Measured by combining shots, chances created, and take-ons*
A lot of times we get criticism for just pasting numbers and not giving any context. So the chart above is intended to give context to some numbers about Robin’s and The Ox’s performances today. As you can see, by my measurement (which is admittedly just one way of looking at it), Ox and Robin carried 55% of the positive offensive output of the team in terms of chances created, dribbles, and shots.
I would also like to point out that those two carried 55% of Zero goals, which is, by my math… uhhh 0.55/0… sonofabich.
First Half
9 – Shots by Arsenal
3 – Shots by Bolton
311 – Passes completed from open play by Arsenal
117 – Passes completed from open play by Bolton
36 – Tackles attempted by Arsenal (won 21)
34 – Tackles attempted by Bolton (won 21)
3 – Corners won by Arsenal
0 – Corners won by Bolton
Second Half
7 – Shots by Arsenal
9 – Shots by Bolton
205 – Passes completed from open play by Arsenal
107 – Passes completed from open play by Bolton
34 – Tackles attempted by Arsenal (won 21)
29 – Tackles attempted by Bolton (won 15)
3 – Corners won by Arsenal
6 – Corners won by Bolton
Final 10 minutes
0 – Shots by Arsenal
5 – Shots by Bolton
38 – Passes completed from open play by Arsenal (of 63 attempted — 60%)
55 – Passes completed from open play by Bolton (of 79 attempted — 70%)
13 – Tackles attempted by Arsenal (won 7)
11 – Tackles attempted by Bolton (won 
0 – Corners won by Arsenal
0 – Corners won by Bolton
100- Percent chance Bolton deserved something from that game for playing the full 90 minutes.
Individual studs and duds
5 – Chances created Robin van Persie1
3 – Chances created Mark Davies2
1 – Chances created Aaron Ramsey
23 – Successful passes in the final third by Mikel Arteta1 (of 30 – 77%)
21 – Successful passes in the final third by Aaron Ramsey (of 28 – 75%)
Image of both player’s passes in the final third:
- click to embiggen
4 – Successful take-ons by Ox1 (of 5)
2 – Successful take-ons by Mark Davies2 (of 3)
1 – Successful take-ons by Theo Walcott (of 5)
4 – Successful tackles by Mark Davies1 (of 4)
3 – Successful tackles by Aaron Ramsey2 (of 6)
2 – Successful tackles by Aaron Ramsey on his own teammates
1 – Dives by Davies which earned the defender a yellow card
1 – Penalties Bolton feel they should have been awarded
8 – Clean sheets by Arsenal in the Premier League this season
6 – Clean sheet by Chelsea in the Premier League this season
1. Lead all players
2. Lead just his team
*Not all players included in tabulation. For example, Per Mertesacker was credited with a shot. I left him and a few others out.
Going to be bitter and say Bolton didn’t deserve a point. We deserved better finishing in front of goal. Theo was woeful, so thrilled Chamakh is coming back early….. Glad Sagna is back.
That’s interesting. Why are you thrilled that Chamakh is coming home early?
He’s promised to get him 200 B&H at Duty Free?
Hey, why should Theo be the only one who misses easy chances, right?
11 – Tackles attempted by Bolton (won 8 ) LOL
2 – the number of times RVP has turned beautifully to produce a Bergkampesque chip worthy of the goal of the season award
2 – the number of times has those chips has hit the fucking frame of the goal
11 – Tackles attempted by Bolton (won shaded smiley) haha
I believe that’s supposed to be (won 8 )
23 – hours of sleepless nights scared shitless & sweating piss should Arsenal finish out of top 4
1 – glimmer of hope we win the CL
i have supported wenger resolutely and hate it when fans turn on their team i have tried to support theo this season be positive and believe that he will actually do something notable but for fucks sake blind freddy can see he is fukin useless can’t score, tackle and his attitude reeks of spoilt brat we can’t carry him till he decides to put in an effort has he got incriminating photos of wenger or something cos in the last three games he should have been subbed in all of them excluding the fa cup which i didn’t see due to some fuked up deal with putting it on tv up here
LEAVE THE OX ON PUT THEO ON BENCH FOR REST OF SEASON
….and breath.
And why is denilson 2.0 playing all his passes away from goal?
