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Just rummaging through some of the striker stats this season, because I am baffled that we have such a low-output system, considering we’re champions. Viktor has 1 shot to his name after 414 minutes of EPL football. Nico Jackson has 19 with 551 minutes. Alex Isak has 20 of 571 minutes. Kai fairly decent at 14 over 589 minutes, but just two goals across 8 matches, and he has gone missing as often as Vik.
It still remains one of the great mysteries of Arteta’s time at Arsenal. Over 2.5 Sporting Directors, we’ve not managed to come up with a bona fide monster of a striker. Is it mean to say that we haven’t really signed a world class attacker in that time? Maybe… but we all feel it. Full backs? Loads of them. Midfielders? We rarely miss. Attackers? The only really top players are those that have come through the ranks.
I find it all really strange. Especially as we’ve broken Arsenal goal scoring records twice under Arteta (once in the league, once in all comps). What is tougher for me to stomach is that we don’t really take that many transfer chances, particularly on strikers. Nico Jackson might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he is a workhorse, he’s very fast, and he can score goals when he feels loved. There’s just a collection of forwards that seem to come into the league every year that occupy defenders, create chaos, and put the ball into the back of the net… and we’re never in the mixer for them. It’s not even like we’re in a world of… ‘ahhh, Arteta just likes these freak athletes that bully and create’ or ‘Arteta is totally obsessed with creator strikers that do the second striker thing and it leaves us without a target man’… we’re all over the place. How did Edu allow Arteta to pass on J. Pedro when he training next door to Arsenal with a transfer fee of £20m?
How does all that change in January? No doubt we’re going to have a busy month and I suspect we’re going to bring in a forward. Kroupi is back in the Bournemouth team, Álvarez staying at Atleti doesn’t seem to have worked out too well, and a cheeky loan move for Vini Jnr could be very good. But damn, it’s rough out there with names right now… I’m not feeling any of them. Haaland, Mbappé, and Kane… those are the ballers.
For now, let’s just bask in the glory of Konsa and BACK FROM THE DEAD Big Gabz. Proper forwards. It’s also funny to me that Merino had more shots in one game than all our forwards combined… and let’s be honest, he was pretty drossy in midfield, man has the taste for being a 9 and he just does 9 things all game long. Watch him tomorrow if he starts, he’ll just be goal hanging, and Madueke will be pinging balls at him all game. Very funny how messy our squad is… but at the same time, it defies the odds and we win MAJOR TROPHIES.
League Cup is going to be fun. Fleetwood Mac means we’ll be able to bring in the crash test dummies like… err… Zubimendi? The man broke his nose against Everton, but he’ll finally get a start in the League Cup. It’s so Nørgaard coded for him this season. Outrageous. Hope his agent is working on a deal and that deal best have some attacking options coming the other way.
Spent some time watching around the other teams.
Man United are so bad, their fans are clamouring for Conte to bring some winnetivity to proceedings. How do people come to the same view with the biggest arsonist in football every time? He wants all his own players, those players are all old, and he plays soul destroying football, then he’ll cry when things are going badly and tell United fans they are losers. I’m all in.
Liverpool had a good result against Brighton, sending Hürzeler packing with no points… but it has to be said, the defending from Liverpool was a hot mess. A lot of work to be done there if they’re going to compete this season.
Chelsea were humbled by De Zerbi. Both sides were wide open, both had 12-year-old keepers who were reckless, one side was humbled after an atrocious showing of mediocrity.
Man City were also defeated by Villa… those negative headlines about their operation was delightful. This is death by 1000 snarky headlines. Maresca has a job on his hands keeping professional footballers focused on winning major things as they’re all called cheats everywhere they go. Elliot Anderson playing the big man, like it’s part of being a footballer, when it’s anything but…
So, overall, a decent weekend, we’re joint top with a team that won’t be there come the end of the season.
Ok, that’s me done. Going to do a debrief with Jacob later this evening; get the Ratings with Johnny below. x