By Bulldog Drummond
- Manchester City v Arsenal: how the mighty have utterly collapsed
- Manchester City v Arsenal and the question of blips and extremes
- Manchester City v Arsenal: the home v away scores
- Manchester City against Arsenal: the home team ref v Arsenal
The BBC have done their normal match preview and come up with some rather interesting pointers which have tended to get a bit lost in all the “it’s an obvious Man City win” commentaries doing the rounds. These include noting that Arsenal are on a 10-match unbeaten league run, and that the team has won 11 out of 16 Premier League away fixtures.
They don’t say it, but perhaps we should add on their behalf, that Arsenal are top of the away league in the Premier League, and that even if Manchester City win their away game in hand Arsenal will still be top of the away league.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 16 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 32 | 13 | 19 | 36 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 28 | 13 | 15 | 30 |
| 3 | Newcastle United | 16 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 27 |
| 4 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 29 | 23 | 6 | 25 |
So what else is offered by the BBC? Arsenal have also scored at least twice in each of the last eight Premier League fixtures – that is a good one, as indeed is their follow-up point that “Arsenal could score and concede multiple goals in four successive top-flight matches for the first time since a run of six between December 1960 to February 1961, which included a 5-4 home win over Manchester City.” (How do they get those? Good programming I suppose.)
Football London offers this lineup from their chief football writer…
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Partey;
Saka, Martinelli;
Jesus.
Arsenal True Fans offers
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Partey Xhaka
Saka, Martinelli;
Jesus.
The Evening Standard is being very perverse and only offering a Manchester City team. Rather weird for a London newspaper. Mind you they always do seem to have a soft spot for Tottenham.
90 Min come in with
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Jorginho, Partey Odegaard
Saka, Martinelli;
Jesus.
Yet another variation crops up in the Independent
Ramsdale;
White, Holding, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Xhaka, Partey;
Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli;
Jesus.
Whatever happens, Arsenal will still have scored at least 16 goals more than in the whole of last season, and already have six points more than the whole of last season – and should be good to pick up a few more in the five games remaining after tonight.
But of course, there will always be comparisons with how Arsenal are doing now with how they were doing at the same point of the season in the very best campaign ever – the 2003/4 unbeaten season. So I thought you might like to know.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal 2003/4 | 32 | 23 | 9 | 0 | 62 | 22 | 40 | 78 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2022/3 | 32 | 23 | 6 | 3 | 77 | 34 | 43 | 75 |
Whatever the result tonight, I think everyone should be really happy to see the club back at a level that was considered by many to be the highlight of the Wenger years.
In match 33 of the unbeaten season the team playing against Leeds United was
Lehmann
Lauren Campbell Toure Clichy
Gilberto Silva Vieira Pires
Bergkamp Henry Wiltord
There were three substitutions. Edu came on for Gilberto Silva, Reyes replaced Dennis Bergkamp and Ray Parlour came on for Robert Pires.
The score was 5-0. Robert Pires scored on six minutes, and then Thierry Henry got four. Something like that would suit me fine this evening.
Bit of a nothing piece. The one thing you can say for sure is Arsenal’s record against City in the premier league is truly awful. I’m not sure how that changes without a change in tactics which seems unlikely to happen. It’s questionable what you take from how well the club are doing compared to last season. Yes its nice to be on an upward curve but if it turns out to be not enough to win the title what lesson do you draw ? Maybe whatever Arsenal do City will always do better, maybe it just takes a bit more tactical awareness. Looking forward to next season there’s also what other clubs do. Perhaps Newcastle’s progress continues and they overtake Arteta, perhaps Ten Haag actually sorts out United. There’s no way of knowing in advance. Its all if, buts and maybes and there’s nothing in the article that makes it any clearer.
I’m sorry it didn’t make it clearer to you Jod but within the context of the previous articles it made it a lot clearer to me. And I would have thought you might have glanced at some of the previous articles since this was your 44th comment to Untold Arsenal.
To the team:
COMPOSURE, COMPOSURE, COMPOSURE
Tony,
Sorry but all my recent posts go into moderation and then disappear. Any remedy? I’d appreciate the advice.
I am checking the CAPTCHA box
Based on the talkSport commentary it sounds like Arsenal got away with one!
Oh oh! MCFC 1 – 0 Arsenal.
If Haaland had his shooting boots on it could have been over at half-time!