It’s time to try out yossi in that position or give rosicky more game time. He’s looked better than mr nevez workrate
That’s fourth place gone – not good enough Arsenal.
Its not actually.
We play Blackburn next, and the Rent Boys have JamU. Having Sagna and Arteta back I think will make a very big difference to the team, as big a difference as losing them had.
We have not improved for the last 7 yrs. we was promised that the youth coming through will be the future of the club. Buying young was our operating model.
That was 3, 4, 5 years ago etc. well we are now in the future that was promised back then we are living it now. And it’s just not working. The problem with buying so many young players is its hit and miss as to wether they come through. Vela, bentner, denilson and many many others where the great hope a few years back. 7 years ago rvp was a young player of 21 and has now won f all and is at his peak. He can’t afford to hang about and wait for the current crop to maybe come good or not. So will move on in the summer.
And that’s the problem. When our great players reach their peak they are not surrounded by other world class players but young hopefuls. And then they move on because of lack of trophies and we are back to square one.
The mix should be young and experienced top quality like arsene insists that we buy. But in reality we don’t. The young can learn from the more experienced players and learn what it’s like to have that winning mentality.
Rvp will move on and who can blame him at 28 he doesn’t have the luxury of waiting another 2 or 3 years or whatever to see if these youngsters gel.
We just keep repeating the same mistakes and never seem to learn. The problem arose from the summer dealings not January. We knew the problems but didn’t buy adequate cover fro rvp. Arteta is quality but is not the goal scoring creative midfielder we clearly needed after cesc left. We always seem to be a player or two short of being the finished article. Is benyoun the top top quality that arsene insists he only buys. Is park ?
We are 7th and that’s probably where this teams level is right now. Top four will not happen and then we have no cl money and the Board will spend even less. It’s not doom mongering it’s the reality of whats been happening for a number of years at our club.
Totally. Couldn’t agree more. They’re trying to be like Barcelona, but the circumstances are way different. Barca are never in danger of falling into 7th in la liga… Their best players don’t tend to leave (bar figo)… At arsenal, players get good then go to great teams. Good luck to RvP at Barca!
Sadly you are spot on mate.
Fuck knows what the answer is in the here and now though. I don’t think anyone is convinced Theo should remain in this side. He needs to be dropped, simple as.
We’re so far in the shit, we may as well go shit or bust. Take Ramsey out along with Theo and put Arshavin behind RVP in the hole.
That’d probably mean 3 strong lads behind him covering up and down and across, so Arteta, Song, Coq, keeping one wide player in Ox?
I don’t know, it seems unbalanced and it’s fuckin desperate but that’s where we are now.
The only thing that’s certain is if we maintain these players in this system, we are fooked.
I don’t get why Arshavin hasn’t had a chance to play behind RVP. He was world lass in that role but we stick him out wide. For Russia his work ethic was good, surely we don’t even have to tinker too much with formation to put him in there. I would play two of Arteta/coq/song behind him with the strict instruction to sit in front of the defence.
0- number of games we’ll play in Europe next season.
But then Wally has a good game like saturday where im sure anyone else would not have produce what he did
4th? It could all be like last year when we were still complaining about dropping points and what looked like second was that annoying. Then we dropped to third and it felt all bad. And then we dropped to fourth. In our fight with chelsea for fourth now we find ourselves down to seventh. And doesn’t look like we will win all the remaining games. On the positive side we can put up a good fight in the cup with chelsea, pool and the LWC
I m really tired to see Theo on the pitch. I’ve always supported the guy but now it’s obvious that is missing talent. How many passes did Theo miss during the last games ? How many one a one ? How many crosses ? Should be amazing numbers… Bring one Hazard next season ! Play him and Gervinho with the Ox as a back up and sell Theo and his false confidence to Stoke…
The thing that really shits me about this season is just the fact that wenger is so determined to pull off the great escape or he’s just given up! A few years back we drew all our games in January and he went out and bought Arshavin… This season we lose all our games leading upto the window deadline and he does fuck all? Are you telling me that one of the highest revenue earning sports teams in the world doesn’t have a few bob up its sleeve? How can that be the truth when we got 50 million in the summer, plus lost these two massive players wages, and then spent fuck all of it. Can someone tell me where Kroenke fits into all this? It doesn’t take 15 million to get a guy whose willing to have a shot at goal. You certainly don’t get shots on goal when u get them for free, eg chamakh. Or atleast fucking change the system because u might as well take Ramsey out of the equation and put 2 strikers up there
