Arsenal Action

[Reddaz]

According to Arsenal.com

Best Game
Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal, April 27, 2009
The home win over Manchester United was one to savour, as was the second-half comeback which secured all three points at Chelsea. But Liverpool v Arsenal at Anfield had everything. The atmosphere was electric - a colourful card display paid tribute to Ray Kennedy before the game and the Kop were in full voice with their team going full tilt for the title. And of course there was the small matter of eight goals in a game which was played at break-neck speed and ebbed and flowed all night. Liverpool battered Arsenal for the first half-hour but Andrey Arshavin prodded the visitors in front. Liverpool turned the game on its head but a long-range special from Arshavin levelled matters before the Russian completed his hat-trick from close range. Again Liverpool responded but Arshavin seemed to have the final word with another vintage finish before the Merseysiders stole a point in stoppage time. Simply breath-taking.

Best Team Goal
Samir Nasri v Manchester United, November 8, 2008
A team which passes the ball as brightly as Arsenal are always going to rack up their fair share of 'team' goals and last season was no exception. There are plenty of contenders but in my view Arsenal's best collective strike came in their biggest home game of the Premier League season. This passing move was already into double figures when a patient build-up exploded in Manchester United's defensive third. When Denilson found Cesc Fabregas 25 yards out, the visitors looked to have everything covered. In the blink of an eye, Theo Walcott's clever run from right to left drew two defenders away from the centre and Fabregas span his marker before finding Samir Nasri in that vacant area. The Frenchman slammed his shot past Edwin van der Sar to put Arsenal two goals to the good.

Best Individual Goal
Andrey Arshavin v Blackburn Rovers, March 14, 2009
Pretty much every Arsenal forward can lay claim to a spectacular goal last season. Robin van Persie's control, swivel and shot against Liverpool, Eduardo's cheeky 'heel volley' against Burnley, Emmanuel Adebayor's scissors kick against Villarreal and Carlos Vela's impudent chip against Sheffield United are all worth a mention. Andrey Arshavin hit a screamer at Anfield but his first goal for the Club - scored against Blackburn - is my pick of the bunch. The Russian appeared to open his account with a close-range finish after 80 seconds of that game but replays showed it was an own goal from Andre Ooijer. Instead, in the 65th minute, Arshavin scored a goal he would be proud to call his first for Arsenal. Collecting a precise pass from Denilson on the left there was little on and much to do, but Arshavin dropped a shoulder, shimmied past Danny Simpson and found the perfect trajectory from the acutest of angles to lift the ball over Paul Robinson and into the top corner. Wonderful stuff.

Best Team Performance
Arsenal 3-0 Wigan Athletic (Carling Cup), November 11, 2008
Some would say Man United in November but that game could still have gone either way with chances at both ends. Others might suggest Villarreal at home but the Spaniards were very much in the tie until the last half-hour. So in my view, Arsenal's most complete performance of the season did not feature the usual suspects - on this occasion, the young Gunners were usurped by the even younger Gunners as the Carling Cup kids demolished Wigan. The Latics arrived at the Emirates in decent form and pretty much at full strength - Amr Zaki was one of the top flight's hottest properties and Wilson Palacios, Antonio Valencia and Chris Kirkland were all involved. But Arsenal, with eight teenage starters, produced a stirring display. Jay Simpson scored either side of the break and Carlos Vela added an exquisite chip to finish off Steve Bruce's side. This one really was boys against men - and the boys won.

Best Individual Performance
Andrey Arshavin v Liverpool, April 27, 2009
Robin van Persie is a live contender for this prize after scoring or assisting every Arsenal goal in January, but even he did not manage four goals in one game against a Premier League title challenger. Andrey Arshavin did, although the Russian will be the first to admit that April's epic match at Anfield passed him by for 36 minutes. Up until that point Arshavin quite understandably struggled to cope with this most English of games, played at an unrelenting pace. Ultimately, the little playmaker showed why he is considered one of the world's finest players, scoring four times from four goal attempts to secure a point. His first was a close-range poke, his second a long-range piledriver, his third a smart control and finish and his fourth a dead-eye finish with his supposedly weaker left foot. It was a tantalising taste of what to expect next season.

