Technology really is a terrific thing. Especially when it involves PVR and your favourite football team.
Not only does one get to watch Arsenal whenever one fancies but one also gets to pick and probe the latest fixture with the hindsight of 20/20. It really is a beautiful thing. And what’s further interesting is the team’s performance is rarely what you thought on first impressions; never quite as dominant as you first thought when they won nor quite as poor when they didn’t get the full three points.
This brings me to our 1-1 draw versus Fulham this past Saturday. It seemed quite apparent, when watching the game that the team was languid, tired, absent of ideas after a trying mid-week win over Dortmund.
But on second viewing, a different opinion took hold, one that I was watching a dominant and creative side that, if it weren’t for a committed defensive performance and some timely goalkeeping(not the first time a goalie rumored to be headed our way managed to keep us from three points), would have comfortably taken the spoils.
So with this idea of hindsight firm in mind, I looked at last year’s corresponding fixture to get a perspective of where this team is currently. As coincidence would have it, this fixture was played around this time last year and despite a different result (a 2-1 result for the Arsenal that put them top of the league) one could argue this year’s result was a more impressive.
Needless to say, some interesting statistics jumped out upon examination.
For instance, last Saturday we managed 20 shots on the Fulham goal with 12 of them hitting the target. Compare this with only 13 shots in this fixture last year with 7 hitting the target and it’s evident this side is doing something positive in relation to last year’s squad (stats courtesy of Skysports.com).
Further supporting this notion was the amount of corner kicks. Corners usually result from a need for the defense to release pressure (balls drifted into back post, blocks, etc) and, if this is the case, then Arsenal’s 13 corners versus Fulham’s four indicates a dominating performance with different waves of attack going decidedly one way. Last year’s game saw Fulham held a 7-3 advantage.
This could be the result of an increased tenacity the likes of which has been absent in recent years. There were 35 duels in the Fulham half on Saturday with Arsenal winning 21 of them(stats courtesy of By The Numbers column on Arseblog.com and a duel represents a tackle, dribble, header). Compare this with last year’s game when Arsenal won only 20 tackles throughout the entire game and it’s evident there is something about this team that hasn’t been there in the past.
At the very least it indicates an Arsenal team that did enough to win this game and would’ve if it weren’t for some stout defending and timely goalkeeping.
Furthermore, the stats above are further indicators that we supporters should remain positive as the club enters a new phase in its development. The last cycle didn’t work and so we have entered a new one but in a better financial situation, with a more experienced and mature squad, with some English talent that won’t be as easily lured to lands abroad and as always some exciting talent (evidenced Wednesday versus Manchester City).
All this should leave us supporters quite buoyant for this season and years to come.
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