Opposites suffer same problem

The trend in football is towards ever-greater analysis of performance data, but some outposts of resistance remain.

Take Stoke City, whose manager Tony Pulis is an incurable romantic, devoted to 19th century notions of manliness. In Pulis’s view, the ideal Premier League player is not that different from the ideal soldier in Wellington’s army: obedient, hard-working and, above all, big.

You don’t have to look too deeply into the data to detect signs of trouble ahead. Stoke were the lowest scorers in the top four divisions last season, with almost three-fifths of their 36 league goals coming from set pieces. Some might be tempted to conclude from that information that Stoke’s style was not working. If they keep scoring at that rate, they won’t escape relegation for long. Maybe time for a shift of emphasis?

Not for Pulis. His prescription is: more of the same. The players he is said to have targeted to complement the collection of Easter Island heads he has already put together at the Britannia Stadium are Richard Dunne and that most cetacean of Premier League midfielders, Tom Huddlestone.

Arsenal, whose style some would characterise as post-masculine, are Stoke’s ideological opposite and matches between the sides are usually fun to watch for that reason, especially at Stoke where the home fans boo Aaron Ramsey for the crime of having had his leg broken by Ryan Shawcross.

Yesterday’s match was not, largely because right now Arsenal look almost as toothless as Stoke.

It won’t have improved Wenger’s mood to see Robin van Persie scoring that beautifully flighted volley on Saturday at Old Trafford, but two 0-0 draws in a row is not yet a crisis.

What might worry Wenger is that his team cannot score despite an unprecedented superabundance of forwards. They have nine — Podolski, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho, Walcott, Chamakh, Bendtner, Arshavin, Park — of whom they are trying to sell at least four, and the lack of interest from other clubs tells you everything about the true strength of Wenger’s options.

History suggests that Wenger always finds a way into the Champions League places but you feel that unless he can add a more reliable goalscorer, this might be the season when he finally gets caught out.