Premier League football was back with a vengeance last weekend and after Arsenal conceded three goals to Leicester, on its way to an exciting come-from-behind victory, there was the usual angst among casual fans as well as the professional pundits as to whether Wenger should focus on a more attacking or defensive set up to truly challenge for the title.
As any close follower of the club is aware the debate has been raging ad-infinitum, waxing and waning. It took a more recent grip between March and April this year when the club conceded three goals to West Brom, Liverpool and Crystal Palace in a spate of excruciating defeats. This preceded a switch to three at the back in mid April and a return to defensive solidity as the club won 8 successive PL games as well as victories vs huge opponents (Man City and Chelsea) in both the FA cup semi-final and final.
Wenger in pre-season pledged a continuation of the same formation for the 2017-18 campaign but in the Leicester game questions about the efficacy of three at the back refused to go away. Having fallen behind 2-3 Wenger decided around the 70 minute mark to ditch the starting formation, going 4-3-3, ridding the team of its only specialized central defender and focusing on a far more attacking group of players. Does this portend a return to a more conventional attacking formation?
Never one to shy away from controversy, our own @BlackburnGeorge threw his hat into the ring with a customary acerbic tweet:
https://twitter.com/Blackburngeorge/status/896376238964711425
George has a very good point and, as is his custom, he is not shy to assert it. Unlike the head-in-the-sand bleatings of most members of the pundit class (on both sides of the Atlantic), he recognizes that football administrators have gradually modified the rules of the game to give advantage to the attacking team.
The decline of the offside trap and more goal-scoring
Jonathan Wilson, one of the finest observers of the modern game, in 2010 concluded that modern changes to the offside rule:
“….has generated a climate in which some of the most beautiful football ever played has been produced.”
I will quote him extensively:
In 2005 that the most radical changes came, and the switch to a law that, 142 years after it was first formulated, at last seems to have got it right. First, it was clarified that a player is offside only if a part of his body with which he is legally able to play the ball is beyond the penultimate defender. That, realistically, is academic, for no linesman can make a snap judgment as to whether, say, it is upper arm or torso he can see protruding beyond the defender, but what the change did was to shift the benefit of any doubt yet further in favour of the forward.
More significant, though was the rewording of what it means to be interfering: “Interfering with play means playing or touching the ball passed or touched by a team-mate.” A later amendment clarified that: “A player in an offside position may be penalised before playing or touching the ball if, in the opinion of the referee, no other team-mate in an onside position has the opportunity to play the ball.
“If an opponent becomes involved in the play and if, in the opinion of the referee, there is potential for physical contact, the player in the offside position shall be penalised for interfering with an opponent.”
In Wilson’s opinion the law delegitimized the offside trap as evident by the data:
Opta stats show that in 1997-98 there were 7.8 offsides per game in the Premier League, after which there was a fairly steady decline to 6.3 in 2005-06. Since the new legislation came into force, there has been a further decline, to 4.8 so far this (2010-11) season.
Wilson notes that while the old offside rule was to prevent goalhanging and prevent the game becoming about endless hoofs into the danger area where a goalkeeper would battle with a handful of forwards who could legitimately stand straight in front of him, recent rule changes go further.
The modern law stops that, but brilliantly it does it without the side-effect of legitimising the offside trap. And that must, even at its most basic level, be a good thing. Surely nobody, not even George Graham, goes to a game thinking: “Hmm, I hope they play some good offsides today?” Making defenders defend, forcing them to mark or block or intercept or tackle, has to be a good thing.
It must be emphasized that since 2005 there have been several tweaks to the offside rule further liberating the forwards and making the offside trap even more difficult to implement.
Most recent was in 2016 as FIFA amended the law to clarify that an offside player who is not ‘actively involved in play’ is not committing an offence as long as he is not interfering with play. Again this was an attempt to encourage attacking football.
“Interfering with play means playing or touching the ball passed or touched by a team-mate,”
A player could still be offside though if the referee think he is interfering with an opponent, such as blocking a goalkeeper’s view, or has gained an advantage.
