Arsenal fizzed back into the season with dazzling style by pummeling hapless Crystal Palace with 5 goals. The Le Grove narrative during the break was that results would catch up to performances and that the entire team would get their confidence back again, and that kind of came true in the smallest of sample sizes.
The doom and gloom was out of place in the extremist world of online opinion and we all got a bit of a reality check on the nature of football. Sometimes things don’t go for you in front of goal, sometimes they don’t work in your own box, and every now and then it happens at both ends.
The xG score was well and truly represented with a clean sheet and no drama in defense. In front of the goal, we were worth 3.84 xG. If anything, you could say that things went a little too well for us, 5 goals from 6 shots on target is quite the achievement. Arsenal played better football against Liverpool and West Ham and we got nothing. This is the nature of sport and it’s why we love it. It’s also worth pointing out how early goals can work for a team like Arsenal. After the second goal, Palace had to come for us, and our remaining 3 goals were blistering transitions. Arsenal don’t get those sorts of opportunities because we haven’t had the same early game fizz we had last season. Hopefully, this represents a turning point with finishing, and an uptick in chances to deliver BIG results.
There’s also a conversation to be had about goal...