West Brom v Arsenal | Saturday Jan 2, 8 PM British time |: Page 23 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

West Brom v Arsenal | Saturday Jan 2, 8 PM British time |

Ricky1985

Great performance. Tierney, Smith Rowe and Saka were just outstanding. Lacazette not far behind either.

speedy

Qwiss! wrote:
Klaus wrote:
I just realised we have positive goal difference again! We should play against Sam every week.

11th,positive goal difference. Almost reaching the dizzying heights of Emery sacking territory.

Normally at this stage of the season we've played 23 or so games this season were at 16/17 games so its still early doors and we're only 10 points off the top.

(Tongue in cheek).

lorddulaarsenal

goon

QuincyAbeyie

Can he do it in the snowy weather though?

Anzac

goon wrote:

He also made 3 key passes.
Want to see him rather than Xhaka in combo with Partey - particularly if he can keep up this form and passion (as seen for Laca's goal).
A better performance & contribution than Xhaka in every way other than passing %.

Anzac

AAStyle- wrote:
Anzac wrote:
No disrespect but IMO this is one of the traits from AW's excuses for a lack of ambition = using the table position without context (and he's still doing it talking of finishing 2nd to LCFC as being 'acceptable' under current circumstances).

Yes we are 11th, but we're also only 3 points off 6th/UEFA places, and 6 points off 3rd (with the best current form of any team in the PL).
That is less than how many points we finished behind LCFC in the above example.

I understand your position. I don't feel that pointing at our position reflects a disconnected view from the context. Our position is no coincidence: poor man management, rigid tactics, low morale.

Also, I feel that it is fair to look at our position when we are (almost) at the mid of the season. We have played 17 games, that is a decent statistic sample.

To put it in another context, we are currently joint 6th on the table in terms of points.

Anzac

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
Claudius wrote:
Context?
It’s halfway in the season in a league table that is 20% compressed versus recent seasons.

That we're fewer points behind 3rd place now than we were behind 1st place when we came second literally doesn't tell us anything about how compressed the table was in 3rd-11th any other season. 😆 To do that you compare 11th to 3rd now with 11th to 3rd in a different season, not 11th to 3rd now with 2nd to 1st in a different season.

I was thinking of context as in what equates to a good performance and what a 10 point gap can be either as close to or far away from being in that context.

AW considers finishing 2nd to LCFC as being a good performance under current circumstances, yet that same points difference is greater than our current gap to top4.
If you want a more direct comparison we are currently 10 points from top.

That said IMO it is the position in the bottom half of the table that distorts our perception of how the season is positioned.

Anzac

Just want to say IMO Saka's goal is as good as anything seen since and including Wilshere's goal v Norwich.

That it involved 4 players in the final 3rd, the same number of 1 touch passes with the same number of players, 2 runs into space after making the pass with both those players being Hale End products makes it even better. Then there is the additional bonus the entire movement came from a 12 pass move involving 7 players after a throw-in half-way in our half - not our best sequence by any stretch but still a factor.

Klaus

We scored a similar one in EL not too long ago, think it was Eddie who got on the end of that one. Just a quick turn and then tearing them apart with pace and first touches. The kids know how to play like this having been brought up in the academy.

Anzac

Klaus wrote:
We scored a similar one in EL not too long ago, think it was Eddie who got on the end of that one. Just a quick turn and then tearing them apart with pace and first touches. The kids know how to play like this having been brought up in the academy.

The kids are alright. :drool:

It also brings to mind a comment by the previous Academy Director (Jonkers?), who said we needed to bring back vertical passing into the training as we were too intent on possession based passing with no outcomes.

EDIT - Also shows we don't need a bona-fide playmaker as such if the patterns of play are in place and we have the players to execute the style.

Rohit

We have scored lots of very good team goals even under Emery and also under Wenger after the Wishere goal. That Wishere goal was a long time ago. Our goals against Leicester under Emery when Ozil played some incredible football were beautiful.

QuincyAbeyie

I disagree that Saka's goal was as good as Wilshere's against Norwich. There are great team goals, they happen some times, and then there's that. That doesn't happen some times.

Clrnc

Yep. Good goal nothing more.

People are over praising because that's probably the first decent team goal we scored in the league after some absolutely terribly full football

Anzac

Rohit wrote:
We have scored lots of very good team goals even under Emery and also under Wenger after the Wishere goal. That Wishere goal was a long time ago. Our goals against Leicester under Emery when Ozil played some incredible football were beautiful.

Perhaps what I didn't state clearly was that IMO Saka's goal is akin to being a 'signature goal' for Arteta-ball, in much the same way his goal he scored v CFC(?) for Emeryball, and Wilshere's goal v Norwich represented 'Wengerball'.

Whilst I agree the goals v LCFC and Rambo's goal v Fulham were also very pleasing and attractive, I don't think they represented the strategy or style the manager was trying to impart like the others did.

Another thing I like more from Saka's goal is for me the Saka goal is more repeatable by the team and reminds me of the movement and use of space seen during The Highbury Years, whereas Wilshere's goal is very much about improvisation and technical brilliance - much like Rambo's v Fulham was a show case about his individual ability.

QuincyAbeyie

The greatest goals in history aren't very repeatable. They wouldn't be the grestest if they were.

Claudius

Saka’s goal isn’t one of the greatest goals in history. And is definitely repeatable. Watch Manchester City. They score goalie like that regularly. That type of goal just takes really good players and constant repetitions in practice. This is what Wenger used to do. Then it’s easy for the players to run with and off the ball and predict each other’s moves because they’ve seen it before.

goon

Those goals are all about movement and first time passing options, ESR provides both. We did it again later on when him and Laca linked up beautifully.

Anzac

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
The greatest goals in history aren't very repeatable. They wouldn't be the grestest if they were.

Who said anything about being the greatest?

Anzac

Claudius wrote:
Saka’s goal isn’t one of the greatest goals in history. And is definitely repeatable. Watch Manchester City. They score goalie like that regularly. That type of goal just takes really good players and constant repetitions in practice. This is what Wenger used to do. Then it’s easy for the players to run with and off the ball and predict each other’s moves because they’ve seen it before.

I don't think he coached the patterns but enabled the players to work it out via intuition, otherwise we'd have seen more of it after we switched to the possession based tiki-taka style.

For mind Saka's goal made me think of a comment by Neville in post match analysis after a game v the likes of LCFC or Everton when Cazorla was playing, and he was bemoaning that we no longer attacked or looked to utilise space off the ball like we did when he was playing against us, and too much of our play was conducted across the top of the area and in front of the defenders.

For me Rambo was about the last player to do so in terms of style, which I suppose is why ESR reminds me of him.

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