A lot of people were frustrated and riled (choose your favourite adjectives) over the result at Ipswich. I can understand it because that’s just how I felt. Even though I try to ensure I don’t have unrealistic expectations there are times when it’s difficult to accept a performance. Wednesday night was a classic example.
But I find it equally difficult to accept the reaction of some fans. In fact, it’s unbearable. Judging by what I’ve been reading recently, it seems Arsenal have been absolutely pathetic this season. Half the squad is no good, some that are good enough don’t have the right mentality, the manager is clueless, and such other extreme opinions have been gaining strength. Not surprising given a home draw and an away loss against Championship sides in the last two games.
I thought it might be interesting to see how the top English teams have done this season. Here is a combined table for performances in all competitions for the top five clubs.
Immediately upon making that table, I realised these fans are geniuses. Arsenal have been an absolute shambles. My sincere apologies to every doom monger for genuinely believing in this team. How very naive of me!
The most obvious observation is that they haven’t won all their matches. We should not care that City and the Spuds have won 50 percent or less of their games or that Chelsea have a lower winning percentage than Arsenal. A club like Arsenal should be winning all their games.
Arsenal’s poor win record comes from the fact that there are no 20 goal strikers at the club, Arshavin is useless and doesn’t care, Cesc wants to be at Barca, there are no real wingers, no one can put a decent cross, and no one really wants to shoot at goal. The fact that Arsenal have scored 11 goals more than the next best just shows that we can do anything with statistics.
The central defenders are completely useless and this can be seen from the goals conceded. Arsenal are conceding 1 goal a game whereas United and Chelsea only concede 0.93! The Tiny Totts have been so good this season. They’re only conceding 1.38 goals per game. What a mistake it was to let Gallas leave. Arsene should learn from ‘Arry and buy English defenders like Dawson.
The best proof that Wenger must spend can be clearly seen from the performances of Man City. Their defensive record is even better than that of United and Chelsea!! And they’ve only lost 6 games compared to Arsenal’s 8. That’s 25 percent less losses than Arsenal. How’s that for a stat?! It doesn’t matter that they drew with Leicester City in the FA Cup or lost to a team like Lech Poznan in the Europa League.
Their loss against Arsenal at home was clearly an aberration. We all saw how great City were at the Emirates. They showed the value of buying proven central defenders and defensive midfielders. They also exposed all of Arsenal’s attacking weaknesses that I mentioned above.
Considering these facts I think it’s only fair that the fans are not getting behind the players when they’ve struggled for form. I mean why should a fan cheer someone like Arshavin who is making big bucks and not delivering. Just look at someone like Bale, now that’s a guy who should be cheered. He’s got 7 goals and 3 assists in the League at a rate of a goal or assist every 185 minutes. Just because Arshavin has 4 goals and 9 assists at a rate of a goal or assist every 108 minutes doesn’t mean he’s actually done well. Stats can even show that Arshavin’s overall contribution is better than Nasri’s who’s got a goal or assist in the League every 139 minutes. We all know that’s rubbish! Arsenal win because Nasri has been phenomenal and struggle because Arshavin has been useless.
We can all see he’s lazy and underperforming. It’s his job to lift the fans out of their miserable lives by winning matches and scoring wonder goals. It’s preposterous to suggest that fans should get behind the team or an out of form player when they’re not doing well.
I used to think Arsenal have a great squad and they’re trying hard. I think I was confused because Arsenal are the only team who are still in all four competitions. But based on the ‘facts’ discussed in this article, I’m beginning to change my mind. I’m sure there are a lot more observations that prove how wretched Arsenal have been this season. Please feel free to share your favourites.
PS: I hope I don’t have to explain this article.