Farewell Le Prof - Arsène Wenger

[Ken Gargett]

the great arsene wenger signed off yesterday, fortunately with a win (indeed, dismally, our first points away from home this year, i believe).

it was time. but what a magnificent and inspiration manager he has been. a surprising and controversial pick at the time, he has become the greatest manager of the gunners of all time and one of the finest for any team. 

for those who enjoy the stats. what a record! will it ever be matched again? what is amazing is how close it is to that of sir alex F, his great rival and friend. sir alex's is probably fractionally better in some areas but you could argue that wenger achieved more as he never had the moneybags behind him that sir A enjoyed. in the end, the two towered over english soccer for several decades. we shall never see their like again. 

if you do take spending into account, in wenger's 22 seasons, he spent the same as man city did this season. he has to have enormous credit for that. 

Wenger career Stats (i got these from the arseblog site, a must for gunner fans). 

(All competitions)

1235 – Matches managed by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal
1000 – Matches managed by Arsenal’s 2nd longest serving manager, Bertie Mee (540 matches), and 3rd longest serving manager, George Graham (460), combined

2298 – Total goals scored by Arsenal under Wenger
104 – Goals per season average at Arsenal
1.86 – Goals per match average at Arsenal

1227 – Total goals against Arsenal under Arsene Wenger
55.7 – Goals against per season
1 – Goal per match

Fergie managed 1240 matches and Man U conceded 1154 goals, 0.93 goal per match. And his team scored a similar 1.93 goals per match.

707 – Wins for Arsenal under Arsene (reminder, this is all competitions)
32 – Wins per season (all competitions)
280 – Draws for Arsenal under Arsene (I’m not saying it again)
12.7 – Draws per season
248 – Losses for Arsenal under Arsene
11 – Losses per season

57 – Percent of all matches Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal side won during his tenure
93 – Percent win rate in Champions League qualifying (13-1-0)
67 – Percent win rate in the FA Cup (73-22-14)
57 – Percent wins in Premier League (475-199-153)
56 – Percent wins in Uefa Cup/Europa League (14-6-5)
47 – Percent wins in the Champions League (83-41-53)

132 – Years that Arsenal Football Club have been around
22 – Years that Arsene Wenger managed Arsenal Football Club (17% of their total)
45 – Trophies Arsenal have won in their history
17 – Trophies Arsenal won during Wengers 22 years at Arsenal (38% of their total)
13 – League titles for Arsenal
3 – League titles during Wenger’s tenure (23%)
13 – FA Cup wins for Arsenal (record)
7 – FA Cup wins during Wenger’s tenure (out of 8 appearances in the final)
54 – Percent of Arsenal’s FA Cup trophies which have been won by Arsene Wenger
1 – Record for the most FA Cup wins by any manager (7)
14 – Number of times Arsenal won the Community Shield
7 – Number of times Arsenal won the Community Shield during Wenger’s tenure (50%)
2 – League Cups for Arsenal
0 – League Cups during Wenger’s tenure (0%)
2 – European trophies for Arsenal
0 – European trophies during Wenger’s tenure (0%)
1 – Seasons Arsenal went unbeaten
1 – Seasons Arsenal went unbeaten during Wenger’s tenure (100%)

118 – Red cards for Arsenal under Arsene Wenger (all competitions)
8 – Red cards for Patrick Vieira in Premier League play only (tied with Duncan Ferguson and Richard Dunne for the most in Premier League history, though, really Roy Keane should probably have had 40 red cards and only got 7)

(Premier League only)

828 – Premier League matches managed by Arsene Wenger (record)
475 – Premier League wins by Arsene Wenger (If you only count Premier League this is a record but Fergie has the record for most wins in the top flight at 528 – both records, plus Wenger’s longevity record, seem unlikely to ever fall.)
1,561 – Goals scored by Arsenal in the Premier League during Wenger’s tenure (2nd to Fergie)
807 – Goals scored against Arsenal in that same time
754 – Positive goal difference for Arsenal during Wenger’s tenure
1.89 – Goals scored per game (this is the average for Arsene’s Arsenal in Premier League play)
0.97 – Goals against per game

Then she leaned close and whispered in my ear “tell me about net spend”

