Measuring Success - The Arsenal (Emery) Barometer

The lines drawn through these points are essentially meaningless. You might be able to average the data points over a single season, but not three seasons. You are going to see differences based on changes in player personnel from season to season and injuries and specific opponents will play a role in individual fluctuations in a single season. In addition, to nitpick, since the first season in this graph is the season Arsenal finished 2nd, the decline documented by this graph has only been two years.

Finally, this graph doesn't actually make an argument for Emery. The important thing about the graph is the differential between xG and xG conceded. What the graph shows is that except for the last 10 to 12 games of the last two seasons is that the expected goal differential was much bigger under Wenger than it has been under Emery so far this season.

 

Guys are so impatient. Emery needs better guys to help him with his game plan. 6 months in and people are complaining when we are playing great football, have a DM and a GK that we have been crying for and went unbeaten for many games. I'm sorry but Wenger couldn't have done that especially in a more competitive EPL. We still have a weaker squad than the top 4 teams.

 

People are too reactionary

At least give him a full season

 

Except Klopp had a younger squad and a Coutinho to sell for 100m.

Our management has effed up on Sanchez, Ozil, and Ramsey. Emery will not have anywhere close to the same amount of resources to rebuild.

 

How many players left Arsenal and played better under their next manager? Not Cesc, not Nasri, not Song, not even van Persie, he just replicated his last season at Arsenal in his first season at United and then fell off the cliff. Before anyone throws out Gnabry, as some are want to do, please remember he was a young player that was injured in his penultimate season at Arsenal and then went on a loan, that didn't work out, the first half of his final season at Arsenal. So Wenger had little chance to make him worse. Wenger's failure with Gnabry was contract management.

 

That's the wrong question. The question that I have is how many good players came to Arsenal under Wenger and then started playing progressively worse? Nasri, Arshavin, Podolski, Cech (a bit unfair) are just a few that readily come to mind.

 

Nasri played worse at Arsenal versus his time at Marseille? How Sway?

Podolski came from a relegated side in Bundesliga. A better argument is he was a bad buy.

Fair enough on Arshavin.

 

Yeah, I would say so outside of one season. Sway? Cool dude. I hung out with him for a few days in France.

Podolski balled for Germany. He was a shell of himself for Arsenal.

 

And Nasri scored more for Arsenal than at any other place. He played his best under Wenger.

Podolski was a failure at Bayern who found form for his hometown club who got relegated his last season there. He was never a big time player on the club levels. It was a bad signing.

I will give you Arshavin but he balled in the Russian Premier League.

 

Really:

Nasri's goals per game ratio was better at Arsenal than at any of the other team's he played for.

Podolski scored 31 goals in 82 games for Arsenal vs 26 goals in 102 games for Bayern Munich and 35 in 96 games during his second stint at FC Koln, just before Wenger bought him.

Arshavin's goals per game ratio was as good at Arsenal as it was at Zenit St. Petersburg and the Premier League is a step up from the Russian league.

Cech is at the tail end of his career.

Both Podolski and Arshavin had flaws in their game, so Wenger used them judiciously, but their production for Arsenal was just as good as it was any place else they played.

Who else have you got?

 

Guys, the problem with Wenger was the complete failure to put together a functional midfield. His issue was transfers, not coaching.

 

I'd argue coaching was equally, if not more of a failure.

 

There's a ton of things that we don't know about circumstances of off the field management, but I think that Wenger's tactical coaching fell behind when Mourinho came to Chelsea and the gap only widened over time.

 

Even before the arrival of Mourinho, according to the former players, Wenger was already neglecting some aspects of coaching. The classic case being the Ashley Cole case, where according Lee Dixon, Wenger had no idea what to do with him, defensive wise, and just stuck him with Adams, hoping Adams would teach him. This is not good coaching, but is an example of good man management.

 

I agree that the main issue was transfers. Even after this last window, based on talent, the current team is not as good as any of the other teams in the too six. City and Liverpool both have players sitting on their bench that could start for Arsenal. Among other transfer issues, you have to wonder what would have happened had Wenger pulled the trigger on van Dijk when linked with him before he signed with Southamton and on Aubameyang when linked with him before he signed with BVB. Those two alone may have been enough to win the title in 2015/16.

 

Managers have coaching staffs for a lot of this stiff and are not necessarily involved in the details of coaching each and every player. Dixon should know that. If Wenger hired an incompetent defensive coach that had no idea what to do with Cole, then that's on him, but having a veteran player mentor a youngster is not a bad idea.

 

The Suarez saga tells you everything we need to know about our competency in the transfer market.

For those that think Kroenke is the problem, I'm pretty sure Kroenke is even more annoyed than us by the woeful mismanagement of 100m worth of talent in Sanchez and Ramsey, alone.

 

Podolski is a shining example of an Arsenal player who's a good player that didn't into the team.

 

Did you even watch Arsenal back then? I'm starting to think that you did not. You stat bots kill me. Arshavin was a huge disappointment and hugely frustrating at Arsenal. He scored some goals, but if you watched him here, you'd know that. we bought him right after the Euros or one of those big European tourneys, and he was the best players there. We never saw that Arshavin outside of one game against Liverpool. Ditto for Podolski. Nasri had one really good season. Take that season away and he was very ordinary.

Who else I got? Do you really think that I feel that I need to justify my opinion to you. Let me help you out? I don't.