Golly. That’s news to me, I must say. I thought when we completely out-passed teams like Chelsea and Man U and still lost that we were comprehensibly beaten? Was that wrong then? Passing is clearly the most important thing in football so I guess we must have been the best team in

First off – what a game! I must have watched the Arshavin goal back forty times so far and the combination of crowd, commentary and a super flowing move still gooses my pimples something rotten. 

Whatever happens in the next leg this result is something we can be really proud of and, like reaching £1000 in ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’, no-one (not even Chris Tarrant) can take it away from us. 

But despite the manner of the victory – which we apparently snatched from Bastardlona like a cheeky, cockney pickpocket – people have been saying we were lucky, that we were outclassed and that Xavi’s balls shine and sparkle in the moonlight like a precious amethyst. 

Let’s look at the wonderful stats which back this claim up:

Arsenal only managed to claim 33% (or 34% depending) of the possession – something that only really seems to happen against Barca given our passing superiority over most other teams.

Barca out-passed us 744 to 369. That’s almost double. Again, a quite incredible stat when compared to the majority of our games.

Their pass completion was 92% to our still respectable 85% but the top six passers (total passes/touches) were all from Barcelona. Again we were clearly taught a lesson in keeping the ball and keeping it well.

But hang on a second. Something’s not right here. 

Isn’t every single one of those statistics related to passing? So what they’re essentially saying is that if you out-pass your opponent then you outclassed them? 

Golly. That’s news to me, I must say. I thought when we completely out-passed teams like Chelsea and Man U and still lost that we were comprehensibly beaten? Was that wrong then? Passing is clearly the most important thing in football so I guess we must have been the best team in the Premiership for ages. What a relief.

And what about when dominated games against Wigan or Stoke but didn’t take our chances and lose? Are we then not wasteful and lacking a cutting edge? I guess the truth is that we out-classed them all and that we are due some retrospective praise for all the matches we’ve lost in this manner. 

On the other hand, however, I would like to present some further stats for you. How about:

Shots on target (Arsenal 5, Barca 5); off target (4, 3); crosses (20, 15); corners (4,1); tackles won (89%, 85%); aerial duels won (57%, 43%). 

Clearly, in the stats that illustrate the important events of the game most – attack-related stats, rather than possession – we probably edged it on the night. A team can have 95% of possession in the middle of the pitch but if they don’t put in a cross or shot or anything then it’s all pretty worthless so while possession stats say a lot about the feel of the game they don’t say much about what really happened – everyone remembers Messi’s chip just wide of the far post but no-one remembers Busquets’ 86th pass.

While possession indicates dominance in some respects – of the ball – it is not necessarily related to chances created and, as the clichéd adage goes, if you don’t shoot you can’t score (which is not strictly true but you’d have to be pretty lucky to win without taking a shot). There are however other types of dominance, specifically of chances created and in this respect neither team can claim absolute precedence in the match. 

The fact is we both created enough chances to score more goals than we did, Arsenal just did it with less time on the ball. Which, if you were economically or statistically minded (like, say, Monsieur Wenger), would tell you that we were much more effective. Compared to the amount of time we had the opportunity to attack (roughly half the time Barca did) we had more shots, more crosses and more corners so we were, quite arguably, double as effective as Barcelona. Possibly more. 

Suddenly the victory doesn’t feel quite so snatched now does it.

And even if all of these stats haven’t made a compelling case for Arsenal’s superiority on the night then there is just one more stat I would like to throw at you:

Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona

And that, my peeps, is the only stat that matters. 

WB

P.S. Obviously there has been much due praise awarded by fans to lil’ Jackie Boy (and Koz-chell-knee) but there was an interesting quote this week that showed me just how much he is already respected amongst other footballers.

After being asked to play an unfamiliar holding role against Denmark, Jack said (if you haven’t already seen it):

“I spoke to Frank Lampard before the [Denmark] game and he said – ‘don’t just sit, we’ve seen you can go forward, so if you want to go forward just tell me and I’ll sit’”

The fact that Lampard – a seasoned England professional, part of the international set up for years and regularly one the top scoring midfielders in the Premiership – said to Wilshere on his first start for England (!) that if he wanted to get forward just to let him know and he would sit – I just find that fantastic. Lampard already has enough confidence in Wilshere to restrict his own role as an attacking midfielder in order to encourage this young talent to get forward in his place. Wow. What a glowing reference.

Just had to share that with you.