- Football is about to change if the King’s speech promises become law … or maybe not
- Transfers between linked teams, and the seeming impossibility of reforming PGMO
By Bulldog Drummond
Arsenal play Burnley at 3pm on Saturday. In terms of overall performance so far this season this is not exactly top against bottom, but not far from it… (Data from 11v11)
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Arsenal | 11 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 23 | 9 | 14 | 24 |
| 19 | Burnley | 11 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 27 | -19 | 4 |
As you will expect from the above, there is quite a difference in the home v away records…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Arsenal home | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 6 | 9 | 14 |
| 16 | Burnley away | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 4 |
And given just how poor Burnley have been in terms of results it is not surprise that the last six table shows the same sort of gap. Arsenal have picked up 11 points and Burnley have three (gained from their one win of the season).
Arsenal have a goal difference of +9 in the last six games and Burnley have a GD of -10. They have conceded 14 and Arsenal have scored 14. Arsenal have conceded five and they have scored four.
From all that, we might conclude that a 3-0 win to Arsenal would seem likely, although given the paucity of Burnley’s results that would almost seem disappointing.
The fact is that Burnley have been struggling all season, with victories over just Nottingham Forest in the league cup, Salford City in the same competition, and Luton Town in the league. (Salford, in case you don’t keep up with such things, is the club owned by Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.
Since then for Burnley, it has been rather doom and gloom-like with five straight defeats since October 7, if one includes the league cup defeat to Burnley. In the five games it is 14 goals conceded and two scored. (Salford are currently 13th out of 22 in League Two).
For Burnley however is a pretty enormous contrast between this run and last season from 13 November on to the end of the season (a total of 26 games) in which they had just one defeat 1-2 at home to QPR, and finished off with three straight wins scoring six conceding one.
As for Burnley against the Big Seven it has not been good news for Burnley in the league…
| Date | Match | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug 2023 | Burnley v Manchester City | L | 0-3 |
| 02 Sep 2023 | Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur | L | 2-5 |
| 23 Sep 2023 | Burnley v Manchester United | L | 0-1 |
| 30 Sep 2023 | Newcastle United v Burnley | L | 2-0 |
| 07 Oct 2023 | Burnley v Chelsea | L | 1-4 |
Indeed the last time they beat one of the big seven was a rather amusing occasion back in February last year when Tottenham H were dismissed 1-0 in the league.
However prior to their relegation to the Championship in 2022 they had not been persistent strugglers. finishing 7th in 2017/18 and thus getting into the Europa League the following season, and they did make it to 10th in 2019/20. They have however had little success in either domestic cup in getting beyond the first couple of rounds, in recent years.
Their problem of course is the size of the ground – the average attendance being normally a few hundred over 20,000. However from 1985 to 19912 they were a fourth-tier club, and so since then have been fighting their way back to the championship and occasionally the top division.
And indeed last season was a particular triumph for them as they gained 101 points, 10 points above second place Sheffield United and 21 points above third place Luton Town.
Plus this season, despite their travails, they must be given credit for their approach to fair play – having picked up 13 fewer yellows than Chelsea, and 10 fewer than Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea are currently top with 35 yellows, Burnley have 22 and Arsenal are still bottom with 16 yellow all season – under half the Chelsea score.
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OT
It is noteworthy that in the last 48 hours both Man U and Liverpool have suffered unfavourable results as a result of, what appeared to be, good decisions by VAR. Outcome: moaning by managers which received the wholehearted support of the media, including the BBC. Quite a contrast to the way Arsenal and our manager was repeatedly and intently verbally abused by the same people.
It’s almost as though there’s a bit of a North West bias….in every aspect of football…
Mikey,
North West ? Is the toilet bowl stadium North West of the Emirates ? ;=)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I anticipate a very difficult game for us against Burnley – bus parking (or “low block”), rough-house tactics, the usual PGMOL and an expectant media pack, – all challenges to be faced and overcome.
