RealGunner wrote:The best thing today was how most of our players played in their preferred role. 4-4-2 worked for all the players.

Been using arsenal in a 4-4-2 formation in fifa 19. Laca and Auba upfront. Scored at least 4 5 goals average against juve, madrids, barcas and man utds etc

The xG for this is weird. Fulham 1.46 vs Arsenal 1.22. Suggests Arsenal outperformed their xG by about four goals, yet I didn't get that impression from watching the game. I thought it was our best performance of the season, and generally the most settled we've looked under Emery.

The numbers are probably weird because they don't account for the numerous openings we made but lacked the right final ball. Fulham had to make a number of last-ditch blocks and tackles to stop us from getting good chances. We troubled them all game, rather than just in the second half.

The interesting thing today was the use of 4-4-2, which worked really to exploit the space in Fulham's defence. Wonder what we'll do when Ozil comes back.

mate i always tell these guys. Fifa is rarely wrong.

So long as we outscore the opposition it doesn's matter how many we concede right?

Jay29 wrote:The xG for this is weird. Fulham 1.46 vs Arsenal 1.22. Suggests Arsenal outperformed their xG by about four goals, yet I didn't get that impression from watching the game. I thought it was our best performance of the season, and generally the most settled we've looked under Emery.

The numbers are probably weird because they don't account for the numerous openings we made but lacked the right final ball. Fulham had to make a number of last-ditch blocks and tackles to stop us from getting good chances. We troubled them all game, rather than just in the second half.

The interesting thing today was the use of 4-4-2, which worked really to exploit the space in Fulham's defence. Wonder what we'll do when Ozil comes back.

why do you take that stat so importantly?

I consider it to be the most useful stat to measure a team's actual performance levels. Generally, a team that creates good chances and doesn't give up many is considered a good side. XG just puts a number on that and gives you a decent idea of if a team has over-performed, under-performed or actually done about right.

It's not perfect, and stats don't tell the whole story. The numbers will say today that Arsenal didn't make many high quality chances, but when you've got finishers like Laca and Auba, you have a better chance of converting a low-quality chance.

I use xG to help confirm or re-evaluate what I saw during a game. For example, this was the third league game in a row we outscored our xG score. That confirmed what I saw against Everton and Watford, where Lacazette scored an outstanding goal in one and there was an OG in the other. Meanwhile, we've conceded less than we should have done, and again, that was in evidence with the chances Everton and Watford created.

The sample size is still small, but there's evidence so far that we've been quite fortunate to have nine straight wins, and unless we improve, there'll be a point where things return to their normal level. But as Leicester proved in 15/16, it's possible to be lucky and outperform every available metric for a whole season.

well you have to consider xG/Shot as well
they had 21 attempts to our 9
a lot of their attempts were from outside the box with xG<0.1