50 games, 17 defeats! The sorry Arsenal stats that show Arteta is worse than Emery

Paul Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2021 22:54 BST
• 5 min read

Mikel Arteta labelled Arsenal’s performance in their 3-0 home defeat against Liverpool as “unacceptable”.

Arsenal only had three shots compared to Liverpool’s 16 as they fell to a dreadful Premier League loss.

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Arteta was stunned after the match and did not hold back in his assessment of the Arsenal players.

He said: “At the moment I’m in shock.

“I didn’t expect that, with the way the team trained, the way the team tries, but it happened. That is the reality.

“We completely deserved to lose the game. They were better in every department.

“They deserved to win the game with the margin that they have, or more. It was unacceptable from our side, the way we played.

“The standard has to be much higher from this football club and my job is to get them to perform at that level. We could not put three passes together.

“There were too many things that were not done right.”

Arteta apologised to Arsenal fans and called for a response when his team face Slavia Prague in the Europa League on Thursday.

It is that competition which gives the Gunners hope of salvaging their season and returning to the Champions League.

That is because their Premier League situation is miserable.

The Gunners are ninth in the table, level on points with 10th-place Leeds United and just one point ahead of Aston Villa in 11th.

Arteta after 50 Premier League games

The Liverpool game was Arteta’s 50th league game in charge of Arsenal and his top-flight statistics do not make good reading.

Arteta has credit in the bank after his FA Cup win last season, but if the Europa League campaign ends in disappointment he has little to fall back on when it comes to his league statistics.

Since arriving from the Man City coaching staff, he has won 21 and lost 17 of his first 50 Premier League games.

That compares poorly to predecessor Unai Emery, who had more wins (25) and fewer defeats (13) in the 51 top-flight matches he took charge of.

It also looks worse than the final 50 Premier League games managed by Arsene Wenger.

In that span, Wenger won 27 and lost 16, with a better win percentage (54%) than both Emery (49%) and Arteta (42%).

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Arsenal better defensively

While they leaked three goals against Liverpool, one area Arteta can point to as progress in the Premier League is his defensive record.

Arsenal have conceded 56 goals in his 50 Premier League games under Arteta and kept 15 clean sheets.

That is a significant improvement on Emery, whose side leaked 70 goals and had 10 clean sheets in his 51 games.

Wenger had more clean sheets (18) in his last 50 matches but also conceded more goals than Arteta (64).

Arteta has not been helped by some poor dealings in the transfer market over recent seasons.

And Europe still offers him the chance of a second straight successful season with silverware.

But Arsenal’s Premier League form is leading to understandable scrutiny ahead of what looks like a decisive summer in the transfer market if the Gunners are to become top-four regulars again.