Ramsey is playing in the hole. He’s the guy just behind the stricker and players who play there score goals because they are playing as the second stricker. I am sick of people giving excuses for him. He’s tired, he’s got workrate, he doesn’t hide. Even non league players have those attributes. But they dont have the skill to play at the highest level. Ramsey has totally failed as much as theo. And the boss told us diaby and wilshere would be back soon so i thought they’ld rotate, now jack is out, diaby is diaby so its all on you denilson 2.0 but its not your fault. It all comes down to the boss. He helped cesc earn his move back as cesc says and there i was thinking we are fucked. Then he bought Arteta and yossi on the last day and i was thinking maybe we’ll be just fine. Turns out Arteta was brought to cover for the injured jack as AW said himself and yossi can’t get a game and even when rosicky plays the best football he’s produced in years he’s dropped the next game for rambo so thats the boss putting him out there to be judged and to be fair to him he’s been poor all season. Not good enough to start there. Maybe he’s being played out of position but if TV and JD have cost us being played out of position then Ramsey has cost us more
I agree. Wenger is addicted to Ramsey only because he runs around like a chicken for 90 minutes & gets into great goalscoring positions, which have not been coming to fruition. Rosicky even with less workrate offers much more with his tackles and passing…and finally he has gained back his best form but Wenger will take it away from him by benching him again.
2 – Successful tackles by Aaron Ramsey on his own teammates
LOL. Sums up his recent perfomances.
I recall seeing Sagna pull a fantastic sliding tackle on Song. :cP
Walcott may only be 22 but hes played over 200 games for Arsenal now and for the most part doesn’t look any better than he did 2 years ago, the last good game I remember him having was Norwich away in November. Acts like a superstar, wants a central role and then phones in performances, making basic basic errors – several times in recent weeks he’s misplaced balls/fired wide only for the replay to show he hadn’t even bothered looking up to see where he was aiming. While I’d love nothing more than for him to bag a hat-trick against the spuds with him celebrating the third by teabagging Ledley, I just don’t see it happening. Arshavin has taken a lot of the flak for his performances lately, but I don’t think Walcott has been any better. Voldemort, villainous genius that he is was spot on with his comments about the club
Why don’t we try playing Arshavin in midfield with Song & Arteta and give Ramsey a breather, he may even pick up some form playing in his favourite position instead of being stuck out on the wing.
Either that or drop this ridiculous 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation because clearly he doesn’t have the personel in the squad to play this way (even Slur Alex has gone back to 4-4-2).
FFS now Liverpool are above us in the table
I’n not sure who is responsible but Wenger/Gazidis/ board/Silent Stan are a joke with their transfer dealing over the summer and the lack of transfer activity in January!
i think rosicky should get an extended run in the team, Ramsey looks jaded, & if Wenger persists in constantly playing him week in, week out, he could well end up with a serious injury, just like jack now. it’s history repeating itself.
the reality is that van persie has done remarkably well to score like he has, but he wasn’t ever going to keep scoring every week, a team needs its midfield players, especially the wide players to score 10-15 goals a season, & another striker to score around 15-20. now them stats would be for a club that is going for the championship, and that is not us! not one single player in our squad excluding van persie look anywhere near being able to achieve that.
the manager comes out last night and says that every game for us is like a cup final, who’s fault is that?? it his fault, him and Ivan gazidis, the club hasn’t won a game in 2012, which is exactly why we are 7th. The league table does not lie!
there’s been too much emphasis on youth, & not enough on proven “super quality players” and the “youth project” has failed. there is also a culture of non accountability at arsenal where no one is held to blame. the bottom line is this, once we keep recording profits, keep the coffers happy, that’s all that matters, we heard hill wood say that if we didn’t finish 4th it wouldn’t be a disaster, & then kroenke says our business model is spot on,.. all the while our football club as a team are fading. and I wonder that if and when we do have all our injured players fit Will it be too little to late.
Always a pleasure to read ‘by the numbers’ article.
I can’t imagine which of the two will haunt me the most : finishing outside of top 4 OR to be finishing below spuds in the league
Warning!