Is it any wonder that many ex-pros from the George Graham era, like Arsenal’s Lee Dixon, currently a pundit for NBC, cannot come to grips with modern day defending. The best he can do is grumble and snipe that “back in my day” we had “real leaders” who would “point and shout”. Most of all, the old crones cannot reconcile themselves to the fact that a modern team must emphasize attacking football and score goals rather than a conservative tactic of full backs who rarely break beyond the half-way line and a back four protected by two deep-lying central midfielders. Again George is spot on:
https://twitter.com/Blackburngeorge/status/896373795115716609
League Winners Are Scoring More Goals
The trend in the Premier League when comparing 1996-2006 to 2006-17 indicate that increasingly the winners have to score more goals season-to-season if they are to win the league.
| Premier League Winner – Mean Statistic | ||||
| 1996-2006 | 2006-2017 | Change | % Change | |
| GF | 77 | 84 | 7 | 9% |
| GA | 32 | 32 | 0 | 0% |
| GD | 45 | 52 | 7 | 16% |
| Premier League Winner – Median Statistic | ||||
| 1996-2006 | 2006-2017 | Change | % Change | |
| GF | 75 | 83 | 8 | 11% |
| GA | 34 | 32 | -2 | -6% |
| GD | 45 | 52 | 7 | 16% |
Both the mean and median statistic indicate that in the last 10 years or so, since the changes in the offside rule, winning PL teams are scoring 9-11 percent more goals compared to the first ten years when Wenger started managing. In contrast, there has been no increase in the Goals Against data from one era to the next. In fact on a media basis GA has declined by 6%, suggesting champion teams are better at defending despite the declining importance of the offside trap.
Compare the league winners with Arsenal over the same period:
| Arsenal – Mean Statistic | ||||
| 1996-2006 | 2006-2017 | Change | % Change | |
| GF | 72 | 70 | -2 | -3% |
| GA | 33 | 38 | 5 | 15% |
| GD | 38 | 33 | -5 | -13% |
| Arsenal – Median Statistic | ||||
| 1996-2006 | 2006-2017 | Change | % Change | |
| GF | 71 | 71 | 0 | 0% |
| GA | 35 | 37 | 2 | 6% |
| GD | 40 | 31 | -9 | -23% |
Unlike the top teams in the Premier League, in the 10 years since the big change in the offside rule, Arsenal’s goal-scoring has either remained stagnant or even declined slightly using the mean average. More concerning, Goals Against has increased between 6% and 15% depending on which metric is used. The end result is a sharp decline in Goal Difference from the past era to the present ranging from -13% (mean average) to -23% (median average).
The data is crystal clear. Arsenal has considerable ground to cover if it is to improve on its better resourced rivals such as Chelsea, Man City and Man United who, apart from Leicester in 15/16, have monopolized the league title since 2006.
Positively Arsenal 
Derby still causing our defense all sorts of problems
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73 minutes wilshere, coquelin off, dasilva and mcguane on
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wengerball and Nketiah puts AFC 3-2 up
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arsenal so open at the back, derby with a couple of quickfire chances, goalie gets legs to the first and diverts the ball onto the post on the second
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derby open us up again
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FT: Derby County U23’s 2-3 Arsenal U23’s
Derby went 2-0 up, then Nelson hit two fine goals to get us level before Nketiah fired in the winner.
Derby caused us all sort of problems at the back, but we caused them all sort of problems in defense too. We got a bit of luck with them hitting the woodwork twice.
Nelson stole the show in the second half, when moved to a more advanced role, what a talent. Nketiah is one hell of a goal scorer.
Disappointed with Wilshere and Coquelin’s performance, Gibbs done well but was taken off at half time.
We were awful at the back, partly down to Wilshere and Coquelin being second best in midfield, and partly down to slack marking and sloppy passing. And Derby deserve praise for their speedy attacking.
Reine-Adelaide once again floated in and out of the game, so much talent, but not imposing himself nearly enough.
DaSilva came on as a sub and impressed
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reports that from next summer the transfer window in England will close before the season starts
not sure how good an idea this is if other european league windows are still open, although I’m generally in favor of it
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Ed
Caught 2nd half of the youth game. Thought some of our attacking play was outstanding. Very rarely watch anyone else’s youth teams, but can’t imagine even Chelsea or City playing such skillful football.
