Tag Archives: Leicester City

10 things I do not want to hear this season…

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1. A drum at the Emirates Stadium. We do not need it. Manufactured crap. Leave stuff like that to small clubs like Spurs.

2. “Don’t take me home” – The song of England’s (failed) Euro 2016 campaign. You had to be there as “drink all your beer” changes to “sniff all your gear” but are we going to have hear it sung at every Euro away game?We voted out after all.

3. “Will Grigg’s on fire” with the Northern Ireland strikers name being replaced with every Premier League sides average striker. “Yaya Sanogo’s on fire”. No. He did not even get a minutes game time at the Euro’s. Lets leave the song in Wigan, like anything from Wigan should be left.

4. Leicester’s clappers. OK, you won the league. Well done. We all patted you on the back. But stop using them clappers to make up for any lack of atmosphere and songs.

5. The Icelandic War Chant. Already to be heard at the darts (can darts fans do nothing original?). And just heard at the cricket. It just reminds me of mid 1990s TV show Gladiators. It will be even worse when Leicester fans replicate with with their crappy clappers.

6. Arsenal fans singing about Arsene Wenger to die. It is not clever. It is not classy. It is not Arsenal. Grow up you attention seeking wankers.

7. Attention seeking “pop” videos. We all laughed at Spurs’ One Club. Some bird then topped it with a Spurs version of Rehab. Then some attention seekers embarassed every Arsenal fan by releasing this monstrosity. All in the name of hits/

8. Crystal Palace Ultras. Let’s be honest. You’re a bunch of middle aged men from Croydon who wave some flags in the corner of the stadium. There is about 20 of you.

9. Fans TV Channels. Arsenal Fan TV was one of the first. And was quality at the beginning. Random fans ranting after a game. Now it is choreographed, planned and everyone on it just wants to become famous. And it is not just Arsenal. Chelsea, Man U, Spurs, every club now has them. Waiting after the game to be interview? No thanks. Go to the pub you losers. No longer is it full of randoms like this:

10. Excuses. If we lose, we lose. Admit we were not good enough and move on. Give the fans some respect. Stop with the excuses.

Can you think I of anything I have missed? Add your comments below…

Keenos

Did amazing Leicester foil Arsenal?

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132This has been a crazy season for the premier league. Who could ever have predicted Leicester would be champions? Certainly not the bookmakers, who offered odds of 5000/1 at the start of the season. Equally, who could have foreseen Chelsea’s fall from grace. Twelve defeats and thirteen draws, and still one game to go, would have been another high price at your local betting establishment.

So, onto Arsenal.

This season promised to be the one. After back to back FA Cup wins and a smattering of world class players, this was our time. We were going to push on and mount a real title challenge. After 11 games the end of October saw us only second on goal difference and by the turn of the year we were top of the pile. Our regular rivals of United. Chelsea and Liverpool were a mile behind and us fans were rightfully expecting great things.

But, as is far too often the case, we dropped away and never managed to end another month on top. Yes, we had some injuries, but that’s nothing new. I am not surprised that we haven’t won the league, more who we have surrendered to. It is far too simplistic to say Leicester, the famous English underdog that we all love, produced an outstanding season and with a combination of skill, determination and a dose of good fortune managed to beat all comers. Because, when you actually analyse the season the stats tell a different story.

With a final match against relegated Villa, we should finish the season on 71 points. We could finish second and many fans are clinging to this as a mark of progress and success. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, you will see that you have to go back to 20010/11 to see an Arsenal side finish on less points and even the 68 points that year could be matched if we fail to beat Aston Villa. Infact the last time we amassed less points than we have now was, 67 in 2005/6.Leicester-City-champions

Then you need to look at Leicester’s points. They can finish on 83 points and as creditable as that is, only once in the previous ten seasons would that have given them a sniff of the title. They have won the title with time to spare and even though it was our best chance for years we didn’t look anywhere near challenging.

Quite simply our biggest problem has been scoring goals. We have scored ten less goals than last season. The last time we scored fewer goals was 1998/99. Incidentally, we finished second that season but actually conceded very few goals. We may have scored a couple less but conceded only half of what we have this term. I’ve seen lots of criticism of Mertesacker and some saying that Gabriel isn’t good enough but only Leicester and Spurs conceded less than us and only marginally in Leicester’s case.

We entered this season without buying a single outfield player last summer. Experience should have told us that we needed to generate more goals and the obvious starting point was a top striker. Of all the mistakes that Wenger has made, and I think there are a quite a few, not buying us a front man was the worst.

