold that Hangelaand is the best option. I do agree that we need experience back there though without a doubt.

  64. Can someone please send a tough no nonsense centre back to Ashburton grove. Signed sealed and delivered/
    Whoever we get. i would like them to be like Vidic. Someone from Germany, or even eastern Europe. Learning to ply their trade whiler dodging the next big civil war(I am not joking about any situation, but the bottom line is i want someone tough).
    Viera was the last dominator we had. Bring on the hustle, and hard tackle. The tower of strength.

  65. @ Andrew – Please update your blogg on a daily basis.

    I like reading your blogg but whenever i open i still keep finding the same old topic. We can give you ideas of the blogg topics like today why can’t it be on Fabregas and Barcelona Charms

  66. Some improvement on last season which is good to see, Arsenal need to make a couple of key signings, strong players both physically and mentally, to realistically challenge for the title next season.

  67. pls put new stories as suggested above…a lot is happening everyday….at least write a line or two…why do we come to this blog & find stories posted ages back?

  68. “we shouldn’t accept this” “what have we become” “it’s wengers fault we accept 3rd” “we should be winning titles”

    Listen. Here’s a little something. The league has changed!
    You wanna blame anyone for making arsenal not favorites to win the league anymore , blame chelsea.
    They ruined the league by upping the prices of everything the same year we cut our budget for a few years for a while by building the new stadium. Oh and lets get something straight. As a club, would you openly admit you don’t have money to buy? If you say yes, don’t go into business. Fact is , we haven’t a lot.
    I mean we actually have a nice amount of money, but that’s not enough anymore and that’s because of chelsea.

    What we had before don’t buy diddly squat anymore.
    And without selling our soul to some billionaire for short term success we are still in contention for the top prizes while staying a true club.

    If you want arsenal to just go for FA cup next year then do you expect players like Fabregas to stay?

    If you want Arsenal to buy 4 players for next season, they have got to be below par players or come on a free. Lets say we have £40 mil. That does NOT mean we can buy 4 £10 mil players. It means we can probably only get 2 because of all the extra costs added on.

    For those who turn a blind eye to finances and say the club is just happy being a business, you’re just being naive. It is money that is letting Chelsea buy the league from us and we need to try and catch up if we ever want to buy the big players.

    I mean lets translate something here. Coming 3rd meant that Chelsea’s and United’s squad is better than ours.
    You knew this. So why was it our divine right (as someone expertly put it) to win a league when we don’t have the best squad.

    Is it Wenger’s fault we don’t have the best squad? hell no. Again it’s chelsea’s fault. Wenger has done amazing with the money he had. I mean come on, if we went solely by transfer fees from 04-09 determining our league position, we should’ve been relegated by now.

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