By Tony Attwood
The league table according to goals scored is a funny little thing especially as it shows Bournemouth above Man U
| Pos | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pt | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | 35 | 27 | 3 | 5 | 75 | 29 | +46 | 84 | |
| 2 | Liverpool | 36 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 71 | 42 | +29 | 70 | |
| 3 | Tottenham Hotspur | 34 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 70 | 23 | +47 | 74 | |
| 4 | Manchester City | 34 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 70 | 37 | +33 | 68 | |
| 5 | Arsenal | 33 | 18 | 6 | 9 | 65 | 42 | +23 | 60 | |
| 6 | Everton | 36 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 60 | 41 | +19 | 58 | |
| 7 | Bournemouth | 36 | 11 | 9 | 16 | 52 | 65 | -13 | 42 | |
| 8 | Manchester United | 34 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 51 | 27 | +24 | 64 |
Of course goals scored isn’t a trophy, and I know there are still many people around who worship George Graham’s management spell, even though towards the end he made us the lowest scoring and lowest conceding team at the same time which meant those of us at Highbury at the time, actually didn’t see many goals. Yes we won stuff, but goodness me we didn’t get out of our seats very often.
Here’s another funny little thing: the league table according to goals scored at home…
| Home | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Teams in order of goals at home | W | D | L | F | A | |
| 1 | Chelsea | 15 | 0 | 2 | 46 | 13 | |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 16 | 2 | 0 | 45 | 8 | |
| 3 | Liverpool | 11 | 5 | 2 | 42 | 18 | |
| 4 | Everton | 12 | 4 | 2 | 41 | 16 | |
| 5 | Arsenal | 11 | 3 | 2 | 33 | 15 | |
| 6 | Bournemouth | 8 | 4 | 6 | 33 | 28 | |
| 7 | Manchester City | 9 | 6 | 1 | 32 | 15 | |
| 8 | Leicester City | 10 | 3 | 4 | 29 | 18 | |
| 9 | West Bromwich Albion | 9 | 2 | 7 | 27 | 21 | |
| 10 | Hull City | 8 | 4 | 6 | 27 | 28 | |
| 11 | Burnley | 10 | 3 | 5 | 25 | 18 | |
| 12 | Watford | 8 | 4 | 6 | 25 | 24 | |
| 13 | Swansea City | 7 | 3 | 8 | 25 | 33 | |
| 14 | Manchester United | 7 | 10 | 1 | 24 | 12 | |
Seeing Man U in 14th under the wonderful Mourinho, made me wonder. I mean, Manchester United have the best centre forward in the universe (I know that because I heard Zlatan Ibrahimovic say so in relation to his 17 goals) and it is interesting (following from our earlier discussion) that Ibrahimovic is the only Man U player who has reached double figures in terms of goal scoring.
What made it even more interesting (to me if to no one else) was that while we have heard a lot about what Arsenal have not done this season (and I agree beating Man U is not a trophy, or even a scalp) it turns out Man U have not scored a single goal away from home against any of the other top six teams this season.
On the other hand a lot has been made of their 25 game unbeaten run (was that a record for Man U – I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention at the time), and no one bothered to mention that this was fractionally over half of Arsenal’s famous 49.
I wonder what the media and the aaa would say about Arsenal if we had spent the money they have last summer, and yet only scored the number of goals they have scored. I mean, it is one thing not to entertain, and Mourinho does that rather well, but not to entertain and not get the results one might get, isn’t very good. Or is it? Maybe the Europa League is a trophy after all. (And is the Guardian running a piece saying “Man U have only one player who has scored in double figures”? If so I must have missed it).
I wonder what the media and the aaa would be saying if we had set up a world record transfer and then found the arch criminals or Fifa are investigating because the Pogba agent fellow is said to have made £41 million out of the deal to be paid during the course of the contract.
That at least is the claim in Football Leaks: The Dirty Business of Football, by Rafael Buschmann and Michael Wulzinger. Oh and what would people think of him earning £8.6m a year plus a £3,4m a year loyalty bonus after the first year?
Now quoting spokesbeings from Fifa after I spent this morning denigrating the whole lot of them might seem a bit silly, and it is, but even so, I think it is interesting to note that they said, “We can confirm that Fifa/Transfer Matching System has requested additional information on transfer from what is already available in TMS.”
A United spokesman said: “We don’t comment on contracts.”
The German book also declares Zlatan Ibrahimovic to be the highest-paid player in the Premier League on £367,640 a week, totalling just over £19m a year, and the author also claims he is due £2.86m in goal bonuses.
The whole fandango resulted in a funny spat between the chairman of Accrington Stanley (who sadly is not called Stanley Accrington) and the Premier League. The chair of ACFC told the Premier League to wake up. The PL then tweeted that they were writing back to the chair of AC thus:
“We will be writing to Mr Holt to ask him if he wishes for the Premier League to continue the support we currently provide for his and other clubs in the EFL.”
Oooooooooooooh. (You have to say that with your voice going up a bit in the middle and then back down).
Anyway, as you will know if you read this morning’s piece about Fifa, the announcement of Fifa’s Pogba investigation came just at the same time as it sacked its ethics committee, leaving a little cabal picking up vast levels of dosh for turning up to meetings where nothing much is done, because no one is scrutinising them. And they are going to investigate Man U. What fun!
It just all seems to go round and round.
Every game on TV; Arsenal have three players scoring 10+; and the fight against football journalism
We surely would have appreciated Conte.
We sure would have appreciated a comment on topic
I’d prefer Mourinho. They haven’t been great, but there’s a reasonable chance that they finish with two minor trophies, and I look at their squad and direction and see more reason to believe that they could contend next season than I do with ours.