Trading Standards Officials have asked all football fans to be on their guard against a scam being carried out by a certain north London football club. The aim of the scam is to trick supporters out of thousands of pounds by getting them to buy tickets in the mistaken belief that their club is actually trying to win trophies. Having collected the supporters’ money, the club makes no effort to finish higher than fourth in the Premier League and are easily knocked out of cup competitions. The club also makes large amounts of money out of UEFA by consistently entering and then failing in the Champions’ League. The con artists have cleverly worked out that they can make considerable amounts of cash while not actually winning anything, and have ruthlessly exploited this loophole. It’s believed that both scams have been running for more than six years.
It’s thought that a number of people are involved in the scams; however, the ringleader is believed to be a short-sighted Frenchman who is often seen sporting a slightly effeminate bouffant hairstyle. As the head of the gang, he makes the important decisions pertaining to the buying and selling of players, and has managed to set up the club so that it makes massive amounts of money while spending as little as possible. While doing so he has somehow managed to delude tens of thousands of supporters into believing that he is some kind of messiah. It’s known that he personally makes more than seven million pounds a year from the scam. Last summer he sold two of the club’s best players, pocketing tens of millions of pounds for himself and the other members of the gang. And by buying cheap, second-rate replacement players, the fraudsters hoped that the club’s supporters would be fooled. They have made well over 100 million pounds in the last five years alone with this cunning ploy.
The gang is thought to be overseen by a shadowy American figure, who never gives interviews. It’s believed that he also directs other scams in North America and other parts of the world. Despite being extremely wealthy he is known to have an insatiable appetite for money and never spends unless he absolutely has to.
By sucking the club dry, the fraudsters have turned it into a mid-table laughing stock, unable to compete with its free-spending competitors. The club now has no viable future as a competitive outfit, as it refuses to buy quality players or pay the going wage rates for top-class talent.
Supporters are strongly advised not to buy tickets or any merchandise from this club until there is a change in ownership and management.
Many people have said this in a lot less words and more amusing ways.
D+ Go away and try again
I dont even get upset about this anymore. I learned to accept that our season was a write off when the chairman comes out and says it ‘wouldn’t be a disaster’ not to UCL next season.
Arsenal have been in the top 4 for so long they would fall eventually – perpetual underinvestment in the squad and selling your best players does that.
The important thing is to keep the faith and bouncing back next year.
COYG
I thought I’d share this from a forum and posted by gunnersaurus on Twitter. Worth the read:
In my opinion Wenger is both a miracle worker AND a stubborn incompetent in some key areas. It’s like a brilliant brain surgeon who is also an alcoholic. You just can’t believe an intelligent man would have such a fundamental weakness that undermines everything else he does. Mind you, he’s not had much help. Everyone heard what that Gazidis bloke had to say. He’s delusional in terms of football, a top grade bean counter maybe but totally unsuited to the job he has if what he says is true. He should be running a sporting goods store or something like that, where the sport itself is somebody else’s affair and he is simply left to shift the merchandise.
I see Wenger’s role as close to impossible in many ways. Picture a guy at the foot of a mountain. Somebody rolls a rock down the mountain (say the sale of Fabreags), it’s Wenger’s job to stop the rock hitting the bottom and push the thing back up. Meanwhile some other cunt rolls a second rock down. Now Wenger has to catch that too. He has to keep all the rocks far enough up the metaphorical mountain and he’s done it for 14 years. That’s the miracle part and that’s why we shouldn’t be trying to humiliate the guy just because the odd rock slips past him. I doubt anyone could do better given the circumstances.
However, he has this horrible tendency to ignore one or two rocks all the fucking time. He sees the rock perched, ready to be pushed. He sees it making its way down the mountain, gathering pace. And he just fucking ignores it. Why? There’s some sort of blind spot. He certainly deserves criticism for that, but there are people blaming him for rolling the rocks down in the first place. It’s the board doing that, not Wenger.