Best Save
Lukasz Fabianski v Wigan Athletic (Carling Cup), November 11, 2008
Manuel Almunia was a one-man barricade at times in the first leg of the Champions League Semi-Final at Old Trafford, showcasing his reflexes with sharp stops from Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. But for all the Spaniard's fine work last season, he is pipped to this prize by Lukasz Fabianski. The Pole had his problems when he deputised for Almunia in the FA Cup Semi-Final but he was outstanding at other times, not least in the Carling Cup victory over Wigan. Arsenal were cruising at 3-0 having outclassed their experienced opponents but the Latics were denied a late consolation by an incredible double-save from Fabianski. Daniel de Ridder slalomed past four challenges and into the box only for Fabianski to push his shot aside at full stretch. The Pole was grounded as Zaki got to the rebound first but he somehow sprang up to tip the Egyptian's goal-bound effort onto the crossbar.

Best Clearance
Bacary Sagna v Aston Villa, December 26, 2008
Arsenal had been living dangerously in the first half of their Boxing Day trip to Aston Villa - to say the least. The hosts hit the woodwork three times but were stunned when Denilson capitalised on an error to give the Gunners an unlikely lead. Normal service was resumed with Villa in the ascendancy but the feeling that it just wasn't their day intensified two minutes before the break when Bacary Sagna denied them in acrobatic fashion. Gabriel Agbonlahor beat Manuel Almunia to a cross from Nigel Reo-Coker and the floating ball looked certain to drop into the unguarded net before Sagna sprinted back and flung himself goalward. His overhead kick cleared the ball up and away just before it crossed the line. Kieran Gibbs had to be just as alert at Wigan in April when he raced back to shepherd Mido's header off the line - but Sagna had to be spectacular.

Best Goal Conceded
Geovanni (Hull City), September 27, 2008
It's obviously no consolation to Arsenal fans who hate seeing their side concede at all, but Arsène Wenger's side were on the receiving end of some stunning strikes last season. Some hurt more than others, of course. David Bentley's looping volley made the Emirates crowd cringe and Cristiano Ronaldo's Champions League free-kick was even more painful. The Portuguese star applied the finish to a top-class counter-attacking move later in the same game but I'm giving top billing to Geovanni in this category. The Brazilian midfielder travelled to the Emirates more in hope than expectation with Hull City in September and yet laid the foundations for their incredible 2-1 win with an unstoppable strike after the Tigers had fallen behind. Geovanni collected possession just outside the Arsenal box on the hour mark, looked up and arched a venomous effort over Almunia and into the top corner.

Best Opponent
Manchester United
Maybe it's painful to admit it but Man United were simply too good last season. Arsenal got the better of them in the Premier League but the Champions League Semi-Final was a completely different story. That early goal in the second leg - courtesy of Kieran Gibbs' unfortunate slip - knocked the stuffing out of Wenger's side, but the ruthless manner in which Arsenal were dispatched after that speaks volumes for United's quality. They took their chances at the Emirates and played to their strengths on the counter-attack, most notably when Ronaldo finished off a rapier-like counter-thrust in the second half. Arsenal rued their bad luck but it's worth recalling that United could have been out of sight by the end of the first leg. Manuel Almunia kept the tie alive at Old Trafford but - hard as it is to accept it - the best team won.

[Fallen_Angel]

Awww nice post

At least Liverpool didn't win anything

[cerbera]

Awww nice post

At least Liverpool didn't win anything

Well said, that's probably the best thing about the season for me.

[Biggles]

Gives a perspective of things when our highlights of teh season is rivals not winning things

[cerbera]

Gives a perspective of things when our highlights of teh season is rivals not winning things

Hahaha but do you remember the days when we'd win the league and the Mancs and Cesspool fans would go "aww well at least we beat you and if we beat the winners of the league then it's like we're winners of the league too because we beat them."

