UNTOLD ARSENAL » Blog Archive » Arsenal 18 Hull 8
That scoreline is the number of shots each side had. To give you an idea of where that stands in the scheme of things here’s some other weekend scores based on goal attempts
Wigan 10, Manchester Arab 11
Stoke 5 CSKA Fulham 14
Manchester B 32 Bolton 10
Aston V 12, Sunderland 9
Portsmouth 9 Tiny Totts 15
Everton 4, Liverpool Insolvency 11
Which tells us that mostly the team with the most goal attempts wins the game, and that in terms of goal attempts Arsenal were only beaten by an extraordinary high score from Manchester B – a score so high I really wonder if the stats are right. (certainly if these stats, which come from the Guardian are right, the most extraordinary thing is that Manchester B only got two goals).
But I want to make a broader point – which is that if we had got a tiny number of shots then clearly we would simply be not working as an attacking forward moving team. But we didn’t.
If you look at the same stats for the Fulham defeat the result was
Fulham 5 Arsenal 15
And overall this starts to tell us where the problem is. Converting those shots into goals. It’s not a midfield thing, nor is it a defensive thing. It is simply converting those shots into goals. It is, don’t do a Hleb, do a Henry.