Quote Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE View Post
At the risk of ruining a match thread, I don't think there is anything misleading here. Since Arteta got here we have prioritised defending over everything else, not necessarily a bad thing seeing where Emery left us, though there is an argument to make that it has strangely become an unhealthy obsession that seeps out in every aspect of the club (e.g. recruitment). IIRC besides Fulham and Lens, all the games we lost last season were because we could not respond to not taking the lead. As good a defence might be( and ours has been great), you cannot build a trophy winning side on the idea you expect to take the lead in every single game. Recovery is essential.

Looking at your stats, in the 49 games we lost the lead, we recovered in 35% of them. Citeh recovered in 58%, Liverpool in 63%, Spuds in 46% and Chelsea in 38%. Assuming the stats you posted are all EPL games, we recovered 27% of the available points (39 out of 147). Citeh recovered 44%, Liverpool 45%, Tottenham 38% and Chelsea 27% ( they are actually higher than us as I had to round ours up).

We have no business imitating a poorly coached/managed Chelsea side. Recovery is an essential part of winning DNA, especially in knockout tournaments as successful Madrid and Liverpool sides have routinely proven.
But again they can be misleading because a) there is a big gulf in results between 2019 and the end of the 2022 season


49 wins

19 draws

31 defeats



And the last two seasons continuing into this one


55 wins

13 draws

11 defeats


It’s clearly not just about being defensive either when in those 77 games we have scored 181 goals

In those games we have gone behind 18 times and recovered to get some kind of result 8 (I agree I think it should be better) but I think it’s also worth bearing in mind that in those games we’ve scored the first goal 57 times.

So I really don’t think it’s a case of us playing too defensively, our recovery rate is akin to that of City in the last couple of seasons who like us rarely go behind to begin with

The fact is our recovery rate was just as poor under Wenger and we definitely had a more attacking philosophy. I think there was a stat where we went ten years without winning a game away from home where we were behind at half time


I’m no fan of Arteta, I think we’ve spent too much on defenders but I use these stats to show we’ve got a clear area of improvement. I don’t think it’s as simple as just buying a striker though.