Cesc Fabregas Fans

I’m sorry I complained about the stats. Now that the conversation has turned to the looks of the Spanish team I have decided that Stats aren’t so bad a topic after all.

Let me just wish the gunners good luck,,, and make a quick exit!

Not funny Bri!! lol I guess I asked for that but the Ramos does not look like a horse!

Anyway, Aston Villa will not be easy-beats but I’m sure we can do it!! Go the mighty GUNNERS!!

Awww bri cruel! too cruel!! but so so funny!! hahaha

Joan Capdevila is quite good looking and Xavi is cute – I think you’ve been harsh lol

mj there have been a lot of stories just in the last week about how Barcelona are going to bid for Cesc. So you’re right the rumors are never-ending these days.

The problem is that when ever he does media in Spain the UK press seems to go out of their way to mis-translate what has been said and make a mountain out of molehill like the did the last time he was on int’l duty, but hopefully that won’t happen this time.

Going to Spain is not the problem, he goes all the time, he was there for a couple of days earlier this week after the Manchester United game. It’s doing spanish press that seems to lead to problems.

Anyway first things first! Let’s hope we have a good win against Aston Villa. Go Gunners!!!

Good looking? The whole team? Really? You sure about that mj?

Santa Claus is still searching everywhere for Santi Cazorla because they’re an elf short at the north pole ever since he escaped.

Sergio Ramos, great defender, but looks like a horse.

Carles Puyol, another great defender, but somewhere out there, there is a really bad 80′s rockband missing a lead singer

Iniesta…Xavi…Capdevila…you can not be serious?

David Villa, well….to be fair the kinds of girls who want to bring home a boy who will give their daddy nightmares would love David Villa. He has that satanic goatee, bad boy thing going on I suppose if you are into that…

Senna, Xabi, Cesc, Torres and Iker they are good looking but the rest…when the looks were being given out…they were not there that day

well he doesn’t have to go to Spain for there to be stories.

Seems there something every second week these days. the Barcelona related rumors never stop do they? Used to be they were more of a Summer thing but now it’s all the time.

I like it when he joins up with Spain they play great football and the team are all good looking

Thanks TA I think I understand what you are driving at…

Sam with all the Xavi rumors doing the rounds I can’t imagine that Cesc will be able to go to Spain without a story about him joining Barcelona at the end of the season coming out. My money is on “a source close to him” indicating he is very interested or better still one of the sports magazines will claim he was sighted lunching/dining with La Porta, Guardiola… hmm and maybe Dein too for good measure. No photo of course or perhaps Mr Hleb will have something to say about how he thinks he is making progress in his campaign to convince Cesc to come to the Nou Camp. We should run a sweep on who can guess the story lol

Hey Spain have a Friendly against Chile next Wednesday. I forgot all about that. Cesc has been called up of course that’s not really news The big question is can Cesc actually go to Spain for a few days without a mini PR disaster? Here’s hoping. It couldn’t be worse than last time that’s for sure.

I see Ade and Al are back in the squad. Good to see.

pork scratchings!!? Pass. I’ll take the beer though.

well we were a lot better against Man United let’s hope that was a corner.

Would have to agree though so far this season we’ve looked less than sea-worthy on defence And to win trophies, control when you don’t have the ball is pretty important.

Thanks TA for taking the time to crunch the numbers for us Stats never tell the whole story but they are always interesting. They at least provide some solid facts for re-examining our generalisations and assumptions against

As Arsene Wenger said when he recently defended Cesc’s form, Cesc gets a lot of attention when the team doesn’t play well because he is widely considered our best player and people look to him to save the day or make the difference. This causes some people too focus on his game and magnify any errors he makes out of proportion.

Cesc has had perhaps a slightly unlucky run in terms of the chances he’s been creating being converted but he has been creating chances and that’s his number one job and if he keeps plugging away it will balance out.

Robbie I hear what you are saying and while there’s room for improvement with our finishing and our off the ball movement in the final third I don’t think these are our biggest problem.

Arsenal’s biggest problems have been how we look when we don’t have the ball imho. When we have the ball I’m calm, although there’s always room for improvement, ultimately we are strong in possession. The minute we lose the ball, I have to watch the game through my fingers! lol we look too vulnerable when we are not in possession and that would be the area I would focus on first but that said – of course Arsene knows best

Now mj it was only the one generation of moths.

I will forgive your exaggeration though because you did call me sexy and that shows good judgement and excellent taste

George one guiness and a packet of pork scracthings. That’s me best offer, take it or leave it. And don’t just blame me… Rose has been encouraging my statistical geekiness too

*glomps* George. I know you understand you just want someone to buy you beer Have to say you really are stupid if you think it will be TA tho. After all TA is tighter than a fishes backside. The last time he opened his wallet three generations of moths flew out ;D

Ooh TA must say though, you are very sexy when you get all numerical Thanks for the stats!

Thank God it’s Friday. TA you’ve given me a bleeding headache. I’m gonna send you the bill for the 5 pints of guiness I’m going to need just to recover from trying to understand your percentages.

Why does no one ever take pity on the stupid. Are we not people too!

hey bri well quoting from Arsene by way of mj “If you analyse a game and look who gives the ball every time in the final third… that is the most difficult part of the game”…so that is the significance and why I wanted to include that stat.

Now Robbie I am no Stat King and I have no magic answers if I did I’d be earning millions

Now on the finishing thingo. Actually we have more shots on goal than any team in the league and although our conversion rate is not among the best so far we have mostly been able to get away with being wasteful because we have had so many chances we could afford to waste a few.

In some games that hasn’t been the case. I mean we would have qualified for Europe if we’d finished just 1 of several chances against Fenerbahce. However it wasn’t finishing that hurt us against the Spuds.

Obviously the team will always create far more chances than they convert and there is an out and out element of luck for the provider as to whether a perfectly weighted ball into the box is converted for a goal or headed against the woodwork and that as they say is football.

So he makes more passes than before, a higher percentage of which are in the forward zone which is obviously the most tight and congested passing zone, so the passes are more difficult to complete, and he does so with the same accuracy, creating more chances than ever before.

I wonder how happy he is at the moment overall. Hopefully the Manchester United result was a big boost as you’d have to say this season must be beyond frustrating for the guy. Short of figuring out a way to create the chances and convert them himself lol there’s not a lot else he can do, and he is doing his job better than ever.

Thanks TA love the stats….although very few have accused me of being “pointy-headed” and lived to tell the tale…lol….there is one or two worrying facts that the stats show……we have less movement off the ball in the final third this season…thereby decreasing the number of viable passing options available for our boy Cesc and the team as a whole has horrid “finishing” which has now reached epidemic levels….so any ideas oh great STAT KING on how we’ll fix it?!

Being a bri of very little brain can you explain TA what is the significance of the % of passes in the final third am I right in assuming it’s the opps final third?

Thanks TA. The stats are interesting they draw a completely different picture to what a lot of people have been saying… But I guess it’s like you said when people talk about form and make all sorts of comments all they are really being influenced by in reality is goals. Score goals and everyone loves you, don’t score goals and everyone thinks all the areas of your game are not as good as when you were scoring goals.