How Arsenal can create more vs Villarreal this time around

Arsenal started last week’s game with a couple of obvious chinks in the armour:

No striker as Smith Rowe played up front
And Xhaka continuing to substitute as leftback

But those weren’t the only reasons why Arsenal created so little against Villarreal. There are several chinks that need fixing because while trailing 1-2, The Gunners now have to improve their chance creation.

Having rewatched the game, these were some of Arsenal’s biggest tactical issues in the first leg in Spain and how to potentially fix them.

Balogun signs – what it means for Lacazette and Nketiah

The first piece of Arsenal’s upcoming transfer window puzzle has been put in place.

After months of negotiating, stalling, convincing, and despite seemingly having one boot out the door, highly rated academy striker Folarin Balogun finally renewed his vows at Arsenal.

It’s great news for Mikel Arteta and co but it further complicates the decisions to be made about their more senior strikers this summer.

The Gunners have a dilemma on their hands.

All the data: How will the league finish?

Only ten games remain of the Premier League season. Looking back at the previous 28, it’s hard not to use ‘unpredictable’, ‘close’, ‘bloody weird’ as part of your assessment. It’s as if someone or something has grabbed hold of the league and its mechanisms and shook it really hard. Like a world-wide pandemic, maybe.

That being said, let’s examine just how the teams battling for Champions League and Europa League spots might fare in the closing stage of the season.

Where might they finish on the league table, by comparing their form, match schedule, new injuries and returning players, previous results and analytics like xPts and more?

Interview: The creator of OptaJoe and how xG came about

There has been an explosion in popularity regarding football statistics and analytics in recent years.

It is no longer just about which team had the most shots on goal, or enjoyed most of the possession, or even who scored the most goals for some. There’s so much more to consider now, so many more colours to paint the image of the game with.

Among the people igniting the fuse at the other end of the analytics boom was Rob Bateman, also known as “Orbinho” on Twitter.

Arsenal’s upcoming transfer decisions

Arsenal’s long-term quest is to be invited back to the glossy halls of the Champions League.

The Gunners are far down the invite list but an essential way for the club to elbow their way in is by maneuvering the transfer market far better than they have in the last few years.

Now what, Arsenal?

No wins in five league games, one goal in five, 15th on the table.

Do Arsenal keep pushing their top six ambition or relieve the mounting pressure by lowering their season goals and hold on for next summer’s revolution?

From extraordinary to ordinary

Arsenal bossed it a week ago at Old Trafford — a place they haven’t won at for 14 years — and won. They were tactically convincing and exciting, and it’s far from the first top team they’ve beaten since Mikel Arteta took charge. They were extraordinary.

This weekend, however, the Gunners stumbled on a familiar speed bump against Aston Villa. Taking on the weaker teams on the schedule, they struggle, they lack creativity from their midfield and individual brilliance from their forwards. Arsenal looked completely ordinary, if that…

Pepe’s enigma

Bagging a goal and an assist against Molde, Nicolas Pepe is now Arsenal’s top goal contributor so far this season with five goals and four assists in 12 games — already reaching half his goal contributions from last season.

It sounds wrong…

But there was something very familiar about his performance against the Norwegians that could explain why.

Interview: A chat with Arsenal Twitter’s youth expert

Like many football addicts Jeorge Bird wanted to translate his thoughts and observations of his favourite team into something more tangible, something that he could share and produce as he likes: a personal shrine to Arsenal.

For years and years, as far back as 2006 in fact while still in college, Jeorge has spent countless cold mornings watching Arsenal’s youth teams play at Meadow Park and Underhill on the outskirts of London.

A year later his Arsenal blog ignited from the sparks of knowledge gained and his urge to write. And not long after that, he shifted his blog’s vision towards what it preaches today: Arsenal’s youth teams. It was a pond nobody were really fishing at. Information about the youth teams were scarse, and Jeorge saw his chance.

The final acts of Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal – a long read

A stroll through the final 12 years of Le Professeur’s time as “the boss”.

While riding the tsunami of success from the Invinsibles season in 03/04, and the six other trophies Wenger and Arsenal plundered since his appointment in 1996, they set out on a bigger adventure as the club announced a new stadium to stand ready in 2006. This is when the final acts of Arsène Wenger’s reign in north London began.

A time Wenger himself described in May 2017 as, “That was, for me, the biggest period of pressure between 2006 and 2014. If you told me today I’d do that again I would say ‘no thank you, I’ll leave that to someone else.’”

It is a tale of a new time, difficult choices, successes and failures, and a surprise ending.

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