Creativity in the final third

[CanadaToffee]

Personally I'm inclined to think that it's been an indication of our weakness in midfield this season. Everyone knows that Arteta is our main creative outlet so they mark him tightly. This is emphasised by the lack of assists from any of our other midfielders, a situation that with Cahill and Graveson returning, plus Pienaar settling in will hopefully change pretty soon.

Agree with this analysis - as far as I can recall Arteta has only one partial assist on our last 5 goals, and benefitted from the assists of others in finally scoring himself. With Cahill returning, Grav available and Pienaar improving (also Ossie), the double-teaming (or more) on Arteta creates more space for the others, and presumably when other teams cotton on and start focusing on shutting the other down, more space for Arteta again.

Please, please let's keep the midfield injury-free.

 

[SuitsBlue]

makes us wonder where we were before the pienaar and gravesen loans.

 

[Robert Jarvis]

It was a great pass by Pienaar in his assist. Hope there will be more to come, showed he had the eye and awareness for it.

 

[Blue_in_london]

I read an interesting piece today on Cesc Fabregas and thought it time to dust down the statistical musings of old and look into our creativity in the final third of the pitch.

It's widely regarded that Arteta is our main creative fulcrum, yet a look at the table below reveals that it is in fact Phil Neville who completes the most passes in the opposition third of the pitch.

Discuss.

You missed the star next to Neville's stats Bruce...

 

[TX Bill]

That is absolutely classic !!!

Post of the day right above me.

And my passes out of 400 was a joke. I don't know how they were rating it.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

You missed the star next to Neville's stats Bruce...

Outstanding

 

[chicoazul]

That made me guffaw.

 

[micknick]

Good one B.I.L.