Those bastards took every last penny of the money Kroenke invested and they put it in their fucking pockets. Some of them have put fuck all into this club so even a tenner would have been a significant return for them. Not one of the cunts thought, I’ve done fucking well here, I’ll kick half back. Even in terms of a long term, favourable loan. Kroenke takes a lot of heat but they sure made him jump through hoops and they cleaned him out for the maximum amount. That has put a lot of pressure on him to perform too, and he’s a business man not a football man so he’s going to do what he does best. That’s why he loves Wenger, who else is going to faithfully push those fucking rocks up the hill that those greedy bastards rolled down? Kroenke might come good yet – he might. But he has a lot of damage to repair first. Like the fucked up commercial deals we signed just to grease the wheels for a stadium move that now turns out to have been about nothing more that a few greedy men cashing out. We know about those cunts and what they have done and they deserve to be despise for it. We don’t know for sure about Kroenke yet, time will tell.
So the key goal to getting back on track is to burn the leeches off the club, stop them sucking blood. Get them out. Let Kroenke do his thing and see if that’s worth a damn. He won’t be going anywhere in the short term so we can only pray he has the club’s interests at heart – not because he’s an Arsenal fan but because he’s smarter than the cunts he’s replacing and realises that performance on the pitch will make it easier to perform at the bank.
I don’t think Wenger is going anywhere either. Why would Kroenke remove one of the few foundations he can rely on? A replacement manager would have to be as good as Wenger at managing a much broader range of duties than most managers are exposed to. He’d also have to offer tangible advantages to the team on the pitch. Somebody like Mourinho could easily accomplish the latter, he’s a much more astute manager than Wenger in that respect. Some of the other names suggested would be eaten alive though. Moyes, Coyle, the ultimate yes man Ancellotti. Give me a break. Maybe they could get the team played better right up until the team packed its bags and headed out the door. Those players are staying for a reason and I’m betting with 90% of them it’s not down to the love of the club. More like the inflated wages we complain about. There must be individual deals with certain players in place while we wait to come out of the darkness. Is that why Theo plays all the time? Does her have a deal to keep him at the club? Is that why the captaincy is treated like a lollipop to be passed around? If true, that’s what a new manager faces. A new manager could see us go from top 4-6 to absolutely nowhere fast as relationships break down. I’m speculating, sure, but there has to be something going on behind the scenes that explains the inexplicable failure to correct what we can see in public.
So the answer, purge the greedy fuckers that have robbed the club. Clear the path for Kroenke to see what his plan is. As unpopular as it may be, keep Wenger until this stage of whatever plan they have in place is concluded. And tough it out. Oh and everytime you see PHW or the rest of his cronies from now on – spit on them.
Posted on Twitter? Thta’s a hell of a tweet.
I’d sell RvP just so that at least he can go out there and win something. Enough about it being all about the team, sometimes you need to think about the player and this player needs medals
Wouldnot cash in on RVP but would like to see the club aim for the title and not fourth place(from next season) because that guy deserves some trophies so lets hope its gonna be with us when we start challenging for one.
Also wouldnt mind Park ahead of theo.yes Arsene not picking him shows he is not that quality but watching theo one would imagine why Arsene picks him up for the first team? That doesnt mean he picks Park before yossi but definitely ahead of theo.
And there is the sad truth of football today. There was a time that players stayed at a club for their entire careers, whether they won a trophy or not and no matter how good they were, just for the love of the club and the joy of playing in their colours.
Unfortunately, we now we live in a ‘instant’ society, where hardwork is beaten to death with greed and everything must be gained as quickly as possible.
Here’s what we need to do to save our season:
—————RVP—————-
OX———–Arshavin————Theo
———-Arteta—–Song———–
Kos——Verm—–Mert——Sagna
————–Hawkes————-
So essentially swap Ramsey for Arshavin and play Koscielny in a position he’s not comfortable in?
mert on the bench forehead for theo and samba samba santos at lb
Im not rntirely happy with a 1980s pop singer between our sticks either.
For some reason, wenger seems to have become far less ruthless in his old age. 5 years ago he would never have allowed players who were consistently off form to start every game, they would have been dropped, end of story. It almost seems as if the criticism hes receiving is making him dig in his heels and stick with the underperformers regardless just to try and prove a point.
I feel like the hole was created because you had a player that was so creative and could control the game and at the same time was constantly a threat in front of the goal that you wanted him in both mid and striking. Aaron doesn’t fit either yet.
RvP could if we had anyone that could score to put ahead of him.
AA23 should be given a shot. Maybe playing him where he likes to play will give him an energy boost and he’ll be effective
Didn’t he play in that position in the Carling Cup and ended up ineffective and completely invisible throughout the game?