201 – Millions of pounds Arsene Wenger spent on transfers (net) since joining Arsenal in 1996 (source: https://www.arsenalreport.com/transfercentre/history)
180 – Millions of pounds Wenger spent (net) since the club loosed the purse strings in 2013/14
21 – Millions of pounds Wenger spent (net) in the 17 previous seasons
200 – Millions of pounds Man City spent (net) in the 2017/18 season (source: transfermarkt.co.uk)
1,123 – Millions of pounds (net) Man City have spent since 2007/08 (yeah, that’s a billion)

Net Spend League Table 2013/14 to 2017/18

 

Net Spend £ Table	Last 5 Seasons
Tottenham	-21
Liverpool	-105
Chelsea	-118
Arsenal	-180
United	-510
City	-640

Something tells me the next manager isn’t going to get £1bn to throw around.
(All non-Arsenal transfer fees from transfermarkt.co.uk)

The Players Under Wenger

86 – Record for most European appearances at Arsenal, 86, Thierry Henry
16 years 177 days – Youngest overall player to appear for Arsenal (Cesc Fabregas)
Jack Wilshere also holds the records for youngest Arsenal player in the League, in Europe and in the FA Cup
41 years 151 days – Record for the oldest player to play in the Premier League, Jens Lehmann
39 years 311 day – Oldest player in Europe, John Lukic
227 – Different players to play under Wenger at Arsenal (that’s a prime number, by the way)
229 – Goals scored by Thierry Henry for Arsenal (this is also a prime number, and uhh… no.. we are not awarding that own goal to Scott Dann that the Premier League took away from Henry because they hate Arsenal, maybe we can get Harry Kane to petition the FA to have this goal added to Henry’s total.)

 

Most goals for Arsenal under Wenger
Player	Goals
Thierry Henry	228
Robin van Persie	132
Theo Walcott	108
Olivier Giroud	105
Dennis Bergkamp	102
Robert Pires	84
Alexis Sanchez	80
Freddie Ljungberg	72
Emmanuel Adebayor	62
Aaron Ramsey	58

(source: Opta)

If we look just at most goals for Arsenal under Wenger, Olivier Giroud comes up fourth of all time and one of just five players to score 100+ goals for Arsenal under Wenger.  

The Invincibles

W-W-W-W-W-W-D-D-W-W
W-D-W-W-W-D-D-W-D-W
W-D-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W
W-D-W-D-W-D-D-D-W-W
W-W-W-W-W-D-W-W-W-L*
*Rooney Dive

49 – Games played
36 – Games won
13 – Drawn
0 – Lost
112 – Goals for (2.29 per game)
35 – Goals against (0.71 per game)
25 – Home games in this streak
20 – Home wins
63 – Home goals
21 – Goals conceded at home (0.84 per game)
14 – Goals conceded in 24 away games (0.58 per game)
48 – Starts for Thierry Henry (led all players)
39 – Goals for Thierry Henry (led all players)

Wenger’s Remarkably Consistent 22 Years

 

This chart shows how consistent Wenger has been in terms of points per season in the Premier League over his 20 years at the club. On the left is his first full season with the club where he won the title with just 78 points. You can also see his other two title winning sides in 01/02 and 03/04 (the blue dots that poke above all the other clubs). Since then, the closest Arsenal came to winning the League was 07/08 and 2015/16 (when there is a great sag in all points among the top teams).   

Wenger averaged 75.7 points per season over his career at Arsenal. That’s third highest behind Man U (80) and Chelsea (76) and well above Man City, Liverpool, and especially Tottenham with just 58.7 points per season. To give that some context, if Arsenal had just hit Wenger’s average in his final season, they would have finished tied for 4th with Liverpool:

Club	Points avg 1998-2018
Man U	80.0
Chelsea	76.0
Arsenal	75.7
Liverpool	67.3
Man City	60.9
Tottenham	58.7

That said, Wenger’s points average over his career is a bit misleading as it is bifurcated by a first 10 v. last 10 split. In his first 10 seasons at Arsenal Wenger averaged 77 points per season, 2nd best behind only Fergie and leaving small clubs like Tottenham and Man City in his dust:

Club	Points avg 1998-2008
Man U	81.6
Arsenal	77.7
Chelsea	75.3
Liverpool	67.5
Tottenham	51.0
Man City	45.4