We have a host of players who look about the same standard Iwobi did in youth, which surely bodes well, then we have Nelson! If he gets a few games in cups I expect he’ll force his way into the match day squad full time this year.
Thought Jack looked classy and composed with ball. Defending was…let’s just say I hope it is deliberate to expose those in defensive slots to maximum stress or something. Preparation, see how they can cope.
Really got me thinking about how unlikely it is a traditional, Adams type centre half can come through the system. They’d prob be filtered out before u16. Our defending is to traditional defending what rugby union is to league. Plenty of similarities but ultimately very different.
Bielek as last man beat his marker, sometimes more than once, with great skill number of times, played many nice passes, and gave the ball away dangerously a handful of times (inevitable given what he was tasked with doing).
But to the attack- I’d gladly have paid money to watch it in full flow, and you could hear the small crowd afterwards clapping with great enthusiasm afterwards. They’d had a treat.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. My eternal battle with accepting such an attacking approach means such an exposed defence will just have to go on.
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Rich: I wonder oftentimes how does Wenger convey to players the importance of a balance between offence and defence. I have come to the conclusion it has a lot to do with the quality of the players. With the changes in the offside rule there is greater importance to positioning and defensive awareness for midfielders and forwards as much as it is for defenders.
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I have always been wrong when promoting a transfer. Lol.
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I want you word perfect by kick off time;
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i suspect that apart from showing an ability to be rigorously drilled, there is no percentage for young defenders to show cohesion as part of a tight back 4 or 5 in games away from the first team.
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Das schönste Land in Deutschlands Gau’n,
das ist mein Badnerland.
Es ist so herrlich anzuschau’n
und ruht in Gottes Hand.
The most beautiful land in Germany
that is my land of Baden
it is so magnificent to look upon
and rests in the hand of God
Refrain
D’rum grüß ich dich mein Badnerland,
du edle Perl’ im deutschen Land.
frisch auf, frisch auf; frisch auf, frisch auf;
frisch auf, frisch auf mein Badnerland.
And so, I greet you, my land of Baden
You noble pearl of Germany
Arise, arise; arise, arise!
Arise, arise my Badnerland!
Verse 2
In Karlsruh’ ist die Residenz,
in Mannheim die Fabrik.
In Rastatt ist die Festung
und das ist Badens Glück.
The Palace is in Karlsruhe,
The factories, in Mannheim
In Rastatt, there is the stronghold
And that is Baden’s fortune.
Verse 3
Alt-Heidelberg, du feine,
du Stadt an Ehren reich,
am Neckar und am Rheine,
kein’ and’re kommt dir gleich.
Old Heidelberg, you noble city,
rich in honors
On the banks of the Neckar and the Rhine,
you are without equal.
Verse 4
In Haslach gräbt man Silbererz,
Bei Freiburg wächst der Wein,
im Schwarzwald schöne Mädchen,
ein Badner möcht’ ich sein.
Silver ore is mined in Haslach,
In Freiburg, wine is grown,
In the Black Forest, maidens fair
I would like to be a Badner.
Verse 5
Der Bauer und der Edelmann,
das stolze Militär
die schau’n einander freundlich an,
und das ist Badens Ehr.
The farmer and the nobleman,
the proud military
they look amicably at each other
and this is Baden’s honor.
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Dats ma boy
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well rich, the attack in the u23 team was exciting to watch, even if some were not at thier best. But coq and jack for me let the team down defensively, not a tackle between them, probably understandable when you consider that the last thing either wants is another injury, especially jack. But they did not even cover runs.
Now the defense had only Bielik playing in his proper position, with AMN and Bramal playing CB’s,
Nelson worked his socks off to track back, but same can not be said for Willock and Reine-Adelaide, who both flittered in and out of the game
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How old is Beliek these days? He sounds a real prospect for a couple of years down the line.
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Bielik is 19, will be 20 in January
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Never seen anything like this to date from Kane or Alli at the top level (International Tournies or the CL)
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< even one goal for comparison would be helpful…but there aren't any unless we're counting goals from CL as well as Tourny football. Kane did score in knockout against Gent (he might have had others in the group stages but no performances to compare with Welbeck's against Gala).
But it was an own goal.
