• The Arsenal

  • Official: Mikel Arteta is the new Arsenal manager.

Point is no stats person has ever said you should not buy players who cannot score.
What they say from a basic numbers perspective, and we see this with Arsenal now, and over the last two years, the biggest contributor to scoring goals is actual chance creation. The best finishers in the league right now are doing 20-24% (Salah and Haaland), and your typical guys are doing around 16%, but what you also see the importance of taking tons of shots. Haaland has taken 55 shots to get to his 12 goals. If he had only taken 33 shots like Salah has this season, Haaland would have only 7 goals this season.
Guess what, none of our players have taken as many shots as Salah this season - with Saka and Havertz both around 27 shots this season. That much more than our finishing ability is what is holding us back. We are not getting the ball into areas to take shots.
We had this discussion last season - you said we Havertz was a waste of money, we needed to buy a striker in January. And then we started getting the ball into the box and had our best 38 game goal scoring output ever. Because we took shitloads of shots. And that's just a numbers thing - but no stats guy will ever say no to a Salah or Haaland because if i am faced with an individual chance, I want one of those guys.

QuincyAbeyie this is so true for me and it's why I don't like the way Arsenal vision have gone fully into this as the "only" factor. We are struggling to score in many games but xg is good so no problem we are clearly still the best side. It is one data point you need more rounded context and input. You will not score as many as xg if your forwards aren't up to it but they often hand wave that away as having any relevance.

    Good summary of how we have changed the way we play.

    18 days later

    Not bad for a defensive manager. A very impressive stat. Hopefully, we add to this total versus United.

    Claudius and Arteta bad, as all we hear is that he did not fuck up but City are too good, the league is impossible to win etc. It is not. Just that so far, Arteta has not been good enough. And there is no one who can do a better job then Arteta, that was the narative...well in fact, there are plenty

        HomeSteak
        look. if we go and have a good season overall, and another manager beats us, then massive props to that manager. If we have a completely fucked up season like the Leicester season, then the manager should be held accountable.

        I'm just shocked by the number of people giving up and painting these terrible scenarios - and also eager to get stuck in to Arteta who has done nothing but build credit over the last 3 or 4 years. it's bizarre.

          HomeSteak This is getting silly now.

          Arteta is "not good enough", yet he was good enough to get us to eighty nine points last season. Only one man has bettered that tally in the 140 year history of this football club. If Arteta isn't good enough for you, who is?

              HomeSteak

              Yes, as the first 3 months of Tuchel, Howe, ETH, Ange, various others (and now Slot and Maresca) have proved, there's loads of managers that can challenge for the title and win the league quicker, and Pep hasn't won 6 of the last 7 league titles.

              Every season it's someone new.

                Sicario2 - Tier 1 I get what you mean, but Arteta managerial capability is proven beyond doubt by now. He's a top class manager.

                If Slot wins the title, it only shows that he's also a top manager and that it's possible to win the title against the machines of City if you don't make mistakes. Arteta has made plenty of tactical or personnel selection issues along the way and has his blind spots, but personally I feel that we made too many mistakes and went a longer route than we should have in the squad building.

                  Every manager will have his faults and blind spots, the question is how does Mikel's faults compare to his peers. I personally think you'll have a hard time finding a better body of work, especially when it comes to squad building.

                  If there's anything that proves how fine the margins are and how volatile the world of football management is at the top of the game, it's the fact that Man City, managed by a man who many consider the greatest manager of all time won the league last season with over 90 points but are currently sitting in 5th, a point above a team that was battling relegation last season, who are managed by a guy that failed at Spurs.

                  There are a range of different variables that contribute to whether or not you meet your goals in a season and some are outside the control of a manager. And before anyone suggests it, this doesn't mean Arteta is infallible.

                  Long story short, let chill the feck out! 😂

                    I think you can appraise where we've got to and recognise that improvement and the fact we are in the group at the top of the table and in the mix again. While still critically looking at how do we get to the top and whether Arteta is able to do that.

                    He's a good manager but not in the same league as those that have won titles. In terms of Arteta's peers I'm comparing him to the managers that have won titles because that is the aspiration and what I feel he's targeting so that's the benchmark. If it is against any manager who has looked fairly good without winning the big honours then that's fine but that's what Tottenham, Rogers Liverpool etc did. If you were at that time praising those clubs for running it close being success fair enough but to me those teams had unique windows where they had the platform to do something and they ultimately failed and those opportunities are rare for most teams so you need to maximise them.

                    Don Pacifico

                    We can’t keep using ‘fine margins’ as justification for not winning honours.

                    I think Slot winning the title will make Artera look bad no doubt about it. What will make Artera look even worse is not winning anything.

                    Suddenly that league cup quarter final game v Palace is bigger than it should be.

                        Sicario2 - Tier 1 If Slot wins the title in his first season it would unfortunately make Artera look very bad.

                        Meh. Pool have been lucky so far this season. They haven't reached the levels we've been at past two seasons.

                        And Liverpool have just beaten City while not even playing at the level we were at when we played City before we got screwed by a red card.

                        If Liverpool win this season by 9 points from here on in, I'll give them plenty of credit, but as it is they're just appealing front runners which is exactly what you'd expect.