But in the years since the move to the Emirates stadium, Arsene’s Arsenal dropped off 7 points per season and went from 2nd to 4th average, with Tottenham and Liverpool jumping massively from mid-table clubs to top four challengers. This is the effect of Chelsea (the purple line above), Man U (the red line) and the fact that Arsenal became a selling club when Man City entered the fray. City is the team that usurped Arsenal in the top six:

Club	Points avg 2009-2018
Man U	78
Chelsea	76.1
Man City	75.4
Arsenal	71.8
Tottenham	68.7
Liverpool	67.4

 

This shows the relative strength of the Premier League now. When Wenger won his three League titles, the average was 30.6 points difference between Man U and Tottenham. But there are no longer two or three clubs clearly at the top of the table, there are now six clubs within 10 points of each other on average every season for the last decade.

In that context it’s incredible that Wenger was able to maintain Champions League football until the 2016/17 season.

My suspicion as to how Wenger accomplished this was to prioritize attack. He had one season, in 1998/99, where Arsenal had an incredible defensive record, allowing just 17 goals in a single season. The closest he would ever come to this record again was the 2003/04 invincibles season with 26 goals. Below is a visual representation of Wenger’s Arsenal in the Premier League in terms of goals for per game and goals against per game:

Wenger’s attacking philosophy produced a remarkable 72 goals per season average across his career with little variation between the first ten (73.88) and the last ten (72.40). But what we see in the second half of his Arsenal career are a number of seasons where his team were wrecked defensively. In the first half of his career he had two truly outstanding defensive teams and in the second half he had none. As a result, Arsene averaged 33.45 goals allowed per Premier League season in the first half of his Arsenal career and 40.44 goals per season in the second half of his Arsenal career.

This is what his Premier League career looks like in goal difference per game. Up to 2001, Wenger’s problem was generating enough offence. After the Invincibles, Wenger’s Arsenal went into a steady decline because he prioritized attack over defense.

Big Clubs

Arsene Wenger – Top Four Clubs Faced With Arsenal
Opponent	Played	W	D	L	F	A	Win %
Chelsea	62	23	18	21	79	88	37.1%
Manchester United	60	18	15	27	69	85	30.0%
Liverpool	53	19	17	17	83	88	35.8%
Tottenham Hotspur	52	23	20	9	94	65	44.2%

(Source: Opta)

The four teams Arsene Wenger faced most were Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool, and Tottenham. Among these so-called “traditional top teams” Arsenal were most successful against Tottenham, winning 44% of their matches compared to Sp*rs winning just 17%. Wenger also had a superior goal difference against Tottenham at +29. Unfortunately, that’s where the fun stops. Wenger won just 37% against Chelsea and had a negative goal difference of -8. He also only won 36% of his matches against Liverpool and had a -5 goal difference. But it was United which was always Arsene’s nemesis. He won 30% of his games there and they won 45%.

Manager	Played	W	D	L	F	A	Win %
Alex Ferguson	49	15	12	22	55	71	30.6%
Sam Allardyce	34	20	8	6	69	36	58.8%
David Moyes	34	22	8	4	69	28	64.7%
Harry Redknapp	33	16	13	4	67	34	48.5%
Mark Hughes	29	16	4	9	51	31	55.2%
Steve Bruce	27	19	6	2	52	13	70.4%
Rafael Benitez	24	10	6	8	40	35	41.7%
Martin O’Neill	21	10	9	2	31	16	47.6%
Tony Pulis	19	12	2	5	33	19	63.2%
José Mourinho	19	2	7	10	12	29	10.5%
Steve McClaren	18	15	0	3	46	11	83.3%
Alan Curbishley	17	12	2	3	33	12	70.6%
Claudio Ranieri	17	10	6	1	33	19	58.8%
Gerard Houllier	16	7	4	5	22	21	43.8%
Gordon Strachan	16	11	3	2	30	12	68.8%
Roberto Martinez	16	10	3	3	36	16	62.5%
Alan Pardew	16	9	5	2	33	16	56.3%
Graeme Souness	15	10	1	4	25	15	66.7%

(Source: Opta)

It was Fergie who was the main problem at United. Wenger could only manage 15 wins over the old man in 49 attempts and lost 22 times to the former United Manager. But Wenger’s record against Jose Mourinho was almost certainly lodestone. Arsene’s Arsenal won just twice in 19 matches against Mourinho, losing 10 times, and conceding -17 goals.

