Arsenal Banter Archive November 27 2016

27 Nov 2016 23:01:58
Decisions decisions we keep getting decisions in our favour, so I've decided that if this continues this could well be the deciding factor in the outcome of our season:-)

27 Nov 2016 23:10:20
I thought the pen against us today was a joke.

28 Nov 2016 00:21:22
I don't think it was a joke but i do agree some refs might not have given it. Monreal played the man and had no interest in the ball, his decision making is poor and he is getting caught out too often.

28 Nov 2016 05:39:58
Spot on Steve r, I thought we were fortunate not to concede a second penalty when Monreal left his arm out. Despite his excellent assist for Walcott's goal, I still consider him a weakness, although he needed more cover from Ox. I thought Bournemouth's star man was the excellent Ake, not that Chelsea would sell him to us,

28 Nov 2016 10:45:22
If you look at it again Wilson isn't interested in the ball either, he sees Monreal and turns his back so that Monreal runs in to it, which was very clumsy and those unprovoked errors seem more frequent from him this season. Wilson was definitely looking for the pen and got it, I think it was cheap before and after replays but the ref only has what he sees live to go on and based on that it not hard to understand he gave it.

27 Nov 2016 22:15:13
Hi guys! First time poster here, have been following this site for a few years now and figured I might aswell join in the discussions.

So I know this is very old news but I for one is kind of disappointed we didn't get Vardy. I think him with Xhaka would've been very good business and made a lot of sense based on Xhaka's stats from last season. I actually looked up these numbers in the summer when my brother told me something about his passing stats, believe it was that only Alonso of Bayern Munich had more accurate long balls.

This was at the time when we were still linked with Vardy and here in Sweden the pundits had basically been raving all season about Drinkwater and one of the reasons was his long balls that he'd play to Vardy who was always going in behind the opposition back line.

So I compared Xhaka to Drinkwater and these are their stats on squawka from 15/ 16:

Xhaka vs Drinkwater
28 matches 35
22 chances created 44 (Xhaka's avg. would've gotten him ≈28 in 35 games)
20m avg pass length 19m
186/ 97 succ. / fail long ball 124/ 159
85% tot. pass acc. 78%

To me this seems like Xhaka feeding Vardy could've been truly great for us, since has a lot better pass accuracy especially on the long balls. Now, I donut know if Mönchengladbach had a striker in a similar mould of Vardy but anyway I'm sure that with Vardy up front, Xhaka would have created at least as many chances as Drinkwater.

An interjection could of course be that it isn't the Arsenal way. However if you actually look at the stats not many goals are scored "the Arsenal way" with lots of possession on the opposition half. When I was still playing hockey our coach would ask us how long we thought the average time was from that the puck crossed the offensive blue until it was in the back of the net. Everyone was way of and the answer was 6 seconds.

Now I've looked up the numbers from all of our games (in which Arsenal has scored) this season except todays game. Thou instead of looking at the offensive blue line I counted from the point when the ball passed the halfway line. I also disregarded the times when the ball was out of play ahead of corners, penalties and such.

Avg time from the ball crossing the halfway line until it's in goal:

EPL: 26,5s (fun fact: twice the attacks have exceeded 1 minute; 1st goal vs Southampton 1m 40s and the winner at Burnley 2m 29s and without those the avg drops to 16s)

CL: 12,4s (longest attacks 21s on two occasions)

EFL cup: 9s (longest attack 18s)

All competitions: 18s

So I hope that debunks claims that a Vardy-type striker wouldn't do very well at Arsenal. Anyways just think it's interesting facts, don't mean to cry over spilt milk. Sanchez up front seems to be working very well and if he keeps up his current avg goal/ game ratio he will end up with about 23 goals which could go a long way in terms of going for the title.

Rant over, sorry guys!

swedish gunner.

27 Nov 2016 22:35:42
Welcome and i look forward to your future different angles.

27 Nov 2016 22:36:56
SG,
You need to find a girlfriend.

Only joking mate.

good post and welcome to the site 😄.

27 Nov 2016 23:15:06
Good stuff. Good to have stats back up your argument. Personally would love to see Giroud up top with Sanchez wide.