Sadly, there’s little reason at this point to believe that Arsenal will be any better this coming season than they were in any of the last 11.
No mention of any fouling by marianne felli-elbow in the Europa game, either before the goal or to a few minutes after.
scuba
if wenger finished sixth,played a 2nd string side in the league,you elder be screaming wenger out.
I guess u’re a WOB
Sadly, there’s little reason at this point to believe that PGMOL will be any better this coming season than they were in any of the last 11.
Tony
The point you are really making is that clubs can spend a bundle of cash and still get nowhere, whereas Arsenal have not spent bundles and as far as I`m concerned have been far more successful that most clubs
Twenty years and always in the top 4, most clubs would give their right hand(if clubs had hands) to finish in the top half of the table
Some 16 years ago, Leeds were in the semi final of the then Champions league/European Cup, where are they now ?
They overspent trying to buy success and had to sell their stars to survive. Some of our more “delicate” fans are always shouting out “spend some f**king money”
Spending money as Man U are finding doesn`t always buy success and Guardiola having spent a bundle is not setting the Premiership on fire.
I guarantee though, we will still be hearing the same old chants of spending money, no matter what our results
There is no better manager than Wenger. He has got the whole club right. It is profitable, growing, cultured & consistent. This club is the only club in the world that can be sure of success for the next 10 years. Further than that is a matter of good appointment & consistent quality. Wenger has set the club on this path.
It is easier to destroy than to create. Buying success is not so difficult. Maintaining quality without continuous investment needs external wealth funding the club. Once that external funding ceases, the club begins to die.
Arsenal is set up by an economics master. It has a football system that is proven.
It is the envy of most other clubs & the media are totally jealous that Wenger has done it against all their attempts at sabotage.
I know Wenger has been criticised this season but would you really have preferred Mourinho?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !
‘ Life begins with our cry .And life ends with others’ cries.
Fill this gap with as much laughs as possible .’
Thanks for the laugh , Tony !
You were joking weren’t you ?
Truthfully?
I think Moan truely wanted the Arsenal job and was waiting around for AW to retire, and when he did not, he took the ManU job. 🙂
@ para – 12/05/2017 at 4:58 am – Ir such a scenario had come to pass , I think that he would have broken Brian Clough’s 44 day record at Leeds Utd !
Am sure that our lot would have out-moaned him into resigning !
Tony,
NOOO I would not want the moaning one in AFC. Hei is the opposite of all AW is. AW has built and sustained AFC in a manner the moaning one would never feel comfortable with. Would he create value that the shareholders of AFC appreciated in the manner AW did? AFC would be a shadow of its former self in the hands of the man you named, an unrecognizable ‘animal’. NO thank you.
Money doesn’t guarantee success and never has, it’s the managers and infrastructures ability to adapt and self-renew in these modern football times, whether you agree with the way modern football works or not, you must keep up.
Arsenal’s decline in player quality and the rest has been very subtle and gradual, hardly noticeable, but the more eagle-eyed supporter could see it when Almunia and Denilson were first incorporated into team. Now the decline seems to be gathering pace, it’s not about now, it’s about if we continue current path we will become a mid-table team with lots of money with no players wanting to come to us.
Whether you like it or not change is coming, Wenger is getting older and more demented by the day, and when the new manager arrives I just hope you get behind him like you have with le fraud.
A colleague at work that supports Man Utd, thought Mourinho is a joke with the quote that the semi final was the biggest in the club’s history.
I NEVER prefer Mourinho at Arsenal no matter the circumstance.
The only times I prefer seeing Mourinho is when his team is struggling (as happened at Chelsea) and his ever-adoring media “friends” are turning the knife.
It looks like I have been “black-listed” again? All my messages are being held-back for moderation.
Even a nice simple message I have just posted in support of Arsenal (and against Mourinho) has been held back to be moderated.
And even this very posting which you can see has nothing controversial is being “sent into purgatory” for assessment of worthiness. LOL
As a frequent contributor I would have thought “our” algorithms on Untold would know me by now. I don’t swear. I support Arsenal. I love Wenger (but I don’t think he is infallible). I respect other contributors. I suggest ways in which our beloved club could get back to the high levels we used to occupy about 15 years ago.
Mr Moderator is this the profile of a person that needs to be consistently “watched” by our site’s KGB or MI5 or CIA? LOL.
And on a different subject … Let’s hope Arsenal wins against Stoke on Saturday.
Stoke City and their nasty captain (Ryan Shawcross) as well as their low-life fans who sing horrible songs about Aaron Ramsey’s broken leg deserve to be silenced by a good Arsenal performance this weekend.
Mourinho to Arsenal? I don’t think this has ever been an issue, and if it ever was would not be acceptable to the majority of the fanbase such is the hatred for him.
It’s not just the dull football and millions of pounds overspent. He’s just an unpleasant, charisma free prat. Nobody likes him.
Zuruvi, you have not been put in moderation. The system we use has a lot of automatic steps in it, and that can mean things go wrong some times. If you want to know a bit more about it see the page on Comments. I have adjusted the system today and that should stop this happening but if it does not please write to me at Tony@schools.co.uk and remind me of your email address and IP address.
Tony
nice piece again. van Gaal did the same: a lot of draws, even winning the FA, he got replaced by Boringho, who does Exactly the same! only for a few 100 million pounds more! haha. if he doesnt step up next season he s toast.
JoeP….what a sad guy you must be,neither glass half empty nor glass half full but rather,without a glass and anything to fill one with, if you had one!
Show us factual proof of your whining, spurious claims and maybe we’ll actually care about your opinions, but until then keep looking for that invisible glass.
Thanks Tony. I will ping you an email.