- Dean removed, but referee bias just continues unreported and unabated
- Ticket touting at Arsenal: prices rise to insane levels. So what is going on?
- And today’s Arsenal anniversary: When Tottenham refused a most reasonable Arsenal request
What with it being a public holiday today in England, I thought it might be interesting to pass a bit of time seeing how the Big 7, as we have called them this season, have done when playing games against each other. Data is drawn from 11v11.
And apart from having a spot of spare time I thought it might be interesting simply because no other website or newspaper that I have seen has done this.
It has taken a bit of checking and cross-referencing because this has been done manually, not by computer, but I think we have ironed out the errors. However, if you find one, do be kind in the way you point it out.
So here it is… with two extra columns at the end showing the points per game in this mini-league To take account of the fact that some teams have played two more games than others) and the league position of each club in the actual Premier League table.
Thus the first thing to notice (if you can stop laughing at the position of the mighty Tottenham Hotspur) s that although Manchester City is above Arsenal in the actual league table, Arsenal have played two games fewer than Manchester City. So when we look at the points per game totals, Arsenal are actually top.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | Pts | PPG | Lge pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 19 | 1.9 | 2 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 2.0 | 1 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 1.7 | 8 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 1.4 | 4 |
| 5 | Newcastle United | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 1.3 | 3 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 0.6 | 5 |
| 8 | Chelsea | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0.5 | 11 |
Liverpool are the particular oddity here in that they are third in this mini-league but actually 8th in the league behind the mighty Brighton and Hove Albion, and Aston Villa.
If we have a look at some of their defeats we can see exactly what is going wrong with them…
| Date | Match | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Oct 2022 | Nottingham Forest v Liverpool | L | 1-0 |
| 29 Oct 2022 | Liverpool v Leeds United | L | 1-2 |
| 02 Jan 2023 | Brentford v Liverpool | L | 3-1 |
| 14 Jan 2023 | Brighton and Hove Albion v Liverpool | L | 3-0 |
| 04 Feb 2023 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Liverpool | L | 3-0 |
| 11 Mar 2023 | AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool | L | 1-0 |
There are some fairly amazingly awful scores in that list when we take into account the opposition. I don’t know why that happens, but one member of the gang at this end suggested it was their arrogance – they believe that they can’t possibly lose against Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Wolverhampton, Bournemouth etc and so they don’t try. I’m not saying that this is true but it is certainly an oddity.
But we should also take particular note of Tottenham. They consider themselves (and the media concur) a big club challenging for honours. And while everyone is admitting that Chelsea are in trouble, I can’t recall anyone in the media particularly noting Tottenham’s results against the bigger teams. Yet there they are with just two wins, one draw and six defeats. That is not the record of one big club playing other clubs of equal stature, but rather of a club trying desperately to keep up, and failing to do so.
If we have a look at their actual games we can see that there was something of an upturn in the last two of their games – against Manchester City (a surprise) and Chelsea (less of a surprise).
Tottenham Hotspur
| Date | Match | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Aug 2022 | Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur | D | 2-2 |
| 01 Oct 2022 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | L | 3-1 |
| 19 Oct 2022 | Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur | L | 2-0 |
| 23 Oct 2022 | Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle United | L | 1-2 |
| 06 Nov 2022 | Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool | L | 1-2 |
| 15 Jan 2023 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | L | 0-2 |
| 19 Jan 2023 | Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur | L | 4-2 |
| 05 Feb 2023 | Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City | W | 1-0 |
| 26 Feb 2023 | Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea | W | 2-0 |
The problem for Tottenham however is that although those two final results look promising, their other games have taken on a different perspective. In the game before beating Manchester City Tottenham lost to the mighty Leicester City 4-1 (and that is not a misprint), while after beating Chelsea they lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers. They did manage to beat Nottingham Forest but then could only draw with bottom of the table Southampton and relegation perennials Everton.
Here, because we are an Arsenal site, is the Arsenal list of results
Arsenal
| Date | Match | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04 Sep 2022 | Manchester United v Arsenal | L | 3-1 |
| 01 Oct 2022 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | W | 3-1 |
| 09 Oct 2022 | Arsenal v Liverpool | W | 3-2 |
| 06 Nov 2022 | Chelsea v Arsenal | W | 0-1 |
| 03 Jan 2023 | Arsenal v Newcastle United | D | 0-0 |
| 15 Jan 2023 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | W | 0-2 |
| 22 Jan 2023 | Arsenal v Manchester United | W | 3-2 |
| 15 Feb 2023 | Arsenal v Manchester City | L | 1-3 |
Of course a win against Tottenham still only gets the same number of points as a win against Bournemouth & the Referee, but it is nonetheless interesting to see how each of these major teams is doing against each other, in my view. Have a jolly Easter.
