Second goal was a thing of beauty against Saints

HAVE been reading the football press and there have been academic dissections of the way Arsenal are apparently tweaking their play this season.

- By Mike Pejic

I'm not anti-statistics but you can get blinded by numbers and some of the things that are being measured and mentioned just seem like baloney.

Talk about over complicating the game.

Then I saw that second Stoke City goal at Southampton and it was like a thing of simple beauty. The keeper gets it and there's a superb big throw to a front player who can dribble, has pace and takes on the shot when there's the opportunity.

It was thrilling and it almost looked like one pulled from the archives.

A classic attack and the antidote to the 99 risky sideways passes inside your own box that have been so on trend as coaches try to tick data boxes.

I also always bear in mind that the same statistics can be used so differently by different people.

Charlie Hughes worked out in the early 1980s that you've got more chances to score a goal from five passes or less but that, for instance, doesn’t automatically mean that all teams will be successful if they play long ball.

The key is for players to work their brains.

Football is all about decision making. You don’t have to become androids. Use your talent to make the correct decisions at the correct time.