25 May 2021 08:45:16
Gunners rank ninth in the Premier League for goals and the underlying data does not offer much encouragement either. In fact, they rank 10th for expected goals and 12th for big chances created.

That says it all.


1.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 10:11:57
Agree not great stats. Very odd season with no real pre season so hoping the rest particularly for Auba helps and he comes back fully charged. I certainly haven`t given up on him or Lacazette and am sticking with Form is temporary Class is permanent and they are both class. Keep them sell the usual suspects, get the best number 10 we can afford, the best partner for Partey we can afford and I actually have been impressed with Chambers at right back - he can cross the ball and defend so with Cedric as back up we just need a back up to Sir Kieran . Saliba Holding Gabriel Mari and Callum as back up should be enough so spend the money to allow creativity. Excited for next season! COYG.


2.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 10:14:57
You can flip stats any way you like though mate. We were 2nd in terms of points since Christmas and had the 3rd best defensive stats in the league all season. We struggled creatively early on but certainly improved on that front towards the latter stages of the season. The damage was done early unfortunately. If we can keep that defensive record going and go back to scoring lots of goals, especially at home then we'll be fine.


3.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 10:45:03
Great if a season is from Xmas to May, they are stats mate you have cherry picked . 😂.


4.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 10:46:33
And yes Sussex I’d must certainly agree form is temporary so hopefully we will see the real PEA, I also hope we keep Lacca, and Pepe also started to show some value which is good.


5.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 11:06:55
Exactly the same as you stats you cherry picked mate. Like I said, you can flip stats to make it read any way you like, good or bad. There's no denying that are attacking stats were better towards the latter stages of the season so if we carry on where we left off, we'll be okay.


6.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 11:08:11
We should forget the stats and what others wouid tell you to think or believe took place.

What was our own experience of last season?

Did. anyone actually think at any point during January February March or April ' wow this is brilliant I feel like we are the second best team in the country now "?

Equally when we were losing and drawing games because we failed to take a host of good quality chances and then conceded a sloppy unnecessary goal at the back, did anyone actually think to themselves " I bet we are only 12th in the chance creation stats ".

Personally I think it's better to go by what we personally witnessed and how we felt at that time rather than have someone else tell us what we should have been experiencing and feeling a month or so later.

It's like an MP popping down the food bank and telling the people in the queue " you've never had it so good "
Or the opposition party trying to convince someone who's just banked his second billion that year " your not doing as well under them as you would have done under us "


Its all smoke and mirrors, both ways in my opinion.


7.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 11:39:11
Exactly that Gunner mate, couldn't agree more. There's no hiding the fact that we've been dreadful to watch but I hate seeing stats highlighting how bad we have been when you can flip them to make us actually look decent. Stats are pointless unless they result in success.

I do believe that we've been better since integrating ESR and Odegaard which funnily enough happened after Christmas. Still not great but better and 47 points compared to 14 pre-Christmas is all the evidence you need to back that up. That form is needed over both halves of the season of course.


8.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 12:04:59
ERS has made a huge difference Glen, pre January people were starting to insist Ozil had to be reintroduced to the squad and team as we simply couldn't create toast from bread and fire we were so poor, suddenly when ERS came in everything changed and we started to create loads more chances no one mentioned us needing Mesut ever again, ERS contribution has been very under valued by some pundits in my opinion Glen mate.


9.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 12:49:47
Glenn I haven’t cherry picked, the stats are for the whole season how can that possibly be cherry picking LOL, you picked from Xmas to now, come on mate we are judged over the whole season as per those stats.


10.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 13:22:05
Ox, we had the 3rd best defensive stats in the league ALL season, not just from Xmas onwards. A pretty darn good stat for Arsenal considering how bad we have been defensively over the years. We can take a view of the whole season but that doesn't break it down to show what happened and when, which is what I did.

Extremely poor stats before Xmas and a massively improved set of stats after Xmas is an improvement for me.


