Match Reaction - Arsenal 0-2 West Ham

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Originally Posted by Özim

I don't think too many will agree we were the better side, the general consensus was that we were pretty poor in all departments.

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That's because a lot of people on here are completely unable to separate performance from result.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

Letters, how were we comfortably the better side?...based on what? Possession?

By that rationale City were comfortably better than us when we beat them 2-0 in January.

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Based on me watching the game and thinking that we were the better side and that both goals were against the run of play. If you disagree then fair enough, but that's the way I saw it.

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Originally Posted by Dein-machine

He hardly ever watches us - think he mainly sees us on match of the day. I watched that aswell, but we were still shit.

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Watched it all :tiphat:

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Originally Posted by Kano

Stats can be used and twisted to back up any argument of course but one that says roughly 96% of the time the champions do not lose their opening game is certainly an indicator. We're not talking in the 60/70% range here, that stat is extraordinarily one-sided. On the surface it seems absurd to write off our chances based on one game. My reckoning as to why it is so important is because immediately you are on the back foot mentally, optimism and confidence has been punctured very quickly and you are chasing everyone else. Winning the league is all about momentum on and off the pitch and starting the season so tamely is a microcosm of wider issues that will come back to hinder you again later on.

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You can't win the league in the first 10 games but you can certainly lose it. If we start like last season then yeah, we're back to 'there's always next season' and #WengerOut. I'm not panicking just yet but it's not an ideal start, to say the least!

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Originally Posted by Letters

That's because a lot of people on here are completely unable to separate performance from result.

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You'd struggle to find many fans anywhere that thought we played well.

Six shots on target does not equal domination or a team bang on form. Just because we had possession that doesn't mean we were in charge of the game. West Ham didn't come to boss the game, we played right into their hands, they set up to sit back, hustle us off the ball and hit us on the break. They were the team in control of the game because they knew what we'd do and performed their tactical plan perfectly. When you have over twenty shots at goal you would expect at least half of those to be on target, that's the sign of a team on form but lacking a finishing touch. I can't remember a single chance that had me on the edge of seat or really rueing our misfortune. Their keeper wasn't pulling off great saves or doing anything out the ordinary. We were allowed plenty of time to have the ball because West Ham knew when you play that system right against us, we struggle to break it down. Ball possession doesn't necessarily mean domination.

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Originally Posted by Letters

That's because a lot of people on here are completely unable to separate performance from result.

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Speak for yourself. You're the first to pull up numbers and stats on our games before analysing what actually happened on the pitch. Pointless winning streaks without any context to what was going on in the season or where we were in the table. Even if we win a game where we play badly, you'll shut down negative comments about the performance as if everyone should be happy about the actual result and ignore the performance.

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Originally Posted by Letters

You can't win the league in the first 10 games but you can certainly lose it. If we start like last season then yeah, we're back to 'there's always next season' and #WengerOut. I'm not panicking just yet but it's not an ideal start, to say the least!

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Nobody is panicking. Yawning more like. It's not like we haven't seen this before.

I don't think there has been as much optimism in the last few years as there was before kick-off. That was quickly deflated as reality bit in. There's always this feeling that with these players we should be right up there challenging for everything. The players are good enough to do that - most of them anyway. It's the organisation, the preparation, consideration of the opponent in front of us, the ability to change track in-game when things are bogged down. These areas are where the predictability lies. Same patterns, same story. We'll do okay this season but it'll be these problems which we haven't solved that will cost us when those fine margins between winning and almost doing something crop up. We'll almost do something again this year. Nearly.

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Originally Posted by Kano

Stats can be used and twisted to back up any argument of course but one that says roughly 96% of the time the champions do not lose their opening game is certainly an indicator. We're not talking in the 60/70% range here, that stat is extraordinarily one-sided. On the surface it seems absurd to write off our chances based on one game. My reckoning as to why it is so important is because immediately you are on the back foot mentally, optimism and confidence has been punctured very quickly and you are chasing everyone else. Winning the league is all about momentum on and off the pitch and starting the season so tamely is a microcosm of wider issues that will come back to hinder you again later on.

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It seems to me to be a meaningless statistic, United won the title in 2008 despite not winning any of their opening three games.
City won the title in 2014 despite only getting four points from their first six games away from the Etihad.
Of course you don't want to be playing catch up, but after one game you can only be three points behind
I think if we fail to get a minimum of 15 points from our next seven games we can count ourselves out of the title race.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

It seems to me to be a meaningless statistic, United won the title in 2008 despite not winning any of their opening three games.
City won the title in 2014 despite only getting four points from their first six games away from the Etihad.
Of course you don't want to be playing catch up, but after one game you can only be three points behind
I think if we fail to get a minimum of 15 points from our next seven games we can count ourselves out of the title race.

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I'd agree if it wasn't so resoundingly in favour of one outcome. What convinces me is that it is a 'fair' or 'equal' stat in that it compares how a team starts against their final position. Given the consistency of the two there is definitely an alignment there. Looking at the first few games or six away games is like many of the 'new' stats you hear in modern football that appear to either enhance a short term positive or negative perception of a team. You can do that across any number of games or short term permeations to come to a conclusion. I think looking at the first set of games this weekend you get a sense of who is going to be making a serious fist of it, it's the same every season. Maybe I'm nuts for putting myself behind this stat but it feels quite logical to me.

Spend 10 minutes composing a post then lose it after pressing post as a result of the auto log out. :doh:

Anyway the full backs have got off lightly on our first goal the other day and the interchanging needs to work both ways. Giroud might be able to run it down the wing from time to time but we then need somebody who is going to do what he would do or be where he would be!