Tag Archives: Arsenal

Points or places? What should Emery’s barometer of success

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Arsenal have 50 points from 26 games. We are on course to get 73 points in Unai Emery’s first season.

This will be an improvement on the 63 points that we got in Arsene Wenger’s final season – where we amassed 63 points and finished 6th. But it would be a little off what we got in 2016/17 where we finished 5th with 75 points.

In 2015/16 we finished 2nd with 71 points. This got me thinking.

If we got 70 points this season and finished 4th, would this be considered a good first season for Unai Emery?

It would return us to the Champions League for the first time in 3 seasons, fulfilling what most people feel is our minimum requirement – a top 4 finish.

However, 70 points would be our 3rd lowest points total in 11 seasons.

So what if we repeat the 2016/17 season, get 75 points and finish 5th. Would this be considered a good first season under Emery?

Despite not getting a top 4 finish, it would see us gain 12 points more than the previous season, and would be our 2nd highest points total in 11 years.

In 2016/17, Arsenal’s 75 points become the highest total for a team ever finishing 5th. In the last 13 seasons, the average points needed to finish 4th have been 71.

Back in the mid-00s, finishing outside of the top 4 would have been considered as a failure of a season, however we now have a situation where there are 6 sides all chasing the top 4 places.

In recent years Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham have all failed to make top 4. It is no longer really the “given” that it was for a decade or so previous.

Top 4 should be the minimum target of all 6 teams, but 6 into 4 does not go. So is finishing outside of the top 4 really a failure?

Ultimately it comes down to what points you get.

In 2016/17, Arsenal finished 5th with that 75 point total. We were just 1 point off 4th, 3 points off Manchester City in 3rd.

A year later we were 6th with just 63 points. 12 points off 4th place, 14 off of 6th place. Arsene Wenger was not sacked due to finishing 6th, he was sacked due to how far behind 4th we were.

So this leads me to the simple question.

What would show the better progression under Emery at Arsenal?

Finishing 4th with 70 points; or finishing 5th with 75 points?

https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/1094881469917483009

The Champions League do not care about points. There is not a minimum points to get in. It is just finish 4th, whether that be one 60 points or 100 points. The flip side is would finishing 4th with 70 points should that much progression? Maybe from last season but certainly not from the decade before.

Ultimately, it will come down to getting into the Champions League. That in turn will free up finances to move on in 2019/20.

Although finishing 5th with 75 points would not represent a huge failure, just like it did not in 2016/17.

Something to think about this Tuesday morning.

Keenos

Only fans of The Arsenal could moan when we win….

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Saturday we WON and we WON AWAY, something we rarely did last season and had not done in the league since November this. Yet still too many on the social media and some blogs are using it as a stick to beat Unai Emery with.
Now I have the upmost respect to all match going fans, both home, away and the nut nuts who travel to Easten Europen war zones, I tip my hat to you all.
But there seems to be an element that say they are fans of The Arsenal that just can’t stop having a moan up on social media whilst sitting at home watching on a stream.
When chatting to mates who went oop north and seeing their social media; everyone seems happy, if slightly hungover. Very little moaning from the fans that do the miles.
No one is saying we were world beaters against Huddersfield, but a good day out with mates and a win will always trump a good day out and seeing us play well, “entertaining” and lose.
Yes saturdays performance wasn’t a 10/10,  but with 3 of our best defenders out right now and Emery wanting to build from the back we may struggle. With Granit Xhaka out we may struggle. With both Ramsey and Ozil out we may struggle. And with the 2nd highest goalscorer in the league this season out, we may struggle. We struggled, but we won, job done.
That lot up the road were praised for winning games when they had an injury crisis of 3 players. We were without 7.
As a supporter of a certain age I’m kinda used to seeing struggle. I grew up on the football over the 70s and 80s. When we won nothing.
I’m used to seeing us grind out results. I can hand on heart say I’ve enjoyed seeing us get a result we didn’t deserve more than when we turned up and battered sides in the 1st half. That 90th minute winner after a tough game.
Another point is Saturdays starting lineup had 2 London boys who came through the youth ranks in the starting, line up. We also had another 2 sitting in the bench.
Local lads playing might be a mute point to some, but I’m a big lover of seeing them come good.
From my early days watching a young Adams, Rocky, Merson, Thomas, Super Kev etc to Cole and Jack under Wenger. We have a great crop of youngsters right now, who Emery is backing and giving game time too,
I do find the stick the likes of Alex Iwobi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles get on social media very odd. We should be backing our local lads, not going out of our way to abuse and criticise them.
Every right minded fan knew that Emery had a tough job this season.
When he came most most agreed that his minimum target would be to return us to challenging for top 4.
Prior to the Manchester City v Chelsea game, we were 1 point off Manchester United in 4th. We have 5 points more than we did at the same stage last season and should be on course to get over 70 points.
This season made harder by the fact he couldn’t buy this Jan due the rules on increasing the wage bill. It’s been made double hard by the sheer number of players that have had fluke injuries. But yet we are sitting on the coat tails of 3rd and 4th, and have an easier run in then those above.
People are criticising Emery even though he is fulfilling their pre-season expectations.
We all want to see improvement, but only the deluded would think that a squad that spluttered to 6th place last season and got smashed away from home in the Prem would be title challangers in 2 transfer windows. Emery is building a new way of playing, he’s building a new squad and he’s not shy in bringing in the youth.
The damage left by Wenger/Ivan may take 3 years to fix. This summer we could see up to 10 first team squad members leave. Yet some want to give the manager stick after just 26 Prem games, I honestly don’t know what planet there on.
my only theory is that as they didn’t have Emery on their “wanted” list; they now go out of their way to criticise him to prove they were right in not wanting him.
People moaning about % of the ball, Xg Goals, how many more corners they had, how many passes etc. The only stat that matters is who scored the most goals.Theres even the fools that can’t see an improvement on last season. 
I wanted Wenger out for years before he went, I wanted him out as I couldn’t see an improvement, we all watched us slowely spiral downwards. The downward spiral has been stopped, we are heading back up and at the pace to which we went down. If that’s not good enough for some then I feel for you I really do, but I’m sorry we are not gonig to win the Prem this season.
We also have to accept that there are 6 top teams chasing 4 Champions League places. It isn’t as easy as it was in the 00s.
If only those who seem hell bent on moaning at Emery win, lose or draw put more time into moaning about ticket prices, games moved for TV, the cost of trains to and from games and often lack of trains, then we would as fans be a lot better off.
Ignore the moaners – UNAI EMERY’S RED AND WHITE ARMY….
Gav

