The Arsenal @ Wigan Pre/During/Post Matchday Thread [R]

Well if it were me i'd go for Ade-Eduardo as my first choice. Not sure if ppl remember this but last year when we had them paired they were scoring goals week in week out.

 

If you don't score goals, you don't win (or draw most of the time) games. For 2 months RVP either scored or provided EVERY goal. The rest of the team around him did nothing offensively during those two months, and without him we'd probably be tied for 4th spot.

I think you're being way too hard on him.

 

Great points IMO. RVP was doing it without help. No Ade, Cesc, Theo, etc. He may have been playing at a 7, but look who he was getting service from, a Eboue, Song, Denilson midfield. Let's see him getting service from Cesc with Ade taking away defenders before we throw him under the bus.

 

I think this is an excellent observation.

Let's face it, none of RvP, Ade or Bendtner has had an easy time finishing chances. Eduardo is much more clinical than the 3 of them. However, Robin currently leads the league in Assists, which does indicate that he was working hard to create chances, as well as finish them, due to an inexperienced and mostly defensive midfield. Arshavin has certainly improved the creativity, but I believe that RvP will improve his goals/shots ratio with Cesc now providing the final ball.

One other point, Denilson is 5th in the league in Assists, only 2 behind Robin.

 

when was the last time van Persie scored in league play?

it was one month in fairness... and I dont remember the last time Robin scored in league for the club...

not saying Robin is rubbish or crap or anything bad... but I dont feel u guys are giving the rest of the team credit

 

hahaha....good point...


sorry for laughing but i feel as well i rather eduardo and ade starting to RVP.

 

who came on yesterday when Gallas was injured?


and Silvestre was on the bench yesterday too

 

I just want to start by saying how nice it is to argue about who should start up front that worry about if we have enough strikers fit to play. I think that RvP's goal against Everton was the biggest goal of the season because we played terribly that game and villa had won. dropping points in a game like that and have the gap widen at that point at the season would have been disatrous. His goals against chelsea were huge too. But in sports its all about what have you done for me lately. Ade is hot. I think we see ade and eduardo up front with bedtner coming off the bench. Rest RvP for tuesday. eventhough he has remained healthy all season we all no the slightest know and he'll be down till august.

 

Yep, and Adebayor is right up there too. It's funny how these three players are the ones being singled out this season.

To me, RVP needs to start with Adebayor. Both of them can win games for you, and we need as many of these players on the field as possible. RVP is playing fine. Eduardo will get plenty of minutes as the third choice and has been out too long to take RVP's starting position. Bendtner is where he belongs as fourth choice.

 

RVP kept us afloat while the rest of our stars were down. With service I think he can be a scoring machine again. That said I'd rather see him rested to be ready for the CL match to make sure he is fully healed. Ade and Dudu could be a potent 1 2 against Wigan. Comfortable 2-0 would be great.

 

I thought that was interesting. Honestly, I thought Silvestre was going to play. The only positive about Gallas getting hurt is that Djourou will get a run of games against good competition, and we will be able to see whether he can be the long-term answer to the CB problem or whether we need to buy one in the summer. I know that I will be watching him closely.

 

It was huge, no argument there, but for me it's gotta be the Adebayor bicycle kick from yesterday. Most important and best quality goal of the season.

I wouldn't start Dudu even though he's fit and all, the man has been picking up strains left and right, and slowly working up minutes from the bench is probably the more responsible option for getting him back to his best.

Oh and Prince- I think the Everton strike was Rvp's last league goal, shocking really when you think about it. Although he's racked up a ton of assists, and you'd be hard pressed to entirely blame the 0-0 february on robin alone. I still think he's a massive player for this team.

 

It is difficult to say which goal was the most critical given that Adebayor's goal must be judged based on what happens in the second leg. It may turn out to be very critical. It may turn out to be one goal among many.

RVP's goal was a huge goal, but the league is a marathon, so I am unsure whether that result would have mattered in the end. We would have to wait until the end of the season to see how close the point totals are

 

RVP's form had been down a little since the fulham game, and isn't his natural position playing off of a big striker like ade?