In case you’re curious, Wenger won 50% of his matches against Man City, but most of those wins came before they slipped in a puddle of oil. Wenger has only won 21% (3-3-8) against their current manager, Pep Guardiola. Wenger has also only won 27% (3-5-3) against Pochettino and 30% (3-3-4) against Klopp.

Away

It’s not a coincidence that Arsenal won the League at both Old Trafford and White Hart Lane. Wenger’s away teams were typically the best in the land. He had the first team to go undefeated away an entire season – the year we won the League at Old Trafford – and followed that up with the Invincibles in 2003/04 who similarly went undefeated away all season and won the League at the home of a heated rival.

That 2001/02 team was quite special. They won 47 points away from home and just 40 at home. They also scored 37 and allowed just 11. It’s a record that should get more mention and would but for the fact that Chelsea took 48 points in 04/05. Man City also topped the pre-Invincibles with 50 points this season but neither City nor Chelsea went undefeated in those away seasons.

[ayepatz]

I amazed at how many people who were calling for his head not so long ago are now eulogising him to the max! All the Match of the Day pundits who didn’t have a good word to say about him are now showering him with praise.

I’ve always thought him a top manager, and, as a neutral, can’t help feeling sad that his tenure has ended with a whimper, not a bang.

Whoever replaces him will be forced to acknowledge that any success they have will be be firmly based upon the solid foundations laid down by Wenger.

 

[bayala]

Question for you @Ken Gargett. Wenger's Invincible's or Pep's Untouchable's? Which is the greater achievement?

[Ken Gargett]

12 hours ago, bayala said:

Question for you @Ken Gargett. Wenger's Invincible's or Pep's Untouchable's? Which is the greater achievement?

i think the answer to that is, and my apols for this as i mean no disrespect, who are the untouchables? is that what they are calling this year's team?

but please, good team and did wonderfully well but the same breath as the invincibles? mind you, any team with thierry henri in it sits above every other team in history. 

honestly though, in 20 years, if nothing replicates the deeds of the invincibles, do you think that they will be comparing this year's city (assuming that is them) with that side?

[bayala]

23 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i think the answer to that is, and my apols for this as i mean no disrespect, who are the untouchables? is that what they are calling this year's team?

but please, good team and did wonderfully well but the same breath as the invincibles? mind you, any team with thierry henri in it sits above every other team in history. 

honestly though, in 20 years, if nothing replicates the deeds of the invincibles, do you think that they will be comparing this year's city (assuming that is them) with that side?

Correct Kenny, this year's team. I honestly think it's an equal achievement. The records Man city have broken this year. 

Most points - 100 (Invincible's 90)

Most wins - 32 (Invincible's 26)

Most goals - 106 (Invincible's 73)

Least amount of time trailing -153 mins

Most away points - 50

Best goal difference - +79

Most consecutive wins - 18 (Invincible's 14)

An undefeated season is a huge achievement. The side is legendary and rightly so but I think what city achieved (records above) with only 2 losses is right up there as well. A lot of those records will be hard to beat. The 100 point barrier was supposed to be impossible to break in the EPL. 

Food for thought

 

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by bayala

[Ken Gargett]

25 minutes ago, bayala said:

Correct Kenny, this year's team. I honestly think it's an equal achievement. The records Man city have broken this year. 

Most points - 100 (Invincible's 90)

Most wins - 32 (Invincible's 26)

Most goals - 106 (Invincible's 73)

Least amount of time trailing -153 mins

Most away points - 50

Best goal difference - +79

Most consecutive wins - 18 (Invincible's 14)

An undefeated season is a huge achievement. The side is legendary and rightly so but I think what city achieved (records above) with only 2 losses is right up there as well. A lot of those records will be hard to beat. The 100 point barrier was supposed to be impossible to break in the EPL. 

Food for thought

 

 

as a fan, you'd be happy with either (interesting you first went better then slide back to equal - i'm happy to wait a day if you thunk you slide further?). there is just something special about undefeated. no side can ever be the first undefeated side again. 

[ayepatz]

Didn’t I read somewhere that they’re calling this year’s City team “The Centurions”?

By any yardstick, it was an epic season.

But for any team to be truly great, surely it’s got to be about more than one season?