What can Arsenal learn from the LA Rams Super Bowl victory?

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So Stan won the Super Bowl.

Well he didn’t, but his LA Rams did.

American sport is all very strange where the owner goes to pick up the trophy. Not a fan of that.

The Ram’s victory led to a lot of Arsenal fans saying “I wish Stan would bank roll us to success like he did the Rams”. It highlights peoples lack of understanding of how American sport is set up.

Stan did not bank roll the club to success.

Yes, his family (IE him and his wife Anne Walton) contributed a lot of money to the new stadium rebuild; but he does not bank roll the club in the same way Roman Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour do Chelsea or Manchester City.

The American system is set up to limit what owners can spend on their clubs. To try and create a platform of fairness where there is a salary cap in place. This stops one entity coming in, outspending the rest and dominating for decades to come.

Whilst Stan did not bankroll the club, he should look at why LA Rams were a success and Arsenal have struggled in recent years.

Due to the salary cap, clubs have to work smarter rather than just “spend more”. This is the philosophy Kroenke needs to install on Arsenal.

Get the scouting system working smarter to find those gems. Get the coaching system working smarter to improve players beyond their level, and to develop tactics and systems that beat opponents. Get the players working smarter by ensuring they are at peak fitness.

It does actually feel like this is what Arsenal are doing at the moment.

We know financially we can not compete with Manchester City and Chelsea. And perhaps Newcastle in the future.

If Kroenke threw £100m at us to buy players (and cover wages), they would just spend £200m. If we spent £200m, they would just spend £400m. We are never going to beat them by outspending.

We outperform these teams by being a better run club. Taking inspiration from Liverpool.

Liverpool can not outspend Chelsea, Manchester United and City. They reportedly have the 4th highest wage bill in the league. Yet they currently sit second in the league and compete year in, year out.

They do this by being smarter than their opponents. As Team Sky would call it, focusing on the marginal gains.

F1 is another good example.

In 2019, Red Bull’s budget was $310M, Ferrari $410M, and Mercedes $400M. Yet Red Bull were Mercedes number one contender during the period and in 2021 Max Verstappen (controversially) won the drivers championship.

This is basically what happens in the NFL.

It is hard for a team to outspend an opponent, so teams need to be smarter.

And this is what Kroenke needs to continue installing onto the Arsenal management.

We need to be smarter than the rest. Spending “more” money can not be the first solution.

Be better run, better coached, and spend the money we have more efficiently.

A slimmer squad, with less senior players earning huge wages whilst underperforming.

We are on the right track and the transfer business (both ins and outs) over the last 18 months highlights this.

Arteta is building a young, hungry squad filled with players that will only get better. This is how we compete with those ahead of us.

So well done to the LA Rams for winning the Super Bowl. Now we want to see Arsenal win the Premier League.

Keenos

Good weekend for Arsenal – Despite not playing

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When with West Ham getting a late equaliser against Leicester City, it was still a great weekend for The Arsenal – even though we did not play.

Manchester United drew, Tottenham lost, then late on Sunday the Hammers failed to win.

In the race for the top 4, Wolves were the only weekend winners – beating Spurs in the process.

It highlights just why Arsenal players celebrated Thursday’s hard-fought 1-nil win in Wolverhampton with 1-men so enthusiastically.

As it stands, Arsenal are 6th with 39 points. Wolves a place below with 37 having played a game more.

Had Wolves come out on top last Thursday, they would now sit 4 points ahead of us.

Arsenal won, and top 4 is now in our own hands.

A lot has been said this season about games in hand.

It doesn’t seem too long ago that Manchester United had a couple of games in hand on Arsenal. Now the situation is reversed – with Arsenal a point behind but with 2 in hand.

We do need to be careful counting the games in hands as wins however. That was the downfall for Man U fans.

The first game in hand is next Thursday at home to Wolves. We host Brentford in between.

It is important that we get 6 from 6 in those two games, further distancing Wolves and potentially leapfrogging us into 4th.

After playing Wolves, we re-gain our game in hand as our fixture against Liverpool is postponed due to them playing in the League Cup.

That will mean that come the end of February, we will be back to having multiple games in hand. But those postponed games are against Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea.

We need to prepare for the worst and can not assume any of them will lead to 1, let alone 3, points.

Getting through Brentford and Wolves should ensure that we are top 4. That will mean we do not need to rely on winning our games I hand to fire us back into the top 4.

Arsenal are the form team of those chasing the final Champions League stage.

A few pundits have said “no one wants top 4” as everyone seems to be stumbling. But in the last 7 games Arsenals record reads: W 5 D 1 L 1.

We are on a good place right now; we just need to take those games in hand of the equation and keep above the rest.

Keenos

More Martinelli, Lacazette and Corners

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The controversy over Gabriel Martinelli’s double yellow card continues to roll on.

In one corner you have the sticklers for the rules. Those saying it was the correct decision as the FA’s laws of the game side with the referee.

In the other corner you have those pointing out that if the decision was correct, it would happen a lot more than once a decade.

I am a fence sitter on the situation….

Arsenal should have no complaints about the yellow card. Michael Oliver made the right call. But where they should have complaints is how often referees fail to give a second yellow card when a player commits a second bookable offence following their first.

In todays game, if a player kicks a ball away having committed a cautionable foul, I will be expecting the referee to issue two yellow cards.

If a player shows dissent following a foul which warrants a yellow card, it will now be 2 yellows and off.

Of course, this will not happen this weekend. The referees will use their own brain, dish out one yellow card and let the game continue.

And that is where us Arsenal fans are right in their complaints.

Oliver acted within the rules, but no other referee in recent history has followed the same rule.

It is a bit like going 72mph on a motorway.

No one has ever been pulled over doing that speed. No one ever will do in the future. So you will feel a little aggrieved when you are the one pulled over and fined.

You do not have a leg to stand on as you were doing over the speed limit. But you will be frustrated as you know it has not happened before to anyone and will not happen again.

What Arsenal should perhaps do is have a meeting with the PGMOL and question them as to why similar incidents have not led to a similar outcome. Provide video evidence of such incidents. Get them to explain themselves.

But we know the PGMOL is an arrogant bunch who defend themselves.

All they will do is state that Oliver was correct in his decision making, and they have no comment to make on hundreds of other incidents where two cautionable separate incidents happen at the same time.

What always frustrates me – and I would imagine most managers and clubs- is that if you call out a referee or the PGMOL, you end up the one fined or suspended.

How can you have a group that are unanswerable for their actions to anyone but themselves?

Anyway we move on…

A few have criticised Alexandre Lacazette for missing his one on one. What I would say is it is tremendous goalkeeping.

The Wolves keeper came out, made himself big and narrowed down the angle. He was in the perfect position to increase his chances of a save.

Sometimes instead of criticising a player for not scoring, credit should be given to the keeper for some great work.

The last thing to come out of the Wolves game was our defending at corners.

We are the only club this season yet to concede a goal from a corner.

For that, Arteta and his team need to take a lot of credit.

Arsenal have no game this weekend due to Chelsea playing in some friendly tournament. So relax and enjoy the sunshine.

Have a good one.

Keenos