Over his three years’ tenure at the club, Pedro Losa managed some good cup results, but had nothing to show in the League with recurring third places.

Here are his final stats:

The League results overall are  P44, W26 D10 L8, GF 92 GA 51, yielding 88 pts.

He averaged 2 points per game broken down into 59% wins, 23% draws and 18% defeats.

During that time, Arsenal scored an average of 2.09 goals scored per game while conceding 1.15 goals.

The win percentage is a bit low for a top team looking to win the League every year in the FA WSL and the defeat percentage is to high.

You would expect a minimum of 70% win and 10% defeat only.

The number of goals scored per game is good, but the number conceded per game is unacceptable for a top team.

Five out of the seven FA WSL winners conceded fewer than one goal per game and a couple were below the 0.333 mark.

If we now have a a look at Pedro Losa’s statistics year by year:

2014

League position: 4th (arrived late in the season) P3, W2 D1 L0, GF10 GA7, 7 pts

Conti Cup runner-up P1 L1, GF0 GA1

The key game was the Conti Cup final. That  defeat was key because it opened the door to Manchester City’s winning mentality. It is well known that the first trophy is the hardest one to win. City were not as strong as they are now and it was a crucial win for them. In terms of League results, Losa had no time to stamp on his identity on the team with the squad already settled.

2015

League position: 3rd  P14,  W8 D3 L3, GF21 GA13, 27 pts

FA Women’s Cup QF P2 W1 L1, GA8 GF2

Conti Cup winners P8 W8, GF 21 GA3

The key moment in the 2015 campaign was the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 as Arsenal went into the break unbeaten. The League restarted a week after the Lioness won bronze and some of the England players came back injured, like Jordan Nobbs, or tired and their form dropped.

The squad was also a bit short at the time with many youngsters thrown at the deep end without much preparation for big games and the needed intensity.

On the plus side, there was an excellent Conti Cup result with a 3-0 win in the final and an early red card for Notts County’s Laura Bassett.

2016

League position 3rd   P16, W10 D2 L4, GF33 GA14. 32 pts

FA Women’s Cup winners P4 W2 D2, GF11 GA3

Conti Cup  SF P3 W2 L1,  GF6 GA4

The key moment in this campaign was matchday 3 as Arsenal lost their second game in a row and the title dream disappeared far too early for club of Arsenal’s stature. There was another cup win with the FA Cup, won at Wembley against Chelsea thanks to a Danielle Carter screamer.

2017 Spring Series

League position 3rd  P8, W5 D3, GF22 GA9, 18 pts

FA Women’s Cup QF P2 W1 L1 GF10 GA

A quality Spring series as the team went unbeaten and the key game was the City 1-0 away win. There was hope that with a stabilised squad and starting 11 the club would get back to its old winning habits. The defensive stability was built upon the pairing of two 18-year-olds at centre-back, Patten and Wubben-Moy, but unfortunately both left to study in the USA last Summer.

The FA Women’s Cup defence ended early. A last 16 10-0 win against Spurs was followed by a poor 1-0 elimination at Birmingham City Ladies through a succession of mistakes, poor finishing and bad coaching, especially on substitutions.

2017/18

League position 6th  P3 W1 D1 L1 GF6 GA8  4 pts

An awful start to the competition sealed Pedro Losa’s fate. A lucky last gasp win against Birmingham City was followed by capitulation away to City and a home draw to Bristol City.

With the team already trailing City and Chelsea by five points, it was no surprise to see the manager dismissed after a messy start and three years of underachieving.

I think it is quite clear that failing to qualify for the Champions League was the manager’s downfall considering the budget, squad strength, depth and facilities development during his three years stint.

The statistics clearly show that the performance level was below expectations for a club like Arsenal Women.