28 Nov 2016 10:18:42
Thanks guys!

Dags, you're probably right haha although to be fair I'm probably a 4 or 5 on the Kinsey scale

Ireland, maybe but he's our top scorer coming of the bench with 10 goals and I don't think that's a coincidence, he's a big guy so running around trying to hold up the ball to establish attacking plays for the full 90 minutes likely takes more toll on him than say Sanchez, but since centre halves are generally the same physical mould as him they will be more tired in the end so he will have a easier time asserting himself physically, and thus scoring.

But I agree in some sense because with Sanchez up top our options out wide are poor since Ramsey isn't a wing player, Theo is unpredictable, the Ox too aswell as being a bigger defensive weakness and Iwobi of course need more time to fulfill his potential.

28 Nov 2016 10:18:42
Thanks guys!

Dags, you're probably right haha although to be fair I'm probably a 4 or 5 on the Kinsey scale

Ireland, maybe but he's our top scorer coming of the bench with 10 goals and I don't think that's a coincidence, he's a big guy so running around trying to hold up the ball to establish attacking plays for the full 90 minutes likely takes more toll on him than say Sanchez, but since centre halves are generally the same physical mould as him they will be more tired in the end so he will have a easier time asserting himself physically, and thus scoring.

But I agree in some sense because with Sanchez up top our options out wide are poor since Ramsey isn't a wing player, Theo is unpredictable, the Ox too aswell as being a bigger defensive weakness and Iwobi of course need more time to fulfill his potential.

27 Nov 2016 16:48:15
December will go a long way towards separating the real contenders from the premier league title pretenders.
Us Chelsea and Liverpool all have very similar looking fixtures including all 3 teams taking on City.
Any team that finds themselves more than 2 wins away from the leader's after January 3rd is going to have a real fight on their hands getting back in serious contention again.
If we can go into our fa cup 3rd tie within 3pts of top spot I will be very happy:-)

27 Nov 2016 19:20:19
I think gunner we need sanchez to keep firing, i think we are pretty bang average without him. he's a wenger type player, goes out there and does his thing and does it his way. The rest of the team just follow him and aren't cabable of matching him. He may be a massive plus for this team but also a big minus because of the lack of a stratagy. If we are 3 points behind going into feb i will be happy but very surprised. We, at the moment don't look convincing at all, yet again didn't play well and a little fortunate. But at last a win in november.

27 Nov 2016 19:42:01
Agree Steve we don't look very convincing at all and apart from Chelsea Watford and Sunderland its difficult to think when we have looked convincing but here we are just 3 points adrift and unbeaten in all competitions since the opening day.
With 25 games to go its already looking a long way back for Spurs who have to rely on everyone else dropping points while they don't drop any for 7 or 8 game run ( tall order) .
I think by February mate we will definitely know who all the real runners and riders are in this seasons steeple chase for sure but we might find 1 or 2 struggling to keep by the 3rd of January too.

27 Nov 2016 20:37:02
Looking at the positives, November is normally our nightmare month.
But, 3-2 win at Ludogrets, 1-1 Spurs and Man Utd, 2-2 with PSG and now victory over Bournemouth.

We have been misfiring, but remain unbeaten in November, indeed since the first game of the season, approx. 20 games now in all competitions.

Chelsea are on a great run, yet are only one win in front of us.

No need to panic.

27 Nov 2016 22:10:24
Its results that matter Dags so it's a case of so far so good, results in unconvincing performances are better than brilliant performances without getting the results.

27 Nov 2016 22:19:16
Totally agree gunner the win is the most important thing but why are we scraping around every game for a result. Its not going to last if it doesn't change.

27 Nov 2016 15:17:18
Odd one for Debuchy to start. Clearly wasnt fit injured inside first 10-15 minutes. Gabriel looking less than convincing at RB.

27 Nov 2016 01:38:28
I watched the Chelsea Spurs game till the 75th minute last night - it was about 5am here so I stopped watching then to get back to sleep even though it was a good game. At 2-1 to Chelsea at that point I was pretty confident of waking up to find the final score was 2-2.
Why? Because Spurs had not yet received their obligatory penalty. They do get one every game, don't they Raver? I guess someone forgot to put the cheque in the mail this week.

27 Nov 2016 08:22:05
Eriksons goal, Was it really that good? The motd commentator thought so but personally I thought he had an awful first touch that left him with little option but to shoot.

27 Nov 2016 09:34:02
Lol, nice one Melbourne 😄.