Their is definitely a “witch hunt” for Arteta by the copy cat toilet paper media. The VAR decisions have been bias towards opposition and will remain so. The FA have still not penalized Man City for the 100 plus breaches in their dodgy financial records. The whole system is corrupted by certain people not being mentioned. The FA are quick to penalize players for breaching gambling rules, but they should really be investigating themselves and VAR. Do they get investigated the same way they investigate players? I think not. It will one day take a teams owner with the balls to take legal action against the people mentioned above, before any changes are made or investigated. If Arsenal were in breach of over 100 rules regarding financial dealings the media would be all over it and they would never let it go to sleep, so why have they not kept on the subject regarding Man City. Arteta has been accused by the copy cat toilet paper media of ranting, yet the Man city boss kicks a bottle into the opposition’s dug out that hits one of them in the face, and the media only mentions this for one day. So bias it’s laughable. Be weary of anti arsenal fans committing on Arsenal websites pretending to be Arsenal fans. You can tell who they are by their Arsenal negative comments
daveg
It’s like when the oil money landed at Chelsea. There is absolutely no way it would of been accepted without a question had it been us.
The cries of ‘Financial doping’ and ‘Cheating’ would of been deafening.
In fact, one of the reasons it was welcomed with such open arms was because it was Arsenal that were the primary sufferers. It arrived just when, financially we were at our most vulnerable having just committed to building the Emirates.
Oh how the media loved it.
PS
Have you seen the Premier league committee, which apparently is an impartial selection of 5 ex referees and players, have unanimously agreed that the Newcastle goal should of stood.
Also they unanimously decided Havertz should of seen red.
They did agree that the off the ball forearm smash on Jorginho was a red, but only by a majority of 3 to 2. In other words 2 voters think off the ball forearm smashes are perfectly ok. Well, when it’s an Arsenal player on the receiving end it is.
I don’t think they even looked at the shove in the back or the throat grab.
They are independent apparently. Of course they are.
Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes Joelinton did push Gabriel in the build-up for Newcastle’s controversial goal against Arsenal, but questions whether it was enough for the VAR to overturn the on-field decision.
–It’s a push. he admits that. That makes it a foul. Look at this picture and tell me in all that’s holy why that is ‘not enough’?
https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/13001905/ref-watch-it-was-a-push-should-newcastles-winner-against-arsenal-have-stood
“The decision to allow it to stand was a clear case of VAR not performing to the standard it should be and failing to advise Attwell on numerous occasions,” Hackett said.
Retired referee Mark Halsey has also reviewed the goal and believes there was a “clear push” from Joelinton on Gabriel.
So the three ex referees that are constantly used to justify or otherwise all things PGMOL/refereeing all agree it was a foul. Only one questions whether it was ‘enough’ for VAR to intervene, the other 2 say it was basically dereliction of duty not to.
I saw a fan poll ran somewhere that had 55% to 45% that it was a foul. Now okay that’s close but lets not forget that over all the number of Arsenal fans to none Arsenal fans that would of been asked would of been massively against Arsenal, so despite all the anti Arsenal noise in the media and on the bloggs, in a ‘private’ vote they actually agree with Arteta.
And this is the big worry, because in reality fans actually know Arteta was right. Tribalism just wont allow them to overtly get on side.
The media actually agree with him. If you are prepared to do research, there is much out there where the media are calling for the ditching of VAR because it is not fit for purpose. But when it’s Arsenal involved all of a sudden it’s okay.
It is an utter farce.
@ Nitram
In fairness, the Premier League committee actually voted 4-1 that the goal should have stood, it wasn’t unanimous……so only 80% of them were biased 😉
Mikey
Silly me 😉
Does anybody remember Bobby Madley? He is the brother of Andy Madley (last week’s VAR). He had to quit PGMOL in a hurry in 2018 (according to PGMOL, it was due to a change in his personal circumstances, although it seems he was making questionable videos). He came back to PGMOL 3 years ago, but now seems to have caused a bit of a stir after sending off Charlie Patino (on loan at Swansea) for two yellow-card offences. Is this more anti-Arsenal bias in operation, or just anti-Swansea? It is quite strange that Kevin Friend (Select Group 2 Referee Manager) has said that neither offence by Patino warranted a yellow-card. This doesn’t help Charlie, who will have to serve a suspension this weekend.
Incompetence is everywhere in the world of refereeing.
I thought “change in personal circumstances” was an interesting truth-avoidance tactic.