I think with RVP Ade Cesc Arshavin and Nasri/Walcott playing with Edu and Bend as subs, our offense should not have any issues, hopefully.

So shouldn't the question be Ade vs Bend and RVP vs Edu, i know the situation may be a little different in the upcoming games because of the injuries and the upcoming return leg.

 

Didn't he score against Blackburn?

 

Honestly, given VP's ability to play both winger positions (right wing for Arsenal before being 'promoted', still plays winger positions for Netherlands in 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1) I'd like to see Ade and Dudu up top, with RVP taking either Theo's position or Nasri's for CL.

He definitely has the creativity and technique to work in that spot, and even as striker likes to drop back deeply.

That said, I think VP has more overall quality than any attacking player outside Cesc. Theo? Faster, but not seasoned enough. Nasri? Shows potential, but also needs more experience. Bendtner? Same.

Dudu is more clinical but doesn't have the aerial presence.

Ade has the presence, and scores goals, but doesn't have anywhere near the creativity or footwork to manufacture scoring threats on his own. He's very dependent upon service from the midfield, and when the middle third gets shut down, so does Ade. We saw that yesterday in the first half. (That's true to an extent for all strikers, but VP and Dudu have more to offer at that point, IMHO.)

 

This is true, if we don't advance, then Ade's goal won't be particularly significant, but still will take the cake for goal of the season... what a strike!

Nope, the first was an own goal (though I think it should have gone to Arshavin), second was the Arshavin wondergoal, and the next two were Eboue. You might be thinking of the equalizer against Hull, proving that RvP can still score them, it just hasn't happened in the league.

This has been a common criticism of Adebayor, but I think for one, he does have clever footwork undoubtedly, and two, although cesc's assist yesterday was vital in the goal, Adebayor takes the credit for making that one- cesc's ball didn't put him in behind the defense, his back was to the goal and he had to make that all himself. I think he's shown that he can make goals himself. He has a decent assist tally considering his injury spell, and set up nasri pretty gracefully for what probably should have been the winner.

 

It would have been hard for RVP to score against Blackburn given that he did not play.

 

I was trying to find some metric to measure "goal involvement per game" to find out how different players compared in terms of goal creation. I used ESPN.com's data for all competitions.I assumed substitutions came on around minute 63, on average...so Games = Games Started + 0.3 * Games Substituted On

When you take: (Goals + Assists) / Games, here's what you find:

RVP: 0.86
Ade: 0.77
Arshavin: 0.63
Vela & Bendtner: 0.57
Cesc: 0.45

All others, including Nasri, Walcott, Denilson, etc: less than 0.35

Certainly statistics are like a bikini...they show a lot, but not everything...still, it's interesting that the "what have you done for me lately" crowd so easily forgets how effective RVP can be.

Also, it's interesting that the praise for Arshavin has been nothing but fully deserved. He's been incredible for us so far.

 

impossible... as he didnt play

 

May, but can't we say that cesc's equalizer at sunderland could be the difference as well? Or robin's brace at chelsea? Or really any goal that's decided a match this season? The most vital goal of the season is an incredibly subjective choice, at least when dealing with the league where its all about the table. Wasn't it Bendtner's brace against West Brom that closed the gap with Villa?

I guess the point is that we can't really know, so the discussion is pretty irrelevant, but its fun to discuss anyway.

 

I think we overrated van persie's ability to manufacture goals for himself at times...

I love him, but we have not seen it that much..

agreed

 

He did score recently tho, cause I did remember him tapping in a pass AA set him up with, it was probably in the FA Cup.

 

Too many assumptions using this method, not to mention counting assists is a little finnicky - what people attribute as an assist can vary.

Just going by goal/game - which is probably the best metric to measure a striker's performance you would have

06/07 - 0.5
07/08 - 0.47
08/09 - 0.38

Looking at the specific numbers is probably over analyzing since all we are doing is discussing selection in this game and for the CL game midweek - but everyone has this "idea" that Bendtner is the one who screws up, when lately RVP has been fluffing chances just as much.

Player selection should be done very much on a "what have you done for us lately" basis, and if RVP continues to waste chances he should be benched for Wednesday.