Match Reaction vs West Ham (away).

[Niall_Quinn]

Arsenal’s utter lack of creativity in midfield...

A standout stat from the first-half was Jack Wilshere’s 100 per cent pass accuracy. While that seems impressive, it spoke for an issue Arsenal had throughout the game.

They decided to field Mesut Ozil in a midfield three from the off. Him and Wilshere played as No 8s while Granit Xhaka had the job of guarding the back four.

The problem was that nobody was playing passes from midfield that offered any penetration. Wilshere seemed happy to play it side to side. Ozil grew frustrated at a lack of movement ahead of him in the second-half, screaming at those in front before playing another pass across the middle.

Giroud has only scored once in eight starts. It might be worth accepting he is best as a super sub.

Arsenal have become so boring... from issues in midfield to anonymous players in attack, Arsene Wenger has problems to solve to finish in top four

When it comes to Wilshere, it’s easy enough to make all of your passes reach a team-mate if you are taking no risks. He only created one chance all match. He was doing Xhaka’s job rather than breaking forward, as was expected of him.

Several years late to the party, but finally the media is catching up with the fans.

[Niall_Quinn]

Meanwhile, back on Fantasy Island in the Bubble Complex...

"There is one very accurate and objective way to assess how well and how consistently clubs perform in this area of transfers over time," Gazidis said. "This method is accurate enough to be the industry standard way to analyse.


"It is very simply to compare team performance by a series of objective metrics, usually league position or points, against expenditure on transfers.


"No club has a perfect record every year under this scrutiny but Arsenal has probably been, of the big clubs certainly, the most consistently over-performing team over time.


"That is, despite the criticism we get and the emotion here in the room, and despite some very loud subjective narratives and a great deal of inaccurate information.

Is that why we won't spend big on transfers? So we can "objectively" be the best performing team in the league? But wait a minute! Didn't we make a profit in the transfer window? That's a negative spend. When you divide our performance by a negative number, isn't the answer negative too? Does this mean we have been less than shit?

Maybe, like somebody else, I'm not very good at maths.

[Power n Glory]

Ah, the D word. I agree with MO, there has been a clear decline in terms of quality an enjoyability of our play. In terms of end result though. Here are our position, points total and points off the top since 2004

2005 2nd 83 8
2006 4th 67 24
2007 4th 68 21
2008 3rd 83 4
2009 4th 72 18
2010 3rd 75 11
2011 4th 68 12
2012 3rd 70 19
2013 4th 73 16
2014 4th 79 7
2015 3rd 75 12
2016 2nd 71 10
2017 5th 75 18

I defy you to draw a graph of any of that and draw a line which shows a clear decline.. Since 2008 we haven't got over 80 points. Only once have we got within 10 points of the eventual champions. It's 10 years of bumbling around in the top 4, neither progress nor decline, stagnation. Last year was the first time we dropped out of the top 4 and that was only by 2 points. Those high fiving themselves and saying "told you so"...I'd suggest that you can make almost any prediction in a sport where fortunes fluctuate so much and if you keep repeating it you'll be "right" eventually. And will it be a one off slip out of the top 4? Impossible to say right now. We are 7th right now but only a point off 4th.

NQ made the point that we have gone from a "top 2" side to a "top 4" one and now a "top 6" side. My take on that is that there isn't a "top 2" any more. Chelsea and City have bought their way in. Spurs and Liverpool have done better the last couple of years, hence the top 6, but both are only a point above us right now. And actually it's only one year that both finished above us. I'll judge whether they finish above us this year in May . I don't believe any manager will come in and we will be regularly top 2, I don't think that's possible any more, none of the other usual suspects have managed it consistently. But I do believe another manager would get us challenging and even if they didn't it would at least be different, and it's getting to the point where that in itself would be a good thing.

Looking at the actual standings, points totals and gap off the top the last 10 years have been one of stagnation, not decline. It's too early to say whether last year's 5th place was a one off or the start of a trend. I'd say we are in real danger of decline if we lose both Ozil and Sanchez and don't find adequate replacements.

