Author Archives: keenosafc

JW Diaries: Booking the Europeans Tour

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Outside of games being played, for me the most exciting football related events are the early draws of any cup competitions we are in.

Last week we had two in as many days. Leading up to these, I start to take an interest in the previous round matches for possible opponents.

As I’ve seen an Arsenal team play at 81 of the current 92 grounds, studying the winners of the 2nd Round meant that Oxford United was the only away ground which was new to me.

Whilst I’ve seen our Women’s, Reserve and Youth teams play at Brentford, believe it or not, I’m not old enough to have seen the first team play there! Sadly it was a home draw as I’d like to have visited Griffin Park before it closes down. At least it’s a home draw against lower league opposition.

Fridays Europa League draw was everything Thursday’s wasn’t; a new country to visit, Two new cities & Three new grounds.

After the draw, my priority was to book the Lisbon trip first as I know this was the one the masses will go to. After waiting over 3 hours after the draw, I managed to get hold of the fixtures about 45 minutes before Arsenal published them and therefore got a decent deal.

By the time I booked the Azerbaijan flight, I was running late to get to the Emirates to watch our U23 match against our Middlesex/Buckinghamshire nomadic rivals.

The match itself was a 2-1 Win, we should have won 6 or 7 nil but poor finishing and decent goalkeeping kept it at 2-0 including a missed penalty, before they scored a consolation goal in the final seconds.

They had a segregated section and sold about half of their 500 ticket allocation, their scummy fans proved yet again why they are hated by most of Southern England and many teams in the North;  singing a vile song  about celebrating Sol Campbell once he has departed, sums up those horrible w**kers.

Saturday saw a trip to Chelsea’s Cobham Training Ground which resulted in the U18s losing our first match of the season 3-1. It was good to see Per Mertesacker watching his U16 team play who also lost.

After a Two drive back to North London, with my other half out, I spent most of my time in front of a computer looking at hotels and flights for the Europa League.

I was up at 5:30am on Sunday for the trip to South Wales, once showered I looked on social media to be told that my 08:30 train was cancelled!

After contacting my crowd, we decided that rather that catch the 09:33 train which would be packed, we would get an 8am train to Bristol. To cut a long story short after waiting at Reading for over an hour, we joined the 09:33 at Swindon, arriving in Cardiff after a 4 hour journey just before midday.

We still managed a couple of pints in the City Centre, then off to the match.

I sit in the West Stand Upper Tier at the Emirates which is great for getting an overview of formations but I cannot see either ‘bench’ therefore at away matches I tend to often glance at our bench to see what is going on.

A couple of things I did notice was that Unai Emery had a proper ‘in your face’ go at Warnock following one of many vicious assaults on our players and also following the 3 substitutions, two of our substituted players went down the line giving a ‘high five’ to all the players and staff, whilst one slumped into his seat and sulked, no prizes for which player I’m referring to!

Despite the opponents tactics and inept refereeing, the result was a fair one, our midfield and forwards played well together, whilst the defence still has lots of work needed.

Back in the pub, it’s always satisfying when your team win whatever the performance, then we had the icing on the cake watching a fine Watford win.

As it’s International week, there’s no football to be had, I will be at the Emirates on Saturday for the Legends match against Real Madrid, there’s still tickets available for what promises to be a great day out.

JW

Granit Xhaka and the misleading statistics

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Anyone who has read my blogs for the 5 years I have been (badly) writing them will know that I am a bit of a stiatistics man.

Soccernomics and The Numbers Game are two of my favourite books, highlighting how important statistics are in football.

It highlights that wage bill, rather than transfer expenditure, is the most important factor in building a successful side. Statistics also show that Arsenal going unbeaten or a Leicester City winning the title is always something that over the course of time will happen. It will just not happen often (when was the last time someone like Leicester won the title? Perhaps Derby Country 50 years ago?)

Understanding the statistics of the game is also important when it comes to analysing a players performance.

Soccernomics using the slide tackle as a brilliant example of how statistics can be interpreted correctly and poorly.

We can all agree that a player sliding in his a last ditch attempt to stop an opponent. It usually means the defender has been beaten, by pace or skill, or was out of position.

Paolo Maldini once said “If I have to tackle then I have already made a mistake.” Yet we routinely praise hard-tackling midfielders and defenders.

That means a player who makes a lot of slide tackles in a game is not actually a good defender, he is a player who probably finds himself out of position or behind play.

What is perhaps a more important statistics is how many interceptions a defender makes. As this shows he was reading the play and interception the pass.

Rarely did Gilberto Silva make a full-bloodied tackle to stop an opponent. Instead he would quietly go about his work intercepting the ball.

