Premier League 10/11 - race for the title

[Shue]

To be honest we almost did that on Sunday as well ,it was almost like OMG we are in the lead instead of controlling the game we actually sat further and further back.

A side effect of our inconsistent performances in front of goal perhaps?

In addition to the need to introduce a strong mentality into the first team and coaching staff do we need someone up front who will convert our chances. Just as a poor goal keeper rattles through a defense and team does a poor finisher or weak one rot things from the front, back.

Arsenal have the best shooting accuracy in the Premier League this season - 49%.

Only Man Utd & Man City have converted a higher percentage of their shots into goals.

Arsenal had a better chance conversion rate than Barcelona or Real Madrid in this season's Champions League (in fact THE best).

stats courtesy of @Orbinho

 

[Jury]

Does St. Totteringham's not matter anymore?

It actually came last Sunday with the defeat of the manc **** at the Emirates, as it's impossible for the sh!t kickers to overhaul our goal difference or points total.

Happy (belated) St. Totteringham's to one and all...and yours!

 

[Le Professeur]

Chelsea win tomorrow, Manure lose at Blackburn next week, Chelsea bottle it at Everton, Arsenal wins on GD. Get in.

 

[Y va marquer]

It was noted in the match thread last Sunday Jury.
Technically it was not actually true though as Sp**s had 4 games to play and were 12 points behind.

Realistically it was though.

 

[yuvken]

I'm guilty of announcing it, though I had to stop and think: "what is the tradition to the letter"?, and to the best of my knowledge it spelled "when they mathematically can't catch us", which, TBH, was not true at the time. Strictly speaking, mathematically - anything is possible (as long as within mathematical reach).
I then thought: could it be they catch us, given 3 games to go (4 for them) and 25 goals difference? Not in any world I ever heard of, it isn't . And could it be that our tradition is so strict that it prevents us celebrating one of the loveliest days each year for such petty reasons? (serious challenge for the Arsenal elders, and perhaps a debate held in the past?)
"F*** it", was the only sensible conclusion: IT IS St. Totts, and I must remind my fellow gooners of yet another reason to celebrate.
The majority seemed to agree (though there were one or two people who said "it wasn't strictly" - etc, etc).
Anyway - I don't mind celebrating it once again today. I see they're into injury time as I write this (oops... they equalized? who cares ). EDIT: all over. Now the mathematicians can have a drink. cheers.

 

[Y va marquer]

You were right to remind us anyway yuvken!

Sp**s have just drawn against Blackpool so it's realistically officially, mathematically and technically now St. Totteringham's Day

 

[Iloveyouarsenewenger]

Does St. Totteringham's not matter anymore?

It actually came last Sunday with the defeat of the manc **** at the Emirates, as it's impossible for the sh!t kickers to overhaul our goal difference or points total.

Happy (belated) St. Totteringham's to one and all...and yours!

It's today. The day is about making it mathematically impossible for them to overhaul us. If it were about a day from where it realistically impossible for them to finish over us in the league, the first day of the season would be St. Totteringham's Day.

 

[DK Gooner]

To be honest we almost did that on Sunday as well ,it was almost like OMG we are in the lead instead of controlling the game we actually sat further and further back.

A side effect of our inconsistent performances in front of goal perhaps?

In addition to the need to introduce a strong mentality into the first team and coaching staff do we need someone up front who will convert our chances. Just as a poor goal keeper rattles through a defense and team does a poor finisher or weak one rot things from the front, back.

Arsenal have the best shooting accuracy in the Premier League this season - 49%.

Only Man Utd & Man City have converted a higher percentage of their shots into goals.

Arsenal had a better chance conversion rate than Barcelona or Real Madrid in this season's Champions League (in fact THE best).

stats courtesy of @Orbinho

I'd imagine that our 1 goal no shots at the Nou Camp was a pretty tough percentage to beat.

 

[Jury]

Does St. Totteringham's not matter anymore?

It actually came last Sunday with the defeat of the manc **** at the Emirates, as it's impossible for the sh!t kickers to overhaul our goal difference or points total.

Happy (belated) St. Totteringham's to one and all...and yours!

It's today. The day is about making it mathematically impossible for them to overhaul us. If it were about a day from where it realistically impossible for them to finish over us in the league, the first day of the season would be St. Totteringham's Day.

I stand corrected there!

For the record, I'd take the CC any day over watching Man U lose out on the title to Chelsea.
I see that as just a small event that makes the outcome of the season just a fraction less unbearable.

I was under the influence of hard liquor when I wrote that, and in full hate mode....

I'm sober as a judge now (which is only 3 times over legal driving limit) and yet I almost feel the same way! Ok, maybe not.

