Was Galileo an Arsenal supporter, does the sun go round the earth, are the Opta stats a load of cobblers. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does

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By Tony Attwood

Sometimes around 1615 Galileo Galilei invited an emissary of the pope to look through his telescope at the four little discs moving across the face of Jupiter.  The emissary refused to look, saying that he did not need to look through a telescope to see what his religion told him could not be true.

Galileo was reported to the Roman Inquisition, which warned him to stop his work.  When Galileo later wrote his masterpiece “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” (concerning whether the earth goes round the sun, or the reverse) he was tried by the Inquisition, found guilty and the man who founded the entire scientific revolution in the west and who ended Mediaeval thought spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

1-0 to the forces of reaction.

This view of not wanting to look at something that one doesn’t believe is true, is still with us.  Of course football is trivial compared with the persecution of any human being (although somehow I feel more strongly about it when it is such a towering giant as Galileo) but this in the comparison I want to make.

Mediaevalism is prevalent among football supporters.  In fact it could be argued that it is the dominant mode of thought.  And yes I know its a fairly bizarre line to take – but then this is Untold Arsenal, and Untold publishes stuff that is, sort of, untold anywhere else.

My argument is that the forces of reaction and mediaevalism in football talk with a weird mix of generality and specifics, which tends to by-pass statistics and facts, and replace them all with emotion.   Just as Galileo could show that there were discs moving across the face of Jupiter, so the stats tell us a lot about Arsenal’s performance this season.  Just as the pope’s man didn’t want to look and think about it, so some fans turn away from the stats.

I’ve done the argument a dozen times about where we are in the league, about how we score lots of goals etc, so here’s a few other stats.  I must confess they don’t include this weekend’s win over Villa.  I would like to say this is because I don’t want to be accused of choosing just the right moment when the stats look good for us after a win, but actually I can’t find this week’s stats on the internet, so here’s last weeks.  If you can find the official statistics that show these issues this week, please do let me know where they are.

Most touches in opposition box

• Arsenal 370
• Everton 346
• Man Utd 328
• Stoke 302
• Tottenham 282
• Chelsea 279

Shots on target

• Arsenal 83
• Chelsea 83
• Tottenham 69
• Man Utd 68
• Everton 61
• Newcastle 60

Shooting accuracy

• Arsenal 47.7%
• Man City 46.6%
• Chelsea 46.4%
• Newcastle 46.2%
• Birmingham 46.1%
• Bolton 45.7%

Goals from open play

• Arsenal 21
• Chelsea 19
• Man Utd 17
• Bolton 14
• Blackpool 13
• Tottenham 13

Passing accuracy

• Chelsea 84.8%
• Arsenal 84.2%
• Man City 82.6%
• Man Utd 82.5%
• Tottenham 79.8%
• Newcastle 78.9%

Passing accuracy in opposition half

• Arsenal 81.0%
• Chelsea 78.6%
• Man Utd 77.3%
• Man City 76.9%
• Everton 73.6%
• Tottenham 71.7%

Dribble success rate

• Arsenal 50.6%
• Chelsea 50.4%
• Blackpool 49.7%
• West Ham 49.5%
• Everton 49.0%
• Tottenham 43.8%

Saves-to-shots ratio (at least six appearances)

• Cech 85.19%
• Fabianski 82.76%
• Hart 79.59%
• Schwarzer 79.07%
• Foster 75.00%
• Jaaskelainen 74.51%

Points per game at home

• Man Utd 2.66
• Chelsea 2.57
• Arsenal 2.00
• Sunderland 2.00
• Aston Villa 1.86
• Stoke 1.86

Points per game away from home

• Arsenal 2.00
• Man City 1.66
• Chelsea 1.66
• Newcastle 1.66
• Bolton 1.43
• Man Utd 1.29

Stats supplied by Opta

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