So the 2015 Emirates Cup is done and dusted and next up, looming like a filthy, giant troll trying to prevent our passage over the bridge, is Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the upcoming Community Shield. Even though it is another glorified pre-season friendly, whose results will have absolutely no bearing on either team’s eventual league position, one can be absolutely certain that next Sunday both teams will try to lay down a marker as to how they will approach the season.
In the coming days the game will be predictably hyped by the media as Champions vs Contenders. Mourinho’s record of winning titles in 4 countries and his supposed infallibility vs Wenger will be thrust in our faces. In contrast, his record of substantially outspending almost all his opponents at every one of his managerial destinations will be shamelessly downplayed. But there will be one almost insurmountable challenge for the media; how to spin Mounrinho’s negative, boring defensive brand of football. I have no doubt he will have to employ these tactics on Sunday if he is to curb the insatiable desire of the current Arsenal squad to create goal-scoring opportunities and profit from them. These tactics are in his DNA, validated by a history of success, hence the inability of this leopard to ever change its spots. The major problem for the media is, when competing directly versus Wenger, Mourinho is completely exposed for the contrast in footballing philosophy, i.e. the professor vs the translator, the artist vs the artisan. This is increasingly validated by the masses of football fans across all the away-grounds that Chelsea must play who spontaneously erupt with chants of “boring, boring, boring” to the dismay of Mourinho’s fawning cheerleaders and stenographers in the press corp. I expect no less at Wembley.
But I digress. In truth the game is not about Wenger vs Mourinho, blah, blah, blah, but where is the current squad in terms of its readiness to make a meaningful assault on the Premier League title, the last such attempt, to my mind, having taken place in the 09-10 season. It is almost the unanimous opinion that this is the strongest group of players Wenger has assembled since the Invincibles of 2004. They are certainly more battle hardened and there is far more quality in depth than the VanNasriGas era at the height of their near-success.
So how much of a gap exists between the two clubs at the end of the 2015 season? Despite the siren cries of doom and despair from diverse pundits in the media, a look at the following table suggests Arsenal is not that far away.
| Chelsea | Arsenal | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| W | 26 | 22 | -4 |
| D | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| L | 3 | 7 | 4 |
| GF | 73 | 71 | -2 |
| GA | 32 | 36 | 4 |
| GD | 41 | 35 | -6 |
| Pts | 87 | 75 | -12 |
| Pos | 1 | 3 | 2 |
The difference between both teams can be distilled into four losses, most of which were the result of performances way inferior to the known standards of the squad as established in the 2nd half of last season. The seven losses total were to Chelsea – away, United – home, Swansea – home and away, Stoke-away, Tottenham – away, Southampton – away. With the probable exception of Chelsea and United, none of the other clubs are expected to beat Arsenal on an average day. Thus if Arsenal’s 1st team maintains the consistency and high standards it set between January and May of 2015, any reasonable man or woman would have to conclude that the gap between both clubs is surmountable.
But reasonableness is foreign to the legion of pundits feasting on the riches of the EPL. In April, even one of our more famous ex-players, Titi Henry, now seated firmly in the cushy comforts of Sky Sports, pronounced:
“Arsenal need to buy four players, they need that spine,
”They need a goalkeeper, they still need a centre-back, they still need a holding midfielder and, I’m afraid, they need a top, top-quality striker in order to win this league again.”
Despite the uproar from sections of Arsenal fan-dom and public repudiation of his statement by current players, most famously by Giroud, Henry as recent as mid July was still singing the same tune:
“I still think they need four players to get closer to Chelsea.”
In contrast, previewing the upcoming season Arsene remarked:
“We built up something special last season. That is a good team dynamic, a good confidence level, a convincing and efficient style of play. We want to work on that and we do not expect too much from outside now.
“It’s inside our squad that our performance has to be efficient. We have to focus on the quality of our performance inside the group. We also want to focus on the style of our play and our performance – that’s what football is really about.
“Part of the respect of your players is to focus on the players you have and to try to improve and look at the performance.
“We are open-minded [about transfers] everywhere and we work very hard to find the quality of the players we can. Let’s not forget that we have spent a lot of money in the last two seasons and we have bought as well Gabriel in the middle of last year to give him time to adapt and be ready for this season.
“If there is something more, we are not reluctant to spend the money. I know that you like to paint me as doing that! I didn’t do it for a while because we didn’t have the money. Now that we have, if we find the players we will spend the money.”
It is not as if Arsene words are inconsistent with his actions. So far there has been only one major signing, Petr Cech, clearly aimed at upgrading the quality of the goalkeeping department. Despite the mindless racket in the press and social media suggesting that Ospina has been a failure and therefore supplanted by Cech, in due course it became clear that Wojciech Szczęsny had been identified as the weakest link and is to be sent out on loan. This should have been self-evident to any unbiased observer of the Pole’s role in some of the poorer performances by Arsenal in the last campaign. But being unbiased is as rare as common sense among those who preach loudest about the needs of the football club.
