On this episode of the Cannon Stats podcast, Adam and Scott return after a Christmas break for a high-level discussion on Arsenal's recent form, dismissing finishing concerns, spotlighting key players, and previewing the massive upcoming clash with Aston Villa.

They dive into why the "wasteful finishing" narrative is shallow, highlighting forced own goals, strong shooting thwarted by great saves, and elite underlying process.

Conversations on Viktor Gyökeres' adaptation, Bukayo Saka's world-class creation and shot volume despite low-end product, the league-wide reality of "uncomfortable" wins, and optimism for a statement result against third-placed Villa to close out 2025.

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Are there reasons to worry about Arsenal's finishing?

On this episode of the Cannon Stats podcast, Adam and Scott break down Arsenal’s kick in the balls loss against Aston Villa. It is a need catharsis and a nice way to get back to some analytical thinking about the match. The podcast goes through the second-guessing decisions that could have been made, the match key moments, hits on the individual performances and looks ahead to some chances for rotation.

If you are a premium subscriber, you can listen to an ad-free version through Substack or you can add to your preferred podcast app through the personal RSS feed.

One of the other topics referenced was Gyokeres who has a tendency to not always run out every situation, which Adam saw in the film while he was at Sporting.

⁠Film Study: Putting Arsenal's striker links head-to-head⁠ [https://www.cannonstats.com/p/film-study-putting-arsenals-striker]

If you enjoyed this podcast and want to leave a review or rating, that would be much appreciated.



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Everything goes wrong for Arsenal at Villa Park

On this episode of the Cannon Stats podcast, Adam and Scott break down Arsenal’s draw against Chelsea, breaking down the big talking points, pre-red card Arsenal being outplayed? Post red card Arsenal getting a goal back but just playing decent? A bit on some of the individual performances and some big picture talk. It’s a full podcast and the start of the busy season for Arsenal.

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Part 1 focuses on the period before the red card, Part 2 looks at the second half, the final part is a bit of a big picture look at things.



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Which team dropped points at the Bridge?

On this episode of the Cannon Stats podcast, Adam and Scott break down Arsenal’s win against Tottenham, revel in the losses of Liverpool and Manchester City, do a mini power rankings and then look ahead to Chelsea and Bayern Munich. It’s a packed podcast after one of the more delightful weekends of the season.

Part 1 focuses on the match with Tottenham, Part 2 looks at Liverpool and Manchester City’s matches, the final part is looking ahead for the rest of the season, and the key matches Arsenal have in the next seven days.

If you haven’t yet, you can help us out by taking the quick survey below:

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North London is RED

On this episode of the Cannon Stats podcast, Adam and Scott break down Arsenal’s draw away at Sunderland, hitting the main points of the match, the individual performances, and have some big picture views of the Premier League after the weekend's action.

If you are a premium subscriber, you can listen to an ad-free version through Substack (also you can add to your preferred podcast app) on CannonStats.com [https://www.cannonstats.com]

Part 1 focuses on the match; it is a tale of two halves performance for Arsenal. Arsenal start slowly again and here it hurts them. In the second half Arsenal showed great resilience to fight back and end up conceding late as they ran out of gas. One of the big topics here is the use of the substitutes and what could have or should have been done.

Part 2 hits on the individual performances here, looking at Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka, Martin Zubimendi, and Eberechi Eze. The Eze chat goes well with the latest post on the newsletter here looking at how he is playing the “10” role. [https://www.cannonstats.com/p/an-early-look-at-eze-in-the-10-role]

The final part is a bigger picture view of how our opinions have changed on these two teams, plus a view into Manchester City vs Liverpool.

If you have any feedback, please share it with us. Also, you can help us out by leaving a review.



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Arsenal Drop Points but Give Us Reasons for Optimism 

In this episode of Cannon Stats Podcast, Scott and Adam discuss Arsenal’s 9th straight win against Burnley. They also hit on how Eberechi Eze has interpreted the role of right 8/10 for Arsenal and how that compares to Martin Odegaard. Things finish up with a look at when we should start thinking about Arsenal as one of the best defenses of all time.



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How Eze as the 10 has changed Arsenal

In this episode of Cannon Stats Podcast, Scott and Adam dive headfirst into Arsenal’s blistering 4-0 demolition of Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. This was a match that shattered expectations of a dour, Simeone-style snoozefest.

The lads break down Arsenal’s dominant performance, from Zubimendi’s masterclass to Martinelli’s resurgence. They tackle media gripes about set-piece “ruining football,” and preview a tricky trip to Crystal Palace.

Here is the link to the Ryan O'Hanlon article that was mentioned in the podcast.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/46662849/set-pieces-ruining-premier-league-helping-arsenal-throw-ins



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Set Play FC ruins Atleti, Football?

The mailbag episode is a staple of the international break but this time we decided to spice it up asking for you all to not only give your questions but also your hottest takes.

