Arsenal Thread | 2025/26

[the-ecstacy-of-eight]

...Villa are the opposite. They are playing with no fear and have nothing to lose. Perhaps they don’t have the squad to do it but they will Mount a serious challenge.

Villa are currently flying under the radar, pundits are playing down their title chances publicly and there's little expectation and similarly little pressure on them.

They're getting results at present and can be a handful for any team on their day, but when it's "trophy time" I can see them being off the pace points-wise by a double figure margin. I just don't think they score enough for the number they concede

IMO

 

[cheekybids]

Agree with you re your requirements (not a priority) but I do think this 'supported 'x' as an 8 year old is really tenuous, Liverpool / Man utd / and Arsenal fans often state this but most of the time is so irrelevant to the mind of a professional. Many players move across the divide as well... Pat Jennings, Peter Barnes, etc...

That’s what gets on my tits about XG, it will count a ridiculous shot from an impossible position but a fast attack that just needs a tap in at the back post but for a poor pass doesn’t count as an expected goal. Quite often City will cut teams open with attacks not shoot, zero XG, next time same move but this time the pass goes to Haaland it’s finished & goons will say first shot on target, technically correct but in my head we should have scored 2 & XG is 0.4 or some wank.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Villa are currently flying under the radar, pundits are playing down their title chances publicly and there's little expectation and similarly little pressure on them.

They're getting results at present and can be a handful for any team on their day, but when it's "trophy time" I can see them being off the pace points-wise by a double figure margin. I just don't think they score enough for the number they concede

IMO

Don’t disagree. But there are only two teams at the top playing attacking football and the other one is playing turgid cheating diving football. And no one in the media is calling Arsenal out for it.

 

[Danny Tiatto]

I think Areta has major flaws which will prevent Arsenal from winning the title. He is over emotional and over cautious in the biggest matches. He has shown no signs of overcoming these personal weaknesses. There is also a strange needy culture in the fanbase which works against them. You can smell the desperation. Villa are the opposite. They are playing with no fear and have nothing to lose. Perhaps they don’t have the squad to do it but they will Mount a serious challenge.

100% agree and in fact the point you made about Villa I think actually applies to us this season as well. Are we good enough to win the league? Absolutely. However pretty much every supporter in our fanbase actually acknowledges that we are still very much in a transition period and I don’t feel the players are feeling any real intense pressure from the city faithful and that is just allowing them to go out and there and enjoy themselves and when we are enjoying our football the results are more often than not quite positive.

Arsenal are a completely different story. They are their version of the completed article and the pressure on them and their manager to deliver this season is immense and it’s only going to get worse and worse.

From a personal objective though I am certain that there is no way Pep wants to go two consecutive years without winning the title. He will be as hungry as ever to bring that trophy home even just to satisfy his own personal standards.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

100% agree and in fact the point you made about Villa I think actually applies to us this season as well. Are we good enough to win the league? Absolutely. However pretty much every supporter in our fanbase actually acknowledges that we are still very much in a transition period and I don’t feel the players are feeling any real intense pressure from the city faithful and that is just allowing them to go out and there and enjoy themselves and when we are enjoying our football the results are more often than not quite positive.

Arsenal are a completely different story. They are their version of the completed article and the pressure on them and their manager to deliver this season is immense and it’s only going to get worse and worse.

From a personal objective though I am certain that there is no way Pep wants to go two consecutive years without winning the title. He will be as hungry as ever to bring that trophy home even just to satisfy his own personal standards.

I think Pep is firing like never before. He seems inspired. I think he wants the first ever double treble. I think we will win trophies of some sort this season.

 

[Saddleworth2]

You'd have a point if Arsenal weren't currently top of the table in both the Premier League and Champions League. We don't know how the season will pan out but if you'd asked me at the start of the season if I'd take the current situation then I'd have bitten your hand off.

It's not like any of the top 3 are firing across all cylinders currently. Arsenal flopped across the line vs Brighton, City struggled at times (and needed a late winner) against a Forest team that's 4th from bottom and Chelsea should have been out of sight against Villa. Nothing currently indicates any one team has a huge advantage over any other.

Pep - 6 Premier League Titles with City
Captain Black - 0 Premier League Titles with Arsenal
Emery - 0 Premier League Titles with Villa
Maresca - 0 Premier League Titles with Chelsea (although he has 1 with City as assistant to Pep)

Dismiss that all you like mate. Its a huge advantage.

 

[the-ecstacy-of-eight]

That’s what gets on my tits about XG, it will count a ridiculous shot from an impossible position but a fast attack that just needs a tap in at the back post but for a poor pass doesn’t count as an expected goal. Quite often City will cut teams open with attacks not shoot, zero XG, next time same move but this time the pass goes to Haaland it’s finished & goons will say first shot on target, technically correct but in my head we should have scored 2 & XG is 0.4 or some wank.

It's just an expansion of shots on target vs total shots and can't tell the story of the match in full.

I get your (and many other people's) view of it, but it's just as relevant as possession stats; they don't paint the full picture but they give you an idea of how the match went and highlight issues within the specific match and with a team's performance in general.

Lots of shots along with an overall low probability of scoring equates to those shots not being very good chances to score from.