(Erickson and Wanyama scored their only goals in the tie)
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Fins, He was trying to side-foot it into the other corner.
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Twats at the Mirror trying to stir things up ahead of Stoke.
Headline about Kolasinac wrecking (Stoke’s new signing) Rodriguez’s Madrid career with an ‘ugly challenge/ Tackle
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/jese-kolasinac-revenge-stoke-arsenal-10992562
Had a look at the video and there isn’t even a tackle. Rodriguez makes unfortunate decision to put his leg in Kolasinac’s way to buy a free kick. Bad idea. Wrecked knee.
Still, anything for a dig and it should fire up any reading Orcs very nicely
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Haha! Yep. As on Friday nights you (I) think that Welbeck couldn’t hit his arse with a banjo. Yet has produced more end product at the top level then the diving cloggers.
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“Never seen anything like this” as in a goal!
Hehe
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“Never seen anything like this” as in a goal!
Hehe
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stop with the nonsense finsbury, BPL is top level, to suggest otherwise is silly at best. Don’t tell me you would not rather have Kane at Arsenal than Welbeck.
Danny has scored a grand total of 11 BPL goals for us, in 53 games, and only 37 in his career in 171 games,
his CL scoring record aint quite as good as you like to pretend, yeah he got 3 v Gala, that would be the only CL he has scored in for us out of his 8 games.
And he scored 4 times in it for man utd in 16 games. By the way he failed to score in 3 Europa league games for Man Utd too. So Danny has played 24 CL games and 3 EL games and scored in 5 of them.
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this quote from Wenger will have the ASB in meltdown
“Getting players out keeps you as busy as getting players in, so I will be busy.”
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Teams News – Alexis in training but Stoke game might be too soon for him, but Per, Mustafi and Coquelin all likely to be in the squad.
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Wenger says Wilshere likely to play for U23’s again next Monday, as he now just needs games to get match fit, and that he plans to have him here at Arsenal for the season, and that next summer we will see if he has a future here.
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To All Amateur scouts (yours truly included): Seri is playing for Nice vs Napoli in a champs league qualifier later today. IMO he is the only midfielder “available” in Europe who remotely approaches the technical security of Santi Cazorla. Napoli is good opposition and will help prove or disprove my opinion.
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Eddy, you weren’t listening to Hunter were you?
The PL is not top level. I’m sorry to burst your footballs! The leading clubs from this decade are not playing their football in the PL. but they are spending shit loads of wonga whoo hoo whilst the best players still go elsewhere save the rejects that AFC & AW induce to n5 (Ozil and Sanchez!).
Entertaining: yes. Best football clubs playing the best football: no.
It was top level at the end of the seventies.
It was top level at the end of the nineties, when the German FA used Ferguson and Wenger as the inspiration behind their current success. Since then the PL has degenerated under the life of Riley. More PL teams were reaching the latter rounds of the CL a decade ago. That’s not an opinion, it is the record.
Sorry to be the bearer of sad information, but that’s the way it is.
Riley’s favoured clowns do have good records in the PL. And poor outside of it.
That’s the record.
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ah right BPL not top level, and so in this below top level league the great Danny Welbeck can’t out perform useless cunts like kane, but that make him top level
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oh and sorry to burst your bubble but Intenational football is far from top level, the best International teams would not beat the best club sides, the vast majority of international football is sterile bullshit, even the major tournaments is full of sub standard football, with teams filled with players from the lesser leagues.
the bpl may not be the best league in the world, but it is still one of the very top level leagues in the world.
fins what exactly is top level football to you.
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shotta_gooner
Not sure it will prove or disprove your belief (mine also I might add) that he is the correct choice for our midfield. But it will give us all a chance to see and further asses his qualities.
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Sure Eds, the Spanish and German national teams since 2008 haven’t been all that eh?
That would explain why AFC brought in the German physio who masterminded their WC campign in a Brazilian summer etc.
He’d spent the whole time on the beach with a bucket and shovel…watching scrooge Vengarrrghhhh play Vollyball (whilst signing Sanchez in his free time)
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Fellas, you should probably leave the Kane/Welbeck argument or you’ll reach a level of ire that’ll be hard to come back from, if you haven’t already got there.