We know that we could do with another decent centre back, we know that Walcott isn’t going to be a consistent striker. It’s clear that you can’t win the premier league by trying to pass the ball into the back of the net at every opportunity. But, you can’t win matches unless you outscore the opposition. It’s a fundamental aspect of the game that Wenger seems to have neglected.

Daran

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Goals and Fitness – The Key to Leicester’s Success

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“Score more goals than your opponent” – That is what Leicester City’s Head of Sports Science and Performance Analysis Paul Balsom said recently when asked what the secret to Leicester City’s success was this season.

Whilst the game is not that simple, and the side that scores the most goals in the league does not always win it, the premise is true. Score more than your opponents and you win. That is an undisputable fact.

Looking at the league table, the Premier League top scorers are Tottenham. They are second. 2nd highest are Leicester. They are second. The individual top scorers list mirrors this. Harry Kane is the league’s top scorer. Leicester’s Jamie Vary second and Riyad Mahrez 3rd.

As a side note, Everton are 4th on the list. As we saw at the weekend, they can not defend (Is john Stones the most overrated player in the Premier League?). The key is not just scoring goals, but scoring more goals than your opponents. Something they have struggled in.

In 2011/12, Manchester United lost out on the league title on goal. Alex Ferguson went out and forced a move for Robin van Persie. The league’s top scorer. This signing went alongside Wayne Rooney who finished that season just 3 goals behind van Persie in second.

The next year, Manchester United went on to win the league title. Robin van Persie was once again the league’s top scorer, and Manchester United scored 20 goals more than second place Manchester City.

The moral of the story is simple. You need to outscore your opponents to win games. And the more often you outscore them, the more games you win. And the more games you win the greater chance you have to win the league.

This season, Arsenal have simply not scored enough.

With just 48 goals from 30 games, we are on course for our worst goals scored tally since 1995/96 under Bruce Rioch.

Boring Boring Arsenal. So much for this attacking free flowing exciting brand of football Arsene Wenger allegedly plays.

59 is the lowest goals scored during the Wenger era. That was 1998/99. We only conceded 17 goals that year, so had a goal difference of +42. So despite not scoring too many, we still outscored our opponents in the majority of games. On the flip side, Manchester United scored 21 more goals than us that season, had a goal difference of one better, and finished the season with 1 point more.

Our goal difference this season currently sits at +18. You have to once more go back to 1995/96 for the goal difference to have been that low.

With just 12 Premier League goals, Olivier Giroud is on course to be our worst top goal scorer since 2006. That year, whilst the top scorer (Robin van Persie with 12) did not set the world alight, we had 5 players score 10+ goals in the league. This season we only have 5 players who have scored more than 3 goals. Our second highest goal scorer is Alexis Sanchez with 7, 3 of which were scored in 1 game.

It makes very grim reading, and it is clear where our problems lie this season. Scoring goals.

The second side of this article is an old favourite of Arsenal fans. Injuries.

I read (or heard, I don’t know, I was fairly smashed at the weekend) that Leicester have used the least amount of players this season.

A key to their success has been keeping key players fit.

Spurs are not too fair behind them in lack of injuries this season.

Both teams have done very well keeping their players fit, whether it is luck, planning or a mixture of each. They have a lot more players who have played over 25 games in the league this season than Manchester City & Arsenal.

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And it is not just the lack of injuries, it is the lack of injuries to key players.

Leicester’s spine of Schmeichel, Morgan, Kante & Vardy have missed 1 game between them. Spurs’ of Lloris, Alderweireld, Dier & Kane just the 2 games missed between them. It is remarkable and a key reason why they are first and second.

Meanwhile, over at Arsenal, Koscielny has missed 5 games, Sanchez even more. And for City, Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero have missed 24 games between them.

How different would the table look if Arsenal and Manchester City had kept their key players fit?

Of course, it is all if’s and but’s.

One of the problem both Arsenal and Manchester City have is they both carry too many players with bad injury records. Kompany has played over 30 league games just 4 times in his 13 year career. Since joining, Aguero has missed 25% of games for Manchester City. David Silva has played just 15 of 30 games this season.

We do not need to go through Arsenal’s injury record. The likes of Koscileny, Wilshere, Ramsey always seem to be just as likely to get injured as they are put in a match winning performance.

 

And there we have it. The very simple secret to success.

Score goals, keep players fit.

It really is that simple.

Keenos