VAR Coote doing his usual anti Arsenal job. The only showed one line (the Arsenal defender) but didn’t show the line from the head/shoulder from the City player who scored. The angle they showed also was giving a false image as this gave the impression it was a close call. But the angle from the higher camara showed a clear offside…. but of course we know that VAR never messes up with Arsenal and offsides….
I don’t know why we bother playing City. We could all just stay at home for a nice quiet evening doing something calming rather than have to watch a bunch of cheats for 90 minutes.
I’m curious…why did Stones’ goal count?
We have a problem with the site, which arose in the fighting off of the multiple attacks a few weeks ago. All posts from everyone go into moderation, and wait for me to clear. Normally I can do that as things go along but I was out tonight and so they all stacked up for everyone and I am clearing them now. I am sorry but at the moment my IT colleague in the company and myself can’t resolve this.
How about the Haaland handball in the area when he deliberately played the ball with his arm? Is there one rule for Man. City and another for everybody else these days?
seismic
I said that last night. The commentators dismissed it on the basis his arm was by his side, which is fine if you are standing upright in a ‘natural’ stance, but he wasn’t. As we all saw he deliberately lent over to stop the ball, therefore he deliberately stopped the ball with his arm. That is handball. But this is Arsenal, so no discussion at all.
As much as I feel aggrieved that yet again these ‘marginal’ decisions went against us, there is no denying Man City were by far the better team. Whether that was because we just didn’t turn up I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they are just that good, that much better than us?
Whatever, we have nothing to be ashamed of. We have made great strides and have much to look forward to.
Haaland should not be allowed to play with his hair untied. It represehts a hazard to opponents.
Marginal decisions , Diaz was booked for deliberately kicking Ben White , replace Xkaha with Diaz , what do you reckon happens ?r
Nitram,
I watched the game in the States. Immediately halftime the studio commentators showed the Stones’ goal from the correct 90 degree angle with the yellow line and it was clearly offside. They stated VAR missed it and questioned the angle of review and lack of the yellow line. On the Haaland play there was clear, unobstructed view and he leaned into the ball to deflect it. The commentators called it out immediately. The broadcaster is NBC Sports. Was it BT in the GB? Even correcting for VAR it’s still 3-2. And that’s flattering. Disappointing.
I have seen a lot of calls for the hurried introduction of AI-driven automated offside decisions, together with their cartoon-like fictional visualisations. When these become operative, there will be no way to question their authenticity. The game is dying before our eyes. Media apologists try to justify the ongoing destruction of the sport in their desperate attempts to curry favour with their masters. The PlayStation generation, by and large, see nothing wrong with the ongoing decline in front of their eyes, having been anaesthetised by decades of reality TV and video games. Meanwhile, everything is sold to the highest bidder, and fake news will assume its rightful place at the table frequented by the mainstream media.
We will watch nation states’ impossibly expensive pet teams slogging it out on pitches in other countries in the name of sportswashing and reputation-laundering, playing their soulless, branded football in competitions sanctioned by such august organisations as FIFA, UEFA and the FA/Premier League.
goonersince72
Yes it was BT.
There are 2 different issues here.
a) The game:
We can all have our views on that, which is fine.
b) The decisions by the referee and VAR:
Point 1:
“I watched the game in the States. Immediately halftime the studio commentators showed the Stones’ goal from the correct 90 degree angle with the yellow line and it was clearly offside. They stated VAR missed it and questioned the angle of review and lack of the yellow line”
As far as I have heard this has not been questioned at any time. If anyone knows any different then fine.
One has to ask, why is it a country that has football way down it’s list of sporting priorities has the insight to at least question the validity of the VAR display, whilst our mob just accept what they are fed? This is our National sport on display throughout the World and we still display a depth of incompetence that others simply would not tolerate.
Point 2:
“On the Haaland play there was clear, unobstructed view and he leaned into the ball to deflect it. The commentators called it out immediately”.
Yep, I thought that was clear and obvious at the time yet at no time have I heard even the merest suggestion that it should of been hand ball. Not at the time, not since.
Look, I know we were second best and it’s hard to deny that Man City were in no way flattered by the score line, but that is another matter.
The fact is that yet again we have been on the wrong end of some very poor VAR decisions. That’s bad enough, but we’ve got to a point now where nobody even gives a toss anymore.