Pre-season performances in Singapore and at home in the Emirates Cup suggests that Arsene has been working to build on the team dynamic and confidence level that was reflected in the annihilation of Aston Villa in the FA Cup final. Score-lines are usually meaningless at this stage but surely the freedom at which the team has been hitting the back of the net in these games is at minimum good for confidence.
What of the existing players whom Arsene says there is need to focus on trying to improve. The boss has suggested that the main objective is getting:
“…. some more goals from some players who are not really strikers and that was our strength traditionally. Our offensive and creative players scored 10 to 12 goals, that’s what you need. In the second part of last season we only conceded 13 goals in 19 games. So we want to keep that and add a few more goals. I think we can find that from inside, I am convinced of that. If we can find it from outside then we will do it as well.”
Upon reflection, it is clear that in 2013-14 Alexis (16) and Giroud (14) were carrying too much of a goal-scoring burden without the expected contribution by the British core in particular. Due solely to the injury blight, compared to the prior year, there was a significant fall-off in output from Walcott and Ramsey with almost no input from Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wilshere:
| 13-14 | 14-15 | |
|---|---|---|
| Walcott | 5 | 6 |
| Ramsey | 10 | 6 |
| The Ox | 2 | 1 |
| Wilshere | 3 | 2 |
The table does no justice to the significance of Theo Walcott’s the absence. In both of the years covered above he was absent for more than half-a-season. A better baseline for comparison purposes should be 2012-13, his last full season, when he scored 14 goals and made 12 assists. Surely this more than a 50% loss in expected goals from Walcott is arguably the primary reason why the club was not more competitive in the past two years. It is noticeable that the media is dominated by a clamor for a new world-class striker versus almost indifference to Arsenal re-signing someone who was on course to becoming a 20-goal a season producer. Tells us all we need to know about the hysteria and sensationalism surrounding this club.
Even the newly signed Danny Welbeck who was expected to make a contribution only scored 5 league goals in 24 games before being struck down in April.
Finally but by no means least I have included Wilshere as a possible source of goals, because from time to-to-time he has shown the potential. Last year’s strike in the match at home against Man City to put the team up 2:1, prior to conceding a late equalizer, is an example of his quality. Nobody expects Wishere to be a great goal scorer but as demonstrated by his volley against West Brom in May as well as his two long range rockets for England vs Slovenia in June, he can be a scorer of great goals. This is a very useful luxury to have.
Surely this blog hasn’t put too much pressure on the British core. But one cannot ignore the challenge that history has presented them. It bears reminding that after the heights scaled by the youth project, almost all the stars of that group showed, what can be politely described as, a lack of commitment to the club and an unwillingness to press on and win the League. Once they became stars, under Wenger’s tutelage, they all became susceptible to bigger clubs waving fistful of dollars. Arsene may never say this publicly but Adebayor, Fabregas, Nasri, Van Persie, et al had one element in common; being non-British they did not identify with the competitive tradition of the English League and could be easily swayed by more lucrative offers from competing clubs. In 2015-16, four years after signing Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (and Karl Jenkinson) to long term contracts and pronouncing them the British Core, fate has presented them with the challenge to help the club cross the winning line. Hopefully they will embrace it by staying fit and scoring the goals.
By @shottagunna
Positively Arsenal 
Sola. @Fattcheeked 10h10 hours ago
Amazing how people are happy Jeff is part of the first team squad but last year Bellerin didn’t count and we had just 6 defenders.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anicoll – Keegan and Bremner both sent off hehe. I remember that being huge news and all the talk in school when we went back after the holidays that year.
My memory seems to tell me that sending offs were a rare bird and TWO in the charity shield was unthinkable at the time.
LikeLike
Blimey, guessed (remembered) 74 for the Kevin and Billy shenanigans and just googled to confirm. 41 blooming years ago.. Flipping heck!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is odd the stuff you find in the spam box on this site which I occasionally tidy out.
Just disposed of a lengthy piece from a lady astrologist – you’d have thought she know. (?)
LikeLiked by 3 people
Bennacer signing his Arsenal contract – the 7th young player signed this summer
LikeLike
Yes I remember the sending offs which were portrayed as events invoking huge shame on the players. Wembley itself was considered somewhat stained by the whole affair and I wouldn’t be surprised even now to learn questions may have been asked in the House.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ismael Bennacer, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Yassin Fortune, Kostas Pileas, Vlad Dragomir, Donyell Malen and Jordi Osei-Tutu have all been brought to Arsenal this summer, that really is an amazing amount of new recruits at that level, nothing on the scale of this has ever been done by Arsenal before
LikeLike
anicoll – Did she have any predictions about the 2015/16 season?