That and I’ll probably give in soon to the temptation to get involved, and that could be more of us on not very positive terms!
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Hunter was correct.
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There’s no ire Rich, it’s a fascnitating and deliberately chosen contrast.
Kane had three full matches to bounce a goal in off his arse.
Welbeck came on as a sub, he made something happen, and scored! Kane’s biggest contribution in Europe was an own goal to send his team out, for Welbeck it was a class and quality hat trick.
They’re both good footballers but neither player is going to be or should be compared to Romario anytime soon, except for the one hyped up by Greg Dyke and the people running the PL, and their pals in ther funny papers.
…and that’s what I’ve successfully highlighed in this thread.
What can i say, after making a bet with a friend two seasons ago that Chamberlain was a better footballer then the mule Sterling I don’t think there’s much of a debate. We can observe how certain players are hyped by their buisniess partners to suit agents agendas (Walker transfer lol!).
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Show me the money innit
(sorry for typos – back to work!)
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now now fins, that is bullshit, where have I stated that there are not some top level teams in international football, you know I have not said anything of the sort,
Germany and Spain teams you say, well done, you prove my point, by naming two of the very few really good teams that there has been in the last 20 years of international football, they are few and far between. International football by and large is of a very poor standard, how bad does it have to be for the 2 irish teams to make it to championship finals, and they are no the worst to get there either.
BPL football is of a much higher level than most International football
by the way who do you think would win between
Real Madrid v Spain
Bayern Munich v Germany
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Any thoughts on the AFTV interview with Jon Smith?
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well fins if welbeck is better than kane cos he scored a hattrick v gala, then that means sterling is better than ox as raheem has 5 goals in 18 CL games while ox has only 4 in 31, you see your own comparison contradicts your two findings.
You are mistaking the over hyping of the BPL with its actual standard, just cos its over hyped and is not as good as the PR men say it is, does not mean it is still not actually one of the leagues of the very highest standard
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Alvy what interview is that, jon smith done a q&a last summer, he spoke highly of AFC and Wenger, said such things as “Arsenal’s word is their bond” and no double dealing from Arsenal.
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Here it be Ed.
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Raheem “the mule” Sterling over a year younger than Alex “world beater” Oxlade-Chamberlain, has more BPL goals in less games, more FA Cup goals in less games, more CL goals in less games, yes the ox has outscored him in the league cup by one goal, in one more game. Ox has only better stats for England, 2 more goals in 5 less games. And ox has played in 4 CS and scored 1 goal.
Sterling BPL159 G31 FAC16 G3 LC12 G5 CL36 G5 T223 G44
AOC BPL165 G18 FAC25 G1 LC13 G6 CL31 G4 T238 G30
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well Alvy he said a lot of “allegedly” in his info, and don’t tell finsbury about his view of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Also he said Lucas Perez “plays well for Germany”, odd considering he is Spanish, has no international caps, and has not played in German league either.
he says Alexis has been offered £300K a week by AFC but that he wants £400K a week
had to laugh at Robbie asking “how can PSG afford” to buy x, y, z. Even though he said I know its Qatar. For a smart guy he really can be very dumb.
i agree with JS that if BPL tv deal keeps getting bigger then rest of European leagues will try and take action, be that a European Super league, or something else.
He basically said that Usmanov is waiting for a fans revolt before launching another take over bid.
Some players to leave and one more major signing.
Would have liked him to explain how he reached the conclusion that having a smaller squad will help with our injury problems. Unless he meant we rid ourselves of injury prone players.
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Apparently Smith apologised for messing up about LP playing in Germany, he was according to Robbie think of Poldi.
For me the whole interview swung to the Wob/ASB agenda.
I found the whole think a bit vomity. I not sure the lower leagues will survive in years to come, and who knows even the major leagues in each country, just the big clubs battling it out.
Getting a long way away from how it all started.
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This top quality that you are insisting upon, unfortunately it isn’t reflected in the national teams as it is with the two top leagues in Europe (that would be Spain and Germany). Not forgetting France.
Why is that? What makes dear old England so special?
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Sterling wasn’t a mule?
Ok then.
Haha!
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Neither was Andy Carroll!
*Taps nose*
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