- Positive injury news for Arsenal ahead Monday’s game with Sheffield United
- Arsenal’s finances stay secure but we can expect more price rises for fans
- From the Arsenal History site: 50 Years ago today Arsenal’s home crowd was just 19,210
By Tony Attwood
On 24 October last year Forbes ran the headline, Can Tottenham Hotspur Really Win The Premier League …
It may seem unlikely and indeed hard to remember, but on 25 October last year, the top of the league table read…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tottenham Hotspur | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 8 | 12 | 23 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 7 | 12 | 21 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 21 |
… and Forbes said “Ange Postecoglou has made the best start of any Premier League manager in history after nine matches. His Tottenham Hotspur team currently sit top of the table after seven wins and two draws and it’s not just the results that have caught the imagination. Indeed, Postecoglou’s side are playing a brand of attacking, entertaining soccer…”
In fact Tottenham then played again before its rivals and on 27 October the table read
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tottenham Hotspur | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 9 | 13 | 26 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 7 | 12 | 21 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 8 | 10 | 21 |
… and Forbes said “Ange Postecoglou has made the best start of any Premier League manager in history after nine matches. His Tottenham Hotspur team currently sit top of the table after seven wins and two draws and it’s not just the results that have caught the imagination. Indeed, Postecoglou’s side are playing a brand of attacking, entertaining soccer..”
Sadly for Forbes, and I guess Tottenham, by 7 December the story had long since been discarded, although I don’t think any of the journos who were pushing the prediction apologised for their over-excitement. The table then read
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 15 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 33 | 14 | 19 | 36 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 15 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 34 | 14 | 20 | 34 |
| 3 | Aston Villa | 15 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 34 | 20 | 14 | 32 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 36 | 17 | 19 | 30 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 15 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 29 | 22 | 7 | 27 |
Tottenham had indeed sunk to fifth having played five more games and got one point. Journalists quickly changed their tune but no apologies were made for their previous over-excitement.
But now, ignoring their blunders of the past there is a new thought that this is Tottenham’s moment once again, although a certain amount of straw clutching may be seen, as the reason for Tottenham’s revival is that (according to the Guardian) “While Tottenham’s rivals are facing a cluttered period of fixtures, Ange Postecoglou’s team only played three times in February, with four lying ahead in March. It should give them the freshness to challenge for a spot in the top four, considering those above them have interest in Europe to fill their midweeks.”
Although to be fair the commentary from the Guardian does admit, in relation to Tottenahm’s manager that, “If the Australian thinks life is tough at the moment, then next season will be unbearable with European football likely.”
And indeed reading that commentary today you might be forgiven for not recalling that Tottenham have in fact won just three of their last seven Premier League games beating Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton – all at home before losing their last home game 1-2 to the mighty Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Indeed for any other team that had won just three games in seven, all of which were at home against what are generally considered the lower-level teams in the Premier League, the talk would have been about a club sinking, but Tottenham are of course different.
Tottenham have in fact conceded 14 goals in their last seven games meaning they have let in 38 goals in the league this season. By way of comparison, that is just two fewer than Wolverhampton Wanderers who are not generally tipped for European glory next season.
Such wonky analyses do of course help to hide the embarrassment that any semi-decent journalist would feel having written up in glowing terms the chances of Tottenham being a top club this season.
Now one of the reasons why the real ups and downs of clubs, and their real potential to rise and fall is so reguarly missed by English newspaper journalists is that the Premier League does not have what the Americans call “Team grade categories” which can be reported on by players in the NFL.
These include the club’s training room, training staff, other coaches, team travel, and indeed club owners (who are graded by players in terms of their perceived willingness to invest in facilities for the team).
Over three-quarters of the active players in the NFL took part in the survey, grading their teams and all the things they do. As a result, we found out that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers divide their players into two groups – the elite group get their own rooms when they stay overnight, the rest have to share a room and “are charged $1,750 per player if they desire their own room.”
The team coaches (that is the men, not the transport) were also graded and these grades made public too, so now Americans know what the players think of the men who are guiding them.
Everything from the provision of food to the training facilities is criticised in the report, and it would be nice to think that an equivalent review in football in the Premier League would reveal fewer concerns, but the fact that these concerns existed in what I believe is America’s most popular sport shows some owners will get away with whatever they can.
