Lies & Statistics - Our Defence

[Trevheff]

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Despite a good away win on Saturday in a game where we could/should have scored 4 or 5 and failed to concede in open play, it was still no surprise that the mugs on MOTD spent all their analysis time slating the Arsenal defence. Lets face it, it's fashionable to talk about how Arsenal can't defend. But is there truth in that any more? The stats would say not, or do they point to a weakness in conceding from the spot/set pieces?

Check out the following stats since the 2-1 reverse at the Sh*t Hole on 3rd March. 18 matches played in all comps up to and including Marseille on Wednesday;

11 Goals conceded in 18 matches.
8 Clean sheets in 18 matches.
Just 3 goals conceded from Open play in 18 matches!!
6 Penalties conceded in 18 matches - so twice as many from the spot as from open play!
2 goals conceded from Set pieces, so including Penalties 73% of our goals conceded were not from open play.
Only once on 18 games have we conceded more than one goal.

So although we might not be as watertight as Arsenal teams of recent past, the above shows how much we have tightened up in recent times. But also points to the fact we need to stop giving away so many stupid penalties! (Mr Koscielny, are you listening?!?!).

[markyp]

I find it remarkable people still talk about how shocking our defence is.from what I gather from the end of season run in merts and kos as a pair went 18 games without concending a goal from open play.we seem to have carried on in the same vain this season too.it would be crazy to suggest our defence is at the level of the adams/keown/bould/Campbell days etc etc but then show me a modern day team whose defense is anything like those of 10 years ago.i think we are as good as anything when it comes to our defensive duties these days

[northbank123]

Our defending was markedly better in the back end of last season than the previous few years. But I can't shake the feeling that it was at the expense of our creativity too often. Although a 1-0 win gets the job done how often last season did we set up shop camped on our own box with 30 mins to go and offer next to nothing going forward? Games like Fulham where we were playing a pretty unmotivated and average side that had 10 men for 85 mins and we were hanging on for dear life. Yes we kept the clean sheet but it would have been a better team defensive performance had we been able to control the game and limit their opportunities whilst looking to kill it off at the other end.

Defending well and being able to keep clean sheets is one thing but to hit the top level you have to be able to do so without detrimentally impacting on your attacking ability and imo we're not there.

[arseofacrow]

The revenge of the nerds is killing football.

[clockender1]

How did we defend over the whole season against the top 8 ?

That's a better sample than the mostly poor teams we played in the run in.

[LDB]

How did we defend over the whole season against the top 8 ?

That's a better sample than the mostly poor teams we played in the run in.

Not really considering arsenal teams of 2, 3 ,4 or 5 years ago shipped goals to crap teams on a regular basis and were rightly slated for being shite defensively.

Whether its down to Wenger, Bould or the players credit where credit is due because we've been much better defensively since the turn of the year.

Edit: Besides, without checking I seem to remember our problem against the top 8 last season was struggling to score goals rather then shipping lots of them. A lot of narrow losses, even at old toilet we were total shite and managed to walk out with only a 2-1 loss.

[1989]

11 Goals conceded in 18 matches.
8 Clean sheets in 18 matches.
Just 3 goals conceded from Open play in 18 matches!!
6 Penalties conceded in 18 matches - so twice as many from the spot as from open play!
2 goals conceded from Set pieces, so including Penalties 73% of our goals conceded were not from open play.
Only once on 18 games have we conceded more than one goal.

Not bad for a defence that is led by a "coward".

[Nos89]

How did we defend over the whole season against the top 8 ?

That's a better sample than the mostly poor teams we played in the run in.

Not really considering arsenal teams of 2, 3 ,4 or 5 years ago shipped goals to crap teams on a regular basis and were rightly slated for being shite defensively.

Whether its down to Wenger, Bould or the players credit where credit is due because we've been much better defensively since the turn of the year.

Edit: Besides, without checking I seem to remember our problem against the top 8 last season was struggling to score goals rather then shipping lots of them. A lot of narrow losses, even at old toilet we were total shite and managed to walk out with only a 2-1 loss.

last season we scored 72 goals , third most in league and conceded 37, the second least in the league. No doubt helped by utd shipping in 5 on the last game of the season long after the title was secure. I'm just concerned at the amount of penalties being conceded. Surely, those challenges should be happening 5-10 yards outside the box.

[SteveO 35]

There has definitely been a big improvement......however if you're playing the stats argument then isn't it also fair to look a bit closer at the quality of our opponents during that run

We've played Sunderland, Villa, Fulham twice, Newcastle, Wigan, QPR, Norwich, West Brom, Reading and Swansea.....so 11 of the games have been against teams either relegated or in the bottom half of the table

2 of the other games were played against one of the worst sides I can remember playing in our CL history in Fenerbahce.

The other 5 included the game against an on holiday Manchester United where we defending appallingly and Everton who set out for a -0-0 from the start.

The 3 performances that really gave me the most heart that something had changed for the better were the home game against the Spuds, the performance in Munich (although in reverse logic I think that was in 'special circumstances'), and Marseille although we still conceded a soft penalty

If our defensive record looks similar after 21st Dec I'll be absolutely delighted because by that stage we'd have played all of our CL Group opponents in competitive games, Chelsea, City, United and Liverpool

[hugh jardon]

The only stat that counts for anything is your final league position.

[g88ner]

The only stat that counts for anything is your final league position.

Not in the cup it doesn't

[Trevheff]

Fair points made guys. But the problem we've had for years now is that we've shipped goals and stupid goals against all sides. We've not been able to withstand any sort of pressure for a period of time it felt without conceding.

Admittedly the top teams will provide a sterner test, but a much improved defensive record against the lesser teams is a start. I also agree that the fixture list in the run in last season was pretty kind to us, but we still had 10+ must win games, the proverbial 'cup final every week' and we didn't crack and stood firm.

We know on our day we can destroy teams. But when we're off our game we couldn't hang in and grind out results. As Marseille showed in midweek we're much improved on that front.

[mcdowell42]

I got it now when we lose we are shite and when we win the opposition are shite.

[g88ner]

I got it now when we lose we are shite and when we win the opposition are shite.

In fairness, when you're playing weaker opposition, there's always going to be an element of that.

If you lose to weaker opposition, you're open to criticism (and quite rightly), but if you beat weaker opposition, it's nothing to go overboard about as it's exactly what you should be doing. Such is the life of ANY top club - it's not unique to Arsenal.