Thursday, April 28, 2022

A Closer Look at the United Game

 Arseblog carries posts by Scott Willis, who crunches the numbers and analyzes games.  This is his latest "By the Numbers" column.  This is the graphic that I wanted to call attention to:


This game could have gone either way.  Arteta's post game comments shjowed that he understood that.  This was not a case of the Gunners dismissing United at home: it was a wild affair in which the visitors looked more dangerous than us until Xhaka smashed our third with 20 minutes to go, after which we closed shop and they could not get a shot on target.

My point here is that while we are better than the Palace, Brighton, and Southampton results, we are still vulnerable, with a thin squad that requires a bit of luck to win games.  We did great against Chelsea, no question, but United could very easily have gotten one or even three points Saturday.  It's not going to be a cakewalk into 4th place.  The bright spot is that Tottenham and United are just as inconsistent as we are, and West Ham is distracted by Europa League.  If we beat the Spuds we ought to be in Champions' League next year, so that's the pivotal contest.


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