 

[Spork]

You know how you are never tired on Christmas day?

Well for the past two weeks I have struggled to get out of bed before midday.

Today I woke up at 7am and jumped straight out of bed - not even knowing that Tottenscrum had drawn with Blackpool (whom have done extremely well against the top half of the table clubs this season).

 

[SA Gunner]

To be honest we almost did that on Sunday as well ,it was almost like OMG we are in the lead instead of controlling the game we actually sat further and further back.

A side effect of our inconsistent performances in front of goal perhaps?

In addition to the need to introduce a strong mentality into the first team and coaching staff do we need someone up front who will convert our chances. Just as a poor goal keeper rattles through a defense and team does a poor finisher or weak one rot things from the front, back.

Arsenal have the best shooting accuracy in the Premier League this season - 49%.

Only Man Utd & Man City have converted a higher percentage of their shots into goals.

Arsenal had a better chance conversion rate than Barcelona or Real Madrid in this season's Champions League (in fact THE best).

stats courtesy of @Orbinho

Always fantastic to read such stats, they paint us in a fantastic faultless light.

However, when looking at the truth or the stats at the end of the day, we have only arguably performed better than one of the three sides mentioned. It would be interesting to dissect the statistics that explain the reasoning for that.

There is no escaping our failings and what we need, and if we need to prioritise certain statistics to see that, then so be it.

 

[SA Gunner]

We're not winning the league, so it simply has to be Chelsea all the way.

Man Utd to lose it from here, followed by a schooling from Barca would ram those 'bottling' jibes sideways down their throats.

I'm not even sure winning the CC would have given me as much pleasure as seeing this happen.

Edit: I quoted this post in a reply but my part disappeared!

For the record, I'd take the CC any day over watching Man U lose out on the title to Chelsea.
I see that as just a small event that makes the outcome of the season just a fraction less unbearable.

Thank you very much indeed.

This thought of United completely falling away, makes us sound like some jealous ugly step sisters who never got invited to the ball.

All what Jury describes there will translate to is some laughing fodder to tackle United supporters with, which I would enjoy very much tbf. However adding this with earnest to your prayers at night before you go to sleep does reach over in to desperado/pathetic stakes now doesnt it?
:|

 

[Beksl]

From the lobby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKJeBd849y8

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

From the lobby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKJeBd849y8

Blaming the ref for the 1-1 against Sunderland is over the top, just because Bent scored 12 seconds after the four added minutes were over. You rarely see a referee pull the final whistle after exactly 94 mins in that case, because of the usual time wasting that occurs in that period.

The incident early in the Liverpool match when Theo hit Kuyt's hand in the box.....you simply can't give a PK there, it's far too close to Kuyt so he couldn't get his arm out of the way.
It would've been a soft PK, and it's a bit contradicting to demand a PK here, whereas blaming the ref for giving such ones against Newcastle.


Agree with the rest of the video though, but we're at fault for most of this cases, because of not finishing games off earlier, and that applies to each of the matches being shown in this video (bar the Newcastle one of course).

 

[Y va marquer]

We lacked guile and the know-how to shut teams out of games when we were well ahead.

We quite often gave teams hope instead of crushing them completely.
It's happened often enough for any opposition to feel that they have a chance against us.

That needs to be changed. A good pasting for Stoke today would be a start.

 

[Beksl]

From the lobby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKJeBd849y8

Blaming the ref for the 1-1 against Sunderland is over the top, just because Bent scored 12 seconds after the four added minutes were over. You rarely see a referee pull the final whistle after exactly 94 mins in that case, because of the usual time wasting that occurs in that period.

The incident early in the Liverpool match when Theo hit Kuyt's hand in the box.....you simply can't give a PK there, it's far too close to Kuyt so he couldn't get his arm out of the way.
It would've been a soft PK, and it's a bit contradicting to demand a PK here, whereas blaming the ref for giving such ones against Newcastle.


Agree with the rest of the video though, but we're at fault for most of this cases, because of not finishing games off earlier, and that applies to each of the matches being shown in this video (bar the Newcastle one of course).

Agree, we just weren't good enough, blaming referees or bad luck is just throwing sand to your eyes.

If we would won those games no one would complain about those decisions so in my opinion our ''luck'' with the officials corelates with our ability to kill off the games.

I posted that link because you have almost every controversial decision in one vide, the interpretation is subjective though.

 

[Illusion]

I'd like that referee related video if it wasn't showing two instances which weren't really the referee's fault (Bent's goal and the Kuyt penalty).

The rest were legitimate gripes, we've definitely lost from 6 to 8 points this season directly from inexcusable officiating. This does matter and it shouldn't be glossed over, no matter how bad the team has played.