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Arsenal: Curtis Davies Comparison Misses The Point
Arsenal is being put to the jury against Liverpool, and Curtis Davies is the only juror. His assessment has points, but he misses the big picture.
Arsenal and Liverpool are being judged by Hull City captain Curtis Davies. The comparisons are in and Davies has reached his verdict: “Liverpool are hungrier”, he says.
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Curtis Davies has a unique perspective on the two sides, as his Hull City has been squashed by both of them. And, to his credit, he is absolutely right, statistically speaking. Liverpool controlled 72% of possession compared to Arsenal’s 60%. Liverpool took a massive 32 shots to Arsenal’s 24. If that’s all you want to take from his comparison, that’s perfectly fine, Davies is right.
Although I must point out that Liverpool had two penalties and the Gunner’s only surrendered goal was a penalty. Factor out penalties and the score would be 3-0 in Arsenal’s favor and 3-1 in Liverpool’s favor. But I digress.
The point that Davies is missing is rather clear and it pertains to the longevity and pertinence of this ‘hunger’ he is speaking of.
It’s not always a matter of piling on the goals. This club has some other obstacles to overcome, like defending and securing a lead. Once they master that, then they can start piling on the goals, if they so desire. Why Liverpool bypassed the clean sheet step is beyond me. More power to them. But until they prove consistency, I don’t see why we are drawing attention to how they ‘do it better’ than anyone. They lost to Burnley 2-0 after all.
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Plus, Wenger’s high-octane attack is still a work in progress, whereas Klopp has been building his attack around this principle tactic since he arrived. It was just a little while ago that Wenger even decided to switch up his attacking scheme to focus on speed rather than the power that Giroud provides.
Moral of the story is give this time. Both of these clubs have the wherewithal to make this style of attack work, but neither one has truly earned the right to say that they mastered it. It’s too early.
As I said, Curtis Davies point, on the surface, is true. Liverpool pushed harder to score more goals. But in the end, the overlying message is simple. There are more moving parts here, on both sides, than Davies’ comparison touches on.
Let’s revisit this at the end of the season, Curtis. By that time we will see which club is hungrier for a title, which matters a bit more than which team is hungrier to score goals when games are out of hand.
This article originally appeared on 
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