For this we had to agree or disagree, no middle ground and it led to some tough position taking. This was real fun episode and worth a listen.

The first half of the episode is the hot takes, and the second half is the more traditional mailbag. Thank you to everyone who sent in questions.

Love the pod? Subscribe on your favorite platform, rate/review, and join the Discord for debates. Feedback? Reply to our newsletter or hit us on social media.

Yeehaw!





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Hot Takes 🔥

There was a great discussion on the Cannon Stats discord [https://discord.gg/SK4E36M4] (you should join, it is fun and free) about Bukayo Saka’s cumulative minutes and what that means for his future. It was so good that Adam and Scott decided to go even longer on that topic in today’s podcast.

In this meta-focused episode, Scott and Adam shake off international break boredom with high-level chats on Arsenal’s stars. They dive into Bukayo Saka’s heavy minute load and career longevity, unpack the randomness of injuries (with fresh Arteta quotes), debate if Martin Ødegaard is “injury-prone,” and reflect on Mikel Arteta hitting his 300th match amid lingering fan discontent. Expect tire metaphors, RAF pilot stories, and optimistic vibes about Arsenal’s title push—despite the banter from rivals.

https://www.cannonstats.com/p/saka-and-the-30k-minute-cliffOn the Saka minutes, https://www.cannonstats.com/p/saka-and-the-30k-minute-cliff

He’s been among the highest played players at each age, but he’s also been among the best players, and the best players play a lot.

What this might mean is that given that the general trend is that players have about 30-35k peak league minutes in them that we are at about the halfway point with Saka.

There are exceptions to this and we can hope that Saka is that but this is where things are at for right now.

Below here are the main quotes from Arteta on injuries that we mentioned on the podcast.

Areta on predicting injuries:

“There is a lot of randomness in an injury that we don’t know,” said Arteta. “Sometimes I’ve been with a player that I wanted to put the finger into something that it was very clear.

“And then I realised three months later that he had a problem with his wife or he didn’t sleep or his kid [didn’t sleep] for three days, and then he got injured, and I say: ‘I’ve been scratching my head for one month trying to do that, and then I found out that this was the real reason’.

“There are a lot of factors we’re trying to control, dominate and be aware of what we can predict. But unfortunately, this is sport, football and life, and it’s not that easy.

Arteta on preventing injuries:

“There is a push when people are trying to accelerate. So to replicate that in training, especially when a player is playing every three days, is very, very difficult.

“The thing is that you have to replicate all the previous actions. You have to replicate the motion, the stress level, your cortisol level, your mental state, the results.

“It’s about replicating the context. I can replicate to go and say I predict that these shares are going to go up three per cent. That’s great. But would you put the money in real or would you go online and do it? It’s very different.”

“For example, when Gabi Magalhaes gets injured, a lot of people say he comes from Brazil and does that,” said Arteta.

“But Gabi had to chase 50 metres backwards chasing against Adama Traore. If, instead of Adama Traore, that was Emile Smith Rowe, with all respect, probably he doesn’t pull his hamstring.

Love the pod? Subscribe on your fave platform, rate/review, and join the Discord for debates. Feedback? Reply to our newsletter or hit us on social media.

Yeehaw!





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Saka and the 30k Minute Cliff?

The Cannon Stats podcast is back and the mood in Arsenal land is positive with Arsenal closing the gap on Liverpool while slaying two bogey teams in the process. Things are looking up for Arsenal, while they are looking down for Liverpool who are hitting their first patch of adversity under Arne Slot.

Adam and Scott are together here talking about the standout performances from Arsenal’s matches against Newcastle and Olympiacos. There is a lot of good overlap and positives to take from both games.

The second part of the episode looks ahead to what might be the softest part of Arsenal’s schedule all season after they made it through the rough opening set of fixtures.

Arsenal’s Next five is West Ham (H), Fulham (A), Crystal Palace (H), Burnley (A), and Sunderland (A) before the November international break. There are no easy matches in the Premier League, but this might be the least challenging overall.

This is also a chance to pick up points on what Arsenal did last season, where they managed just 8 points from these five, losing twice and drawing one.

What makes this especially tantalizing is that this “easy” run corresponds with Liverpool and Manchester City looking at some challenging fixtures.

The next five matches are shaping up as a major opportunity for Arsenal to potentially take the lead in the Premier League, and if things break right, maybe even open up a bit of a gap.

That all starts this weekend with Arsenal hosting West Ham and their new manager.

If you enjoy this episode, please give us a rating and a review as it is always something that helps more people be able to find our show.



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The Next Five: Arsenal's Chance to Pull Clear?

Thoughts and analysis on Arsenal and the football (soccer) world at large.

www.cannonstats.com [https://www.cannonstats.com?utm_medium=podcast]

Scott Willis

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