[Biggles]

Gives a perspective of things when our highlights of teh season is rivals not winning things

Hahaha but do you remember the days when we'd win the league and the Mancs and Cesspool fans would go "aww well at least we beat you and if we beat the winners of the league then it's like we're winners of the league too because we beat them."

ahhhh the good old days. Now if we concede less than 2 against another top 4 side it's like Christmas all over again!

[cerbera]

Gives a perspective of things when our highlights of teh season is rivals not winning things

Hahaha but do you remember the days when we'd win the league and the Mancs and Cesspool fans would go "aww well at least we beat you and if we beat the winners of the league then it's like we're winners of the league too because we beat them."

ahhhh the good old days. Now if we concede less than 2 against another top 4 side it's like Christmas all over again!

LOL

[Reddaz]

Next article from Arsenal.com

What dust there was has now settled. Arsenal’s season is over.

It feels strange to be assessing the campaign now because it has been judged and re-judged so many times throughout the past 10 months. Concrete opinions have made, broken-up and re-hardened as the season has gone on.

The sound of sharpening knives was certainly audible at various points in September, November, December, April and May. In the intervening time there was rebuilding, redevelopment and, with it, an inevitable silence.

Surely no-one, from Arsène Wenger downwards, is ever happy to be trophyless in May but a stuttering start put paid to any hope of a serious title bid. Indeed, around Christmas, fans might have been satisfied enough with a Champions League spot given that Aston Villa were looking serious top-four competitors.

By that time Arsenal had just started a 21-game unbeaten Premier League run. However when it finished with that thumping 4-1 defeat to Chelsea, expectations had been raised once more.

It has been suggested that this sequence was based on victories against teams at the lower end of the table. But then so was Manchester United’s title win. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side undoubtedly deserved to finish first but they only achieved one victory against the ‘Big Four’ while they pretty much ‘doubled’ the entire bottom half of the table.

Of course, raised expectations rightly come with the territory. Arsenal’s ambitions are global and their standards sky-high. That defeat to Chelsea came on the back of the deepest of disappointments against Manchester United in the Champions League Semi-Final. But, as difficult as the last 80 minutes of the return leg were, it still represented only the Club’s second appearance in the last four of that competition.

In an interview with Arsenal TV Online put up on Monday, Wenger conceded that the League table is the truth of his season and that tells us this team were the fourth best in England. Given the country’s proliferation of Champions League winners, Finalists and Semi-Finalists in recent years, that is surely worthy but not what we want.

If anything that phrase sums up the season. Hamstrung by a poor start and a couple of significant, long-term injuries, they stumbled. Having picked themselves up, Arsenal dusted themselves down and got back in a position to win the FA Cup and Champions League. The half-empty fan will criticise the failure to land that silverware while the half-full one will laud the recovery.

However both will surely agree that the past season has taught us positive things about the likes of Alex Song, Kieran Gibbs, Denilson, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin. Meanwhile the Carling Cup kids continue to over-achieve and Steve Bould’s youth side scooped their own ‘double’.

Being a club journalist writing on an official website, there is always the accusation that a piece like this can be dismissed as mere ‘cheerleading’. Painting a plastic smile on 10 months of underachievement.

However the supporters themselves provided the most raucous of rubber stamps during the final game of the season against Stoke by singing Arsène Wenger’s name to the rafters.

It was an audible mandate that, despite the peaks and troughs of the season just gone, they believe better campaigns lie ahead.

[Reddaz]

GOALKEEPERS..................Almunia......Fabianski.....Mannone
Appearances..................... 32...............6............... 1
Minutes............................2868...........462............. 90
Goals conceded...................26 .............9............... 1
Successful distribution..........209............33...............8
Unsuccessful distribution.......118...........19................3
Distribution success %...........64............63...............73
Clean sheets........................15.............2................0
Penalties conceded................1..............0................0
Total saves.........................147...........38...............1