LikeLiked by 2 people
A few contributors revealing their age. As for me, in a few days I’ll be an age that would have set the pulse rate up about 20 years back – especially when referred to in the French.
LikeLiked by 1 person
On reflection, make that 30 years back.
LikeLike
eduardo – it is indeed remarkable and exciting. I wonder how many other teams have been so active in this age group.
LikeLike
since it is not a shining Ronaldo or messi, the 7 new young ‘uns brought in do not count as part of the summer business… we should be glad that cech as only 11 mill was counted worthy of being reckoned as a summer recruit… he is not near the 30 m bracket and all
LikeLike
Arsenal.com have a piece by Mr Wenger, comparing the 1997 staffing level to 2015?
Testing the memory bank of our esteemed manager,
80 now rising to 537.
The Financial Statement for 1996/1997 informs us that
,
the average monthly number was 145! but 69 were admin staff. London Colney was mainly a portakabin.
The Financial Statement for 2013/2014 informs us that
548 were the average number of monthly employees, ,
including 67 players, 80 training staff and 97 ground staff
but 2012/2013 was 537!
Has there been a cost-cutting exercise in 2015?
Mr Wenger, please tell!
LikeLike
I read in the grauniad online that Isaac Hayden may be going to Hull on a season long loan. Shame – I’d hoped we would see him get a chance at the ES, even if only in the CC. But good for his development I guess. Let’s hope his injury woes are over and he gets some game time. Him and Le Coq in midfield could be quite a duo.
Maybe this is connected to the reports that the Flamster is staying. Le Coq, Arteta and MF as defensive midfielders?
LikeLike
Jon Toral has gone on lone to Birmingham City for the season.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arsenal scout Brian McDermott was at the Southampton game tonight
LikeLike
Who have we got our eyes on at Southampton Eduardo?
LikeLike
I expect Wanyama will be the one linked, has Vitesse anyone we might want, half their team are chelsea players, they had more english players in their side than southampton.
LikeLike
Notoverthehill – why do you ask if there has been a cost-cutting exercise this year? What makes you think there may have been?
LikeLike
remember when Ramsey’s comment about wanting to play in Spain one day were jumped upon by the AAA, isn’t it funny how none of them have a word to say about this comment he made
Aaron Ramsey:
“I definitely feel like one of the leaders [at Arsenal] now. One day, I’d like to be captain.”
LikeLike
the news we all wanted to hear, Walcott and Cazorla have signed new deals with Arsenal
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150731/cazorla-and-walcott-sign-new-deals
LikeLiked by 2 people
5 AFC games moved for TV
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150731/five-premier-league-fixtures-rescheduled
LikeLike
Not only has AW been bribing cazorla with a CM position he’s also third choice skipper too. This player, this person, for some reason he turned down Madrid earlier in his career. This much admired famous player won his first club honours at the Arsenal. Two seasons in a row. Let’s not forget the fans adore him.
Never going anywhere! But i suppose people need the clicks.
More or less the same for Walcott, save the player himself has been fairly clear he wants to stay. If you were modelling your game to a degree on the lesser Ronaldo, fair to say that you’d be wanting to stay close to Ozil!
Some say he has an odious agent. Probably true, but are they as bad as DD or the chap looking after Stwrling and Chambo? Not sure I care!
LikeLike
fins I don’t know where this thing about Walcott’s agent come from, just cos they take their time on signing the thing should not be a problem, this time and on his last contract Walcott said from the outset that he wanted to stay, believed he would stay and did stay, Wenger was also always positive on both deals, I’d much rather all players at AFC were as good at keeping their word as Theo has been. How many times did we have little shits sign new deals only to demand a move as soon as someone offered them a pay rise. I find that a lot of those who bad mouth Walcott and his agent are long term boo boys of Walcott, and will never rate him no matter how well he plays. “he hasn’t got a football brain you know”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Dan Crowley gone to Barnsley on a six month loan deal. Good chance for the lad.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Eddy, the manager’s description of Walcott as a “goal machine” was a strong indication that the club wanted to keep the player!!
Don’t worry about those who would’ve complained about Lauren at RB, Toure at CB etc. if the baubles hadn’t kept them quiet. The fans of Gazpromball.
Football has always been evolving and will continue to do so.
Walcott and Sanchez backed up by the likes of chamberlain. All three fit and in the same squad is close to my idea of perfection. Though catching up with the first half of the Lyon game Chambo was a bit dozy off the ball, he still needs to keep working on not injuring himself with gazza style tackles etc. Needs to keep on copying Rosicky!