I defy you to draw a graph based on our league position and not points tally and tell me there has been no decline. We once won the league with 78 points. We’re on the decline. You can’t measure the performance of a team in isolation without looking at the competition and growth in the market. Nobody does that. What was good enough 10 or 20 years ago doesn’t mean it’s enough for today.

[Cripps]

stats

Stats made Denilson look like Xavi when he was more like Luke Chadwick.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I defy you to draw a graph based on our league position and not points tally and tell me there has been no decline. We once won the league with 78 points. We’re on the decline. You can’t measure the performance of a team in isolation without looking at the competition and growth in the market. Nobody does that. What was good enough 10 or 20 years ago doesn’t mean it’s enough for today.

Current league position or league position at seasons end

I made the point a few months ago that between 1998 and 2005 we finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd

Then there was a decline to a lower tier between 2006 and 2016 where we finished 4th, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd

Now arguably we’ve fallen down another step

So Letters is right in the sense that it’s largely been stagnation, and you are right in the sense that eventually fail to push forward has slowly pushed us backwards.

The graph would read a steady line followed by a short drop followed by a steady line

Rio Ferdinand is right in the sense that we are going backwards, in the sense that our points accumulation is much the same as it ever was but we are being pushed out by forward thinking and ambitious clubs.

[Letters]

I defy you to draw a graph based on our league position and not points tally and tell me there has been no decline. We once won the league with 78 points. We’re on the decline. You can’t measure the performance of a team in isolation without looking at the competition and growth in the market. Nobody does that. What was good enough 10 or 20 years ago doesn’t mean it’s enough for today.

I've given the league positions above...
This is pretty much what that graph would look like though:

xx
xxxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxx
xx
xxxxx


You could compare these two years

2005 2nd 83 8
2006 4th 67 24

And say there's a clear decline but then 3 years later it was:

2009 4th 72 18

And then last year:

2017 5th 75 18

That's the first year we finished outside the top 4 and it was only by 2 points. We don't know yet whether that marks the start of a period outside the top 4 or was a blip.
There has been a decline in terms of quality of our play, in terms of league position and points total, not so much.

[Letters]

I made the point a few months ago that between 1998 and 2005 we finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd

Then there was a decline to a lower tier between 2006 and 2016 where we finished 4th, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd

Agreed, although it has to be acknowledged that that step down to a "top 4" club instead of a "top 2" club happened when Chelsea and City bought their way in. As I said above, there isn't a "top 2" any more.

Now arguably we’ve fallen down another step

Arguably, but one year outside the top 4 and then only by 2 points does not definitively show that. This season will add another data point and right now it's very hard to call where that data point will lie.
We won't finish top 2 but 3rd is arguably and 4th definitely up for grabs. Impossible to tell right now.

[Letters]

ArsenalLeaguePositions.JPG

This isn't very good but I knocked it up quickly. It goes from 1989 to last season.
There's no clear line between the titles in 1989 and 1998.
You could argue that you can draw a line showing decline between 1998 and the current day.
I'd suggest a more accurate analysis is a period of us being a "top 2" club between 1998 and 2005.
Then a fairly rapid descent to a "top 4", and generally towards the bottom of that top 4, from 2006-present.
From 2006 till now there has been no clear decline or progress. We've kinda oscillated between 3rd and 4th, the exceptions being the last 2 years when we finished 2nd then 5th.

[Power n Glory]

I've given the league positions above...
This is pretty much what that graph would look like though:

xx
xxxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxx
xx
xxxxx


You could compare these two years

2005 2nd 83 8
2006 4th 67 24

And say there's a clear decline but then 3 years later it was:

2009 4th 72 18

And then last year:

2017 5th 75 18

That's the first year we finished outside the top 4 and it was only by 2 points. We don't know yet whether that marks the start of a period outside the top 4 or was a blip.
There has been a decline in terms of quality of our play, in terms of league position and points total, not so much.

In 1998 we won the league with 78 points. Last season we finished on 75 points. In 2014 we finished on 79 points. Would anyone in their right mind argue that we’re slightly better than the 98 team or just a few points off from them?

[Cripps]

2005 2nd 83 8
2017 5th 75 18

No decline

#OneArseneWenger