11.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 13:46:54
An odd season all round and yep we finished 8th . It never felt like we were pulling up any trees at anytime and I was shocked at the 2nd best since Christmas which is why I posted it. I still think with the dreaded 3 players we are missing we really can challenge forget top 5 but top 4. But they have to be the best we can afford for the first 11 as we have tons of good squad players El Neny Cedric Willock maybe. The advantage of Bissouma is he is Prem ready as would be Buendia who is some player. ED02 has said Juve after Aouar I think but maybe a prem ready settled older Oedegaard is another very good option. Just one last thought if we had scored 47 points by Christmas and 14 points since we would all be saying we`ve gone backwards and MA would quite rightly have gone. But it is the other way round ( Yep cherry picking ) but whichever way you dice it points wise we have improved and importantly compared to everyone else, even if performances don`t seem like it. For me I think feck what can we achieve when we do put the performances in COYG.


12.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 14:08:57
Glenn, where have I quoted defensive stats . now who is cherry picking I am talking about goals and chances created . lol.


13.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 14:17:46
Facts are
Last season we finished in 8th place on 56 pts
This season we finished in 8th place on 61 pts

Although it seems there are not only facts v stats war
The is also a facts v spinning the facts war, this involves either positive spiniing or negative spinning of course.

Mikel stated on Sunday that he was frustrated because last season 61 points would have been enough to secure 5th place
I emailed Mikel to point out that I too was frustrated because if he had equalled Arsenes worst ever and Bruce Riochs only ever points total of 65 points that we would indeed have finished 6th this season.

Mikel hasn't replied yet but when he does I'm going to suggest we both stop the spinning and just stick to accepting of reality as it is without either of us trying to make the other dizzy and confused. 😃😁😀🖒.


14.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 14:54:43
Agree 62 we all have different parameters. Some will take the season as a whole number of points position etc etc and that`s all good. Others like me have if you like cherry picked since Christmas which is also good in my mind as it shows such a dramatic change in points. It`s back to the confirmation bias . The finishing position being disappointing doesn`t suit my MA in stance so I stick my fingers in my ears and shout NER NER NER! The since Christmas stat suits my MA in so bore all I know silly by mentioning it! Mrs said it`s not great pillow talk though! COYG.


15.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 15:50:34
No wonder poor Ed gives up on here sometimes lol.

Ox, you said that I only 'cherry picked' stats from Xmas onwards, which I didn't. The defensive stats I stated were for the whole season. Simple.

All I was saying was, picking up on stats for goals and chances created alone across the season doesn't tell the whole story when you look at the breakdown pre and post Xmas.

There is clear improvement from the beginning to the end of the season in that regard and defensively we were actually pretty solid. We have to look at it all across the board, not just one or 2 particular stats.

We struggled, we lacked everything, we improved and we finished strong. Now we have to continue that trend to next season.


16.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 16:02:22
Hey Sussex mate, that conformation bias, is an absolute bugger to overcome for us all mate, I think the best any of us can do is to be aware of it and try our to make allowances for it to minimise it's impact as much as possible.

Without a doubt there are areas in which we have improved and of course areas that we still need to improve pretty quickly if baying mob (me and the other 2 😃) are to kept at bay.

It's looking 99% certain Mikel will be our manager next season and we didn't finish 10th on the same or even less points than last season as i genuinely thought would happen up until a few weeks ago, so now the thought Mikel being in charge in August doesn't make me rush to the toilet to be violently sick and I can actually say his first name again now without clenching my fist at the same time, my psychiatrist who happens to also be a gooner says I'm doing brilliantly, in fact he says I'm actually now doing much better than he is as he still can't be within a 100 miles of Mikel without getting the urge to, in his own words " shave his pathetic lego head with a Combine harvester while blind folded and under the heavy influence of several banned substances at the same time "

Its at this point I remind him about taking deep breaths and it becomes his turn to lay on the couch 😃😁😀😀😯😎😂.


17.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 17:21:01
Apparently without VAR we would have come 4th haha.


18.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 18:32:38
True Sally, and apparently if all of our opponents had failed to turn up in any of our 38 league games, we'd have finished the season as runners up 😃😁😀😀😂😄😄😣.


19.) 25 May 2021
25 May 2021 18:53:02
😅🤣😂.


20.) 26 May 2021
26 May 2021 07:24:02
I'm not concerned about the stats at all , the way we played for the majority of the year is more of a concern for me.