Match Report: Huddersfield Town 1 – 2 Arsenal

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Huddersfield Town (0) 1 Arsenal (2) 2
Premier League
John Smith’s Stadium, Stadium Way, Huddersfield HD1 6PG
Saturday, 9th February 2019. Kick-off time: 3.00pm
(4-2-3-1) Leno; Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles; Torreira, Guendouzi; Kolašinac, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette, Iwobi.
Substitutes: Čech, Elneny, Lichtsteiner, Suárez, Mavropanos, Nketiah, Willock
Scorers: Iwobi, Lacazette
Yellow Cards: Maitland-Niles, Kolašinac
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Attendance: 24,182
The mixture of joy and relief on the Arsenal players’ faces at the end of the match was clearly there for all to see; at last, an away win in the Premiership, the first since the victory at Bournemouth on 25th November. But let’s not get too carried away with this win in West Yorkshire today – it was hard work, dogged and at times, downright frustrating for everyone associated with Arsenal Football Club.
The good thing about these three points chalked up on the board is that a top four place is still in our sights, although it has to be said, there are some difficult matches ahead, namely Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, all of whom are now in the ascendancy. The messy business that became the first goal after just fifteen minutes, scored by young Alex Iwobi via a deflection that ended up in the bottom corner of the Huddersfield goal, merely reflected the fact that at that point in the match, albeit early in the fray, we were in control. After that, the first period became a push-me-pull-you affair of transitional football. Hats off to The Terriers, though, they didn’t just lay back and accept their fate, they did create some chances that made our defenders work for their wages, and at times we were looking frail in our own penalty area.
But, above all of this, it has to be said that every time we went on the offensive, Huddersfield appeared to fold in at the back and did have problems containing our strikers. The excellent Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who had a superb game overall today, was causing real damage on the flanks, and when he expertly slotted the ball across to Alexandre Lacazette to score our second and final goal just before the break, it was with the skill of a golfer with ice-cool nerves who had to make a final putt to win the Ryder Cup for Europe. This player has a superb future in the game, as his overall vision and intuition belies his tender years. The second half beckoned, and with it as we have seen so many times this season, a different Arsenal appeared from behind the curtain.
By rights, being 2-0 up, we should have built on this score and gone back to North London in the knowledge that we scored a hat-full of goals on our march to the top four of the Premiership, but hey, this is Arsenal, remember. There were times, it has to be said, when Huddersfield could have, would have and defintely should have scored, but somehow lacked the final certain something needed to give us cause for concern. Despite Mr. Emery bringing on Mohamed Elneny for the lacklustre Lucas Torreira and Denis Suárez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan (who looked impressive earlier in the match), we were unable to add to the two goals that we scored in the first half. Just when we thought we were going to walk away with our first match of the season with a clean sheet, Sead Kolašinac ham-fistedly directed the ball into his own net deep into injury time.
Look, three points is nothing to sneeze at, but it should be noted that Huddersfield’s statistics were somehow better than ours; fifteen goal attempts to our nine, five corners to our none (unbelievable) and their overall possession was 54% to Arsenal’s 46%. No disrespect at all to our old friends, but it was a good job we weren’t facing a top four club today, as we may well have been punished badly for our efforts. It has been widely reported that Mr. Emery may have an increased budget of £45-60,000,000 available for transfer deals this summer; if that is the case, then let’s hope we get in a 2 or 3 quailty players to push for starting places. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

https://twitter.com/shewore/status/1092861498597261312?s=21