DEFENDERS............Sagna.....Clichy.....Toure.....Eboue.....Gallas.....Djourou...Silvestre...Gibbs
Appearances............35..........31..........29.........28..........23..........15..........14.......8
Minutes..................2937......2656.......2280......1538.......2070.......1203......1091.......534
Assists....................1...........0............1..........4............0...........0...........1.........0
Blocks.....................8...........8...........13.........0............6...........4............7........1
Bookings..................4...........7............3.........1.............3...........1...........0.........1
Clearances...............44.........40...........38.........13..........32..........22..........22........32
Goals.......................0...........1............1...........3..........2...........0...........2.........0
Interceptions............5...........10...........3...........5............7...........2............3.........4
Complete passes......163.........151........120.........90..........93..........54..........59.........30
Incomplete passes.....83..........89..........49.........55..........35..........15...........24.........21
Pass success %........66..........63...........71.........62..........73..........78..........71.........59
Tackles lost.............13..........11............2...........8............7.........1..........0..........2
Tackles won.............32..........16...........19..........5...........14.........11.........5.........5
Tackle success %......71..........59...........90.........65..........67.........92..........100.......71

MIDFIELDERS....................Denilson....Song....Nasri....Diaby....Fabregas....Walcott....Vela....Arshavin....Ramsey
Appearances........................37..........31.......29.......24..........22............22........14........12..........9
Minutes.............................3148.......2061....2405....1465......1900..........1274......418.......997.......223
Assists.............................7...........1.........2.........2..........10..............2...........1..........7..........1
Unsuccessful.dribbles..............5...........4.........7.........9...........4...........21..........3.........4..........1
Successful.dribbles................10..........6........25.......13..........13.............21..........6..........8..........3
Goals.scored........................3...........1.........6.........3............3..............2.........1..........6...........0
Complete.passes..................164........110......132......88..........118...........74.........30.........58........19
Incomplete.passes.................90.........50........78......46...........95............45.........13.........34.........7
Pass.success.%....................65..........69.......63.......66..........55............62..........70.........63........73
Shots.off.target....................14.........10.........8........9...........15............20.........4..........8..........3
Shots.on.target....................19..........7.........29.......14..........30............20...........7.........23..........4
Shots.on.target.%.................58.........41........78.......56..........67............50..........64........74........57
Tackles.lost..........................13.........4..........18......10...........8..............9...........5..........5.........0
Tackles.won.........................23.........13..........9......11...........14.............7........0..........3.........2
Tackles.success.%................64..........76........33......52...........64............44..........0.........38.......100

STRIKERS....................Bendtner...Van Persie...Adebayor....Arshavin
Appearances...................31.............28.............26............12
Minutes.........................1758..........2213.........1906..........997
Total goals.......................9..............11............10.............6
Minutes per goal..............195............201..........191...........166
Assists..........................2..............10............7..............7
Unsuccessful dribbles..........8..............8.............12.............4
Successful dribbles............10..............8............18.............8
Dribble success %.............56.............50............60............67
Penalties scored ..............1/1............2/2..........1/1...........0/0
Offsides...........................7..............11..........43............3
Complete passes...............94............102............89...........58
Incomplete passes.............51.............57............40...........34
Pass success %................65.............64............69............63
Shots blocked....................6.............10............10.............5
Shots off target................25.............51............25............8
Shots on target................35..............50............34...........23
Shots on target %............58..............50.............58..........74
Woodwork struck...............2...............6...............2............1

AT A GLANCE
.......Goals....................Assists...................................Tackles
1. Van Persie (11)...1. Fabregas, Van Persie (10).............1. Sagna (32)
2. Adebayor (10).....2. Arshavin, Adebayor, Denilson (7).....2. Denilson (23)
3. Bendtner (9).......3. Eboue (4).................................3. Toure (19)
4. Nasri, Arshavin (6) 4. Nasri, Diaby, Bendtner, Walcott (2)...4. Clichy (16)

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/season-review-stats
------------------------------------
Sorry it is a bit out of line in places it is bloody hard getting it all in line

These are the season stats from last season.

Ade had 43 offsides. 32 more than anyone else!! Didn't realise it was that high.
Nearly 191 minutes per goal from our main strikers? that is rubbish and nowhere near what I expect from a forward at Arsenal.

Loads of interesting stats in there. Take a look.

[Gaffer]

Good stuff mate