LikeLike
Arsenal Fixture News @AFCFixtureNews 13m13 minutes ago
Half Time from the Durban U19 International Tournament
KZN Academy 1
Arsenal 0
LikeLike
Good effort from the English cricketers and even more pleased that Theo and Santi have pledged their allegiance to The Arsenal cause. Terrifying though the figures are it seems very sensible to pay the extra for players who are tried and tested in your own system. I would imagine that (in no particular order) Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Liverpool are all a little bit disappointed that they didn’t get the chance to sign Walcott, given the price that home-grown players seem to command nowadays.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike
A reply to Arsenalandrew
I believe that Mr Wenger would use the latest, available average monthly employee figure?
LikeLike
NOTH, Arsene said there were 80+ and now its 500+
LikeLike
PG, here is the quote,
““On the other hand, the clubs have taken a different dimension. When I arrived Arsenal Football Club was 80 people. Today it’s 537. That tells you how much football has changed and that is tremendous. Hopefully in 20 years we will be 2,500.””
LikeLike
Don’t worry about whether it is 80 or 537+ I’ve got a sunburnt arse!
LikeLiked by 1 person
NOTH thats what I said.
LikeLike
Hayden and Akpom to Hull on loan.
Players sent out on loan so far
Akpom and Hayden at Hull
Sanogo at Ajax
Maitland-Niles at Ipswich
Crowley at Barnsely
Jenkinson at West Ham
Szczesny at Roma
LikeLiked by 1 person
Toral on loan at Birmingham for the season too.
Tafari Moore finally made his comeback from injury for the U19’s today out in Durban, he played the full 90 minutes, he missed all of last season. A top prospect.
LikeLike
Messi Minutes @MessiMinutes 12m12 minutes ago
Arsene Wenger on the media and José Mourinho:
“I’ll leave your love story with him to continue without interfering.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
with both Akpom and Hayden going on loan to Hull the media are already jumping to the conclusion Arsene is bringing in a CDM and a Striker.
LikeLike
yeah a_o_b the media are using sound logic, how else would Arsenal replace two players who played so many games for our first team last season, whats that you say, Akpom 3 sub appearances in the BPL and Hayden no BPL game time.
LikeLike
Interesting blog today by arseblogger on Walcott’s and Cazorla’s new contracts, especially the former. Don’t always see eye to eye with him but it would be churlish of me to pick any holes in that one.
LikeLike
Delighted about Thro and Santi.
nacho is next, I believe.
Core of team tied down to long term contracts.
Keeping our team means the club have to pay wages that heretofore only the oilers and Russians and continental monopolies can dish out. People complaining about that are insane.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I’d expect none of our fringe players will be included in the squad for the CS tommorrow, likely squad – Cech, Ospina, Bellerin, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gabriel, Monreal, Gibbs, Coquelin, Arteta, Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo and Giroud
LikeLike
Haha, maybe I’m not so clever.
Great article Shotta.thank you.
LikeLike
Dammit Rantetta, that boy Jeff was really good last Sunday. Then I was watching a dodgy stream so the resolution was not clear. I knew he played well but in this comp it is undeniable this boy could be very special. Fingers crossed he is the real deal.
LikeLike
Notoverthehill – the headcount ‘discrepancy’ I think you are referring to may well be down to the closure of the Brent Cross Arsenal retail outlet – would have employed around 9 members of staff.
LikeLike
Ranteta – do you want that post deleted? Good way to reach Steww is via Twitter if you use that route?
LikeLike
dkgÖÖnér @ 10:32 am
This is the same blogger who towards the end of last season was actively stoking the rumor that Santi Cazorla was going back to Spain this season. It sometimes makes you wonder why people write the things they do. To my mind, as an “Arsenal” blogger one has a duty to avoid giving credibility to baseless rumor-mongering.
Lets leave it at that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The arseblogger was using his turds as fertiliser upon that meme. I suppose he needed something to write about.
Reminded me of the time he took so much glee when Adebayor’s self destructive streak closed his arsenal career.
It only took the club, which was under severe fininacial restitictions at the time a few years to rebuild the forward line and find a suitable “lump” to take his place in the squad.
It made no sense then and even less now.
On Walcott many were over-critical o a developing player who has outshone all his English peers* at every level and opportunity and they’ll simply be reluctant to give the player any praise. Those still critical of his game do not appear to have been able to acknowledge what has been observed for years – opponents have to change their shape when he is simply standing on the pitch, when trying to rope the dope they can’t commit in the counter etc. etc. etc. Villa expected Giroud and that didn’t work out too well for them. AW is going to have fun with his CFs this season. Welbeck is going to have to be patient, with his fitness behind the others he might have to wait till the first round of CL games for a start. Those are the three CFs with others capable of covering too. Not bad!
* Chambo and the younger crop are a gen/half generation younger.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Welbeck…he needs another season of training under arsene’s magic hat, and then we might see a very special CF.
Took a couple of seasons but it looks like Ozil’s finishing has improved? I don’t know if others were interested in Mesut at the time of his move but the player was definitely interested in training and being coached aboard the good ship Arsenal.
LikeLike