(I assume you were intending to reply to me and not some fella chatting about players who were fans of clubs as kids playing for that club as an adult:)

 

[cheekybids]

It's just an expansion of shots on target vs total shots and can't tell the story of the match in full.

I get your (and many other people's) view of it, but it's just as relevant as possession stats; they don't paint the full picture but they give you an idea of how the match went and highlight issues within the specific match and with a team's performance in general.

Lots of shots along with an overall low probability of scoring equates to those shots not being very good chances to score from.

(I assume you were intending to reply to me and not some fella chatting about players who were fans of clubs as kids playing for that club as an adult:)

Yeah I get it, stats are useful but only if analysed in the right context.

 

[HelloCity]

 

[waspish]

View attachment 178704

Yep I’d not at a club where you have to win trophies or have to get champions league! He is class at managing teams like Villa!

 

[GunnerGer]

Mate 78 shots and an xG of 9 means that those "chances" weren't really chances, they were shots from places you wouldn't regularly expect to score from. The statistic illustrates that your issue is creativity.

Take the stats separately. 78 shots is a lot across 4 games. xG of 9 is very decent across 4 games, especially when you consider an Arsenal player scored 1 open play goal in that time.

Meanwhile Man City in their last 4 games have an xG of around half that but scored 10 goals.

Listen, I'm not 1 of these stat guru guys. I watch games and see if the stats back up what I'm watching. I watched us dominate Brighton first half, Palace likewise, and Wolves, and squander decent chance after decent chance. I'm just trying to push back on the fact that Arsenal don't create, and don't play attacking football.

Its even mentioned a few posts back, people think it's only City and Villa playing attacking football and Arsenal don't. Yet Arsenal beat Villa in every attacking metric, Goals Scored, xG, Big Chances created etc.

 

[K-Bo]

I'm pretty sure arsenal will beat villa at home tbh, Villa are on one of the luckiest runs in recent memory. I don't think that will be enough vs arsenal away.

 

[Vienna_70]

You'd have a point if Arsenal weren't currently top of the table in both the Premier League and Champions League. We don't know how the season will pan out but if you'd asked me at the start of the season if I'd take the current situation then I'd have bitten your hand off.

You don’t win a trophy for being top of the Premier League at Christmas

Nor do you win a trophy for being top of the Champions League standings on New Year’s day.

 

[Vienna_70]

Take the stats separately. 78 shots is a lot across 4 games. xG of 9 is very decent across 4 games, especially when you consider an Arsenal player scored 1 open play goal in that time.

Meanwhile Man City in their last 4 games have an xG of around half that but scored 10 goals.

Listen, I'm not 1 of these stat guru guys. I watch games and see if the stats back up what I'm watching. I watched us dominate Brighton first half, Palace likewise, and Wolves, and squander decent chance after decent chance. I'm just trying to push back on the fact that Arsenal don't create, and don't play attacking football.

Its even mentioned a few posts back, people think it's only City and Villa playing attacking football and Arsenal don't. Yet Arsenal beat Villa in every attacking metric, Goals Scored, xG, Big Chances created etc.

And you don’t win a trophy for being at the top of a meaningless statistic table.

 

[jimharri]

Take the stats separately. 78 shots is a lot across 4 games. xG of 9 is very decent across 4 games, especially when you consider an Arsenal player scored 1 open play goal in that time.

Meanwhile Man City in their last 4 games have an xG of around half that but scored 10 goals.

Listen, I'm not 1 of these stat guru guys. I watch games and see if the stats back up what I'm watching. I watched us dominate Brighton first half, Palace likewise, and Wolves, and squander decent chance after decent chance. I'm just trying to push back on the fact that Arsenal don't create, and don't play attacking football.

Its even mentioned a few posts back, people think it's only City and Villa playing attacking football and Arsenal don't. Yet Arsenal beat Villa in every attacking metric, Goals Scored, xG, Big Chances created etc.

xG means nothing. The only stat that matters is the one in the corner of the screen. xG has never, to the best of my knowledge, won any team a trophy.

 

[GunnerGer]

And you don’t win a trophy for being at the top of a meaningless statistic table.

xG means nothing. The only stat that matters is the one in the corner of the screen. xG has never, to the best of my knowledge, won any team a trophy.

Who said it did? I'm saying Arsenal the last few games finishing was poor, and they should have won at least 3 of those games more comfortably. I used stats to back up my opinion. I'm also saying Arsenal play more attacking football than is given credit for on here, again using stats to back that up.

I didn't say any more than that.

 

[jimharri]

Who said it did? I'm saying Arsenal the last few games finishing was poor, and they should have won at least 3 of those games more comfortably. I used stats to back up my opinion. I'm also saying Arsenal play more attacking football than is given credit for on here, again using stats to back that up.

I didn't say any more than that.

You seemed keen to quote xG, though. Or are you going to deny that?

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

And you don’t win a trophy with Arteta as manager

 

[GunnerGer]

You seemed keen to quote xG, though. Or are you going to deny that?

I don't quite get you Jim, why would I deny it? It's a stat I used to back up what I was seeing over the last few games. I agree with you that the scoreboard and the points are what matters, my point is that our finishing was poor, and it's probably indicative of the fact we probably still lack elite finishers given Gyokeres has been a flop.

 

[Sebi]

Which position do they look for?