Compare that to Mathieu Flamini who would run around the pitch like a headless chicken diving into tackles.

We all know who the better defensive midfielder was, yet tackles and KM covered would have Flamini as superior.

Recently with Granit Xhaka, some fans have been bringing up statistics to highlight how good he is. but these stats just mask the truth.

Granit Xhaka looks great on Squawka statistics (passes made, completed, tackles, etc), but those statistics do not show how often he miss places a pass or misses a tackle that leads to a chance for the opponent.

Against Cardiff City, Xhaka attempted 99 passes, of which 85 found a team mate. A 85% completion rate. Not too shabby when not every one of his passes is short and safe (like Jorginho of Chelsea).

The problem for Xhaka – and someone that the stats do not highlight without looking deeply – is how many of his miss placed passes or missed tackles lead to an opposition chance.

Anyone that watches the game rather than relies on just statistics to judge a player will see that Xhaka gives the opposition chances with sloppy passes, slow play causing him to be dispossessed and missed tackles.

There is no point completing 85 out of 99 tackles if 1 or 2 of those missed 14 lead the opposition to have a chance, or in the case against Cardiff – score a goal.

Xhaka is a good player, and I would like to see him play with Lucas Torreira behind him which will provide us with further protection. But let’s stop defending in using statistics whilst ignoring the chances he gives to opponents.

The ultimate statistic is that one in the top left hand corner. The score. And if you are giving away the ball which leads to the opponent scoring a goal, you have had a poor game regardless of how many other passes you have completed.

Keenos

History rewritten but the majesty of Arsenal never in doubt

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BOOK REVIEW: ‘Royal Arsenal – Champions of the South’

I’ve mostly shied away from historical books about the Arsenal over the years, simply because they have always seemed to be rehashes of what is generally accepted to be the timeline of how our wonderful club came to be in existence.

But the revelatory pages of ‘Royal Arsenal – Champions of the South’ tell a different story to what has already been written — and how! In this treasure, no stone has been left unturned to shed light on various anomalies and the major findings unearthed well and truly set this book apart from what has been gone before.

Examples of the exhaustive research baring fruit include the correction to the hitherto acceptance of the circumstances surrounding the notion that Nottingham Forest gave Arsenal their first set of red shirts; a significant update of how the club turned professional in 1891, and how the name Royal Gun Factory FC may have been more apposite than Royal Arsenal FC (the latter being chosen to “represent the whole factory on the football field”). The location of the initial Dial Square FC game is also revealed, while my favourite link (tenuous though it is) to the club in the book concerns a certain Isambard Kingdom Brunel!

I suspect, like I did, readers will find the chapter entitled ‘Success’ particularly interesting, especially the details of an historical 10-1 massacre of Tottenham in 1889 that “so traumatised” the lily-livered opponents that the teams did not meet again until 1896!

The writers (Arsenal historians, Mark Andrews and Andy Kelly, along with editor Tim Stillman) have succeeded in presenting enlightening historical information (borne out of an almost forensic examination of mothballed facts) in an engaging style; a happy balance between statistics and narrative can be difficult to attain but, hats off, they have the measure spot on.

If you were ever in doubt about the majesty of the mighty Gunners, those uncertainties will be banished good and proper once you have read ‘Royal Arsenal – Champions of the South’. For anyone with more than a passing interest in the Arsenal this is a fascinating tome.

Patrick Barclay, the chairman of The Football Writers’ Association, argues that “historians are the lifeblood of football” and, thanks to the diligent work in this Arsenal archive, the club’s magnificent history may well live forever.

Far be it for me to tell you how to please friends or family of the Arsenal faith at Christmas, but I can at least suggest you don’t look too far beyond this blockbuster.

Up the Gunners!

Arsenal Historians, Mark Andrews and Andy Kelly, along with editor Tim Stillman, uncover how Royal Arsenal grew to become the Champions of the South – encapsulating the football lives of the founders, players, administrators and supporters of the forerunners of The Arsenal Football Club.

Along the way, this hard back book chronicles how the football club emerged as an offshoot of the Dial Square cricket club, which was established after the 1886 cricket season had ended to keep the men occupied. The location of the initial Dial Square game is revealed, how the supporters responded to their team, and we reveal the club’s first programme writer – a very well-known late Victorian era poet.

The real story of how Royal Arsenal became professional is a fascinating tale of how working men repelled the rapacious landlord of their ground, and at the same time, put one over the old boys’ network who ran the local Football Associations. A history of intrigue, underhand dealings, drunkenness  and sham-ateurism in Victorian era Plumstead.

Their book Royal Arsenal: Champions of the South is available to buy from Legends Publishing.

CARL ELDRIDGE