Hmmm, this has gotten a bit messy hasn’t it.
For clarity...
1). Everyone agrees that Arsenal defenders are poor FPL picks. Nobody is contesting this. Case closed.
2). There is some discussion as to whether Arsenal are an average difficulty fixture for an attacking FPL player or an easy fixture for an attacking FPL player.
Looking at understat they data suggests that Arsenal give away lots of shots but that these shots are low xG.
xGA/shot from open play is just 0.08 this is quite low, similar to corners and set pieces.
For comparison the teams with truly poor defence give away a similar number of shots as Arsenal but the shots those teams concede are 0.13 - 0.17 xGA/shot in open play.
Arsenal’s defensive style is to give their opponents space to shoot but to make it difficult to penetrate their box. The data suggests Arsenal defend quite deep.
Sheff Utd have slightly better xGA than Arsenal but their defensive style is very different. They give away far fewer shots against in open play at 8/90 to Arsenal’s 10.8/90 but the shots Sheff Utd concede average 0.14xGA (compared to Arsenal’s 0.08).
The data suggests Sheff Utd defend higher and disrupt attacking play to cut out shots rather than Arsenal’s approach of allowing attackers to shoot from low danger positions.
Also Arsenal have conceded 4 penalties in 10 games.