Really? Well there goes that idea
AW reckons putting Henry on for the last 15 minutes in every match will fetch the team a goal is it?
I hate to say it, but I told you so.
What’s happening now is the culmination of five or six years of under-investment and selling off of quality players. Our problems go right back to when Ashley Cole was allowed to leave for the sake of just an extra five grand a week.
You can’t defy the laws of football gravity. If you want to maintain your position as a top-four club then you have to be prepared to spend realistic amounts on wages and saleries. Thinking that you can compete with Man United, Man City and Chelsea by signing ‘promising’ kids and second-rate cast-offs is just plain stupid.
I have no respect for Wenger. By now, he should have told the Board to fuck off and resigned. He has destroyed his legacy by being part of this ridiculous profit-driven set-up.
We are now in the same position as Liverpool were under Hicks and Gillete. I can’t see things getting better while Kroenke is the majority shareholder. I would love to see Usmanov buy the club now.
Thanks for the work and for pie chart dude. It’s a thing of beauty. More please.
A question for all those anti-Wengerians (towards whom I am sadly taking steps daily): who will replace him? In every other post the board is castigated for not spending on players. Why would would they suddenly do so on a manager?
Another question is who in the current board would have a clue how and whom to appoint AW’s replacement ?
Time to bring in the 29% shareholder Russian that can’t even get on the board. I wonder why.
Because he wants to increase the shareholder payouts?
Because he openly admitted supporting Man Utd?
Because he’s know to deal in quite a few less than savoury activities to get his money?
Excellent point Tomc, and that’s the problem the current board phw apart are not football people. They have shown on their pr and transfer dealings in the summer and the rediculas statements that have come out from the club.
But having said that how long do we continue failing and doing nothing about it. I know totally what your saying about who can replace wenger because if this lack of spending is down to the board withholding funds then can another manager do a better job given the status quo as it stands.
In other words we are fucked whatever way we go as one for sure this squad is nowhere near good enough as it stands.
Like with Blackburn, when are the fans going to realise that Wenger is not to blame for everything? The board needs to be injected with youth to bring it in line with the current footballing world (I think they worked the average age to be like 67 and the total age was like 470-something).
Steve Kean and the players have worked their ass’s off to show the fans they should be targetting the Venky’s and not himself for lack of investment.
Wenger is not blameless i’m sure but I doubt any manager chooses to go from winning trophies and challenging while being able to spend money and get established players or wonderkids to only buying unknown and youth players for small amounts with the hope it pays off without being told he only has x,y and z to spend.
We could have £7 bilion in the bank but if the board say “here’s £10, go and buy yourself something nice”, then the bargain bin and the Primark equivalent leagues is where we will find Arsene and his team.
I went to the Emirates Stadium Legends tour yesterday, was very good, met Lee Dixon. The worrying bit was his analysis and point of view on the current board and wenger. Everyone was asking him about Wenger, board, Wallcot etc etc (and Stan – yes the new owner). as much as i would have loved to see some optimisim from him, it was all doom and gloom. According to him David Deans departure has been the biggest loss for the club, which i couldnt agree more. and he said wenger only has couple of more years prob ( in his views). and he confirmed this is PAT Rices last season ( i assume he has the inside information and he sounded dead sure when he said that) he also critised the new owner, and said hes poor in his views and attitude towards the club. and that old Arsenal is long gun and all the traditions have gone ( traditions such as all the players will wear the same sleeved shirt as the captain, players will wear arsenal blazers and tie when coming to the match, and only man u does that) he didnt mean we havent won a trophy becayse of these reasons, but what he meant was that the SPIRIT once shown by Arsenal players as a team is long gone since the move to Emirates) and i couldnt agree with him more.
About Walcott he said “hes thick” … All in all my emirates visit was amazing but my concern as a fan for the club are still the same, and i was glad that US as fans are right in critising wenger and even it is shared by our X Gooner players.
One last good news – he also said that Tony Adams cant wait to come back to Arsenal ( in a managers role or somehow in some form of coaching with arsenal) I myself asked him whether Lee dixon would love to come back to arsenal, he said he wouldnt but if Tony Adams comes as a coach then Dixon would play active role and would love to join his managerial team.
Gooner 4 life ! AFC Forver