Football is a dynamic, fluid sport. One decision or action (good or bad) can influence a subsequent chain of events that ultimately might leave you a goal up or a goal down. And so it was with the two goals Arsenal conceded on Sunday in their 2-0 loss to West Ham.
ESPN FC's Paul Mariner gives some insight as to what went wrong in Arsenal's 2-0 loss to West Ham in the Premier League season opener.
The Gunners could have defended Dimitri Payet's free kick better, both tactically (not leaving so much space between the line and the keeper) and individually (Cheikhou Kouyate could have been better marked). On the second, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could have cleared the ball more decisively and Mauro Zarate's shot could have been deflected differently.
Some things you can control, some things you can't. Yet neither of these factors exonerates Petr Cech.
In a world of grown-ups, you expect a keeper of his stature and salary to do better, even if it means cleaning up the mistakes of others. Had that been Wojciech Szczesny or David Ospina, we might have noted the error and moved on. But it's Cech. He stands for something, he is costing a bundle in wages and amortization, he's a newcomer to the team and so we treat it differently, with plenty of schadenfreude and jokes on social media about Chelsea sending a "double agent" to the Emirates.
Funny as those are, the reality is that keepers make mistakes. Better ones makes fewer errors and if they're lucky, the errors will come at times that are least damaging to their team.
This season, we'll find out whether Cech is still at the standard he set a few years ago and whether Sunday was an aberration. Yet the expectations raised by his signing -- and specifically, that silly phrase whereby he's supposedly "worth an extra 12 to 15 points a season" -- aren't doing him any favors.
You don't need to be an analytics genius to realize that even a superb keeper, the kind who makes saves most others don't, won't be worth an extra 12 to 15 points relative to a merely good keeper, who saves what he's supposed to save.
.After all the preseason hype about his arrival at Arsenal, time will tell if Petr Cech is really worth it.
A keeper at a top-four side like Arsenal simply won't be asked to make that many saves. Last year, the Gunners faced 130 shots on target. How many of those shots were not savable? How many of those were routine saves? And how many fall in that in-between category where a great keeper like Cech saves it but a merely good keeper does not?
Furthermore, given that Arsenal won 22 of 38 games without Cech last season, how many of those "Cech saves, Ospina/Szczesny do not" shots fall in those 16 games where Arsenal drop points and in situations where it would have made a genuine difference?
Sure, a guy like Cech also brings intangibles such as leadership and experience and he can help his back four perform better. But when you actually look at the numbers, it's extremely unlikely (and rather unfair) to expect a 12-15 point jump.
The best thing Arsene Wenger can do right now is not focus on Cech, but tweak some elements that will make a difference. Like getting Oxlade-Chamberlain to make better decisions, and reviewing the way Arsenal defend free kicks, particularly now that Cech is on board.
by: 188bet
