- Will Arsenal win the league this season? Here are the facts and figures
- How one team has attempted to manipulate the spending rules this season
- There’s an index to many of our recent posts on the home page.
By Tony Attwood
Of course I’m going to start with the table – and go all the way to White Hart Lane – a place that the media predicted would be riding high at this moment… See for example Tottenham can finish above Liverpool and Arsenal in Premier League this season published by Sky Sports on 15 January this year.
And to be fair Tottenham have got a game in hand and if they win that they could rise up to …. eight points behind Arsenal.
Besides it is not just top of the league in number of points is it? It is top on goals scored, top on lack of goals conceded, and seven clear in the goal difference table (26 above Tottenham). Is that crowing? I hope so. It is about time for some.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 28 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 70 | 24 | 46 | 64 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 28 | 19 | 7 | 2 | 65 | 26 | 39 | 64 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 28 | 19 | 6 | 3 | 63 | 28 | 35 | 63 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 28 | 17 | 4 | 7 | 59 | 41 | 18 | 55 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 27 | 16 | 5 | 6 | 59 | 39 | 20 | 53 |
The media of course will have none of it. The Guarian says, for exmaple, “This could easily have been West Ham last season revisited. How many times have we seen this? Arsenal, desperately seeking a goal, becoming increasingly ragged as the Emirates crowd become increasingly furious.,,,”
Well not where I was sitting. I have thought for some time the group of fans that sit in front of the press box get up to all sorts of tricks just to put the journos off. But mostly I suspect in the press box they were furious that what they hoped would be “Arsenal blow it at the last” wasn’t turning out to be true, and the realisation was, well, realised, that Arsenal could win, and horror of horrors, if Manchester City and Liverpool obliged Arsenal could be top of the league. How do you negativise that one?
But there is a twist in the Guardian – the blaming of journalists which is new – and indeed thoroughly welcome. “When Arsenal beat Aston Villa and Bournemouth with late goals it was portrayed as evidence of their character, almost of some sort of destiny – just as Liverpool’s emotionally exhausting wins have been this season – when in fact it was evidence of the fallibility that was later exposed.” It’s nonsense of course but at least the admission that the newspaper was printing rubbish.
The Telegraph however tries a different line. “Arsenal go top after late Havertz header – but should he have been sent off.” That’s the old game – yes Arsenal cheated their way (because blaming the referee for a cock up is not allowed, so it must be Arsenal cheated and the ref was conned). Of course eight consecutive wins is nowhere near a record, but for a club that was having calls for managerial replacement at the time of Manchester City v Arsenal last season, it is an interesting contrast.
So we throw the newspapers in the recylcing bin and would love to throw the football journalists in there too but apparently you can’t recycle journalists. So instead let us consider Porto.
They still sit third in a league that runs as predicted, because there really are only three major players in it. But it is worth separating out the home and away results this time
They are of course doing well against modest opposition and they are, we should notice, doing almost as well away from home at home. But we should also remember Arsenal did come up against the most outrageous refereeing that we have seen all season in the last game.
Arsenal had 64.8% of possession in that game, and yet were alleged by the referee to have committed 22 fouls. Yet in the average Premier League match Arsenal commit 9.5 fouls. The only team committing fewer is Manchester City with 8.5. So allegedly the team decided on this occasion to more than double its fouling rate In fact it went up by 132%.
A repeat of such a refereeing performance could scupper Arsenal – and the media won’t mention this, just as they didn’t mention it last time around because they want a defeat of Arsenal to be Arsenal’s fault.
Since beating Arsenal 1-0 (and yes it was only 1-0 despite all the help the referee gave them) Porto have played four games, winning three and drawing one. The most extraordinary of those games was on the 3rd of this month in which they beat second in the table Benfica 5-0, although Benfica did play the last half hour with only ten men.
The club however is still third in the league – but it is a measure of the imbalance in the Portuguese league that only one third of the clubs in the league have a positive goal difference. Here’s the top of the table. More anon….
| Home | Away | Total | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | D | L | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
| 1 | Sporting Lisbon | 12 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 69 | 24 | +45 | 62 |
| 2 | Benfica | 11 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 59 | 21 | +38 | 61 |
| 3 | FC Porto | 9 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 46 | 17 | +29 | 55 |
Today in football history: When the author of Sherlock Holmes tried to stop all football in England.
You must have been a naughty child. You seem to distort almost everything you read and think everything is an attack. There has been universal positive coverage for Arsenal over the past 2 months. Too gushing, in my opinion, because we have played only a couple of decent teams – Lpool and Newcastle. Yet the press has been reporting on the records they set, the beautiful football they are playing, the strategy of winning without a recognised striker, etc. It has been almost universally positive.
Most people still think City will win. That isnt a criticism of the press it is a reflection of reality over most of the past 7/8 years: its based on fact that City have a habit of coming good in the last part of the season.
Last year Arsenal faded and it is perfectly reasonable to say that they did. Call it bottling it, call it due to injuries, whatever the cause, Arsenal faded poorly. Of course the press is looking to see if they will do the same…hardly unreasonable that they do, in fact it would be remiss if they didnt.
Saying something not universally positive about Arsenal is perfectly reasonable – it isnt bias as you think everything is. It is a shame you cant write a paragraph without having to revert to attacking the press because some of the analysis you do is interesting – but spoiled when you break out into attacks.
Even people in the press are entitlted to their opinions. In the main, I dont doubt that they are honestly held. No doubt they are as wrong as often as they are right – just as everyone else is.
I hope I dont have to live in your Trumpian world where everything is an attack on you and no one is allowed to give an opinion. Astonishingly, Trump will probably be back in next time. You might consider moving there so that you can live with the like-minded millions who think the election was stolen, we are descended from aliens, the US is hiding the presence of aliens and the world is flat.
Or you could just forward your posts to Truth Central…
My friend Andrew, would be cooler if you were an Arsenal fan! Untold is completely correct in its assumptions, media is filled with anti arsenal bias. And most refs are from the North. Arsenal got dealt a Liverpool ref last time out and he almost did his job stopping arsenal from playing. Under 50 min of footie was played vs Brentford. Under 50!!!! Its a fucking disgrace. So, your uninformed opinion Andrew, is absolutely worthless. Have a great day buddy 😄
I watched the Benfica game, Tony, and … Porto played really well, the 5-goal-gap was utterly deserved (as were Otamendi’s marching orders!!).
My TV subscription gives me access to Portugal Liga games, so since the round of 16 draw took place, I’ve tried to watch them as often as I could and, truth be told, they have improved dramatically, lately. I have a feeling their unexpected, referee-backed win against us, has been the cherry on the cake, the spark that’s ignited the flame of their confidence once and for all.
Conceiçao has changed their setup, they used to play with two target CFs, Evanilson (the subtle one) and Taremi (the brutal one), which worked against Portugal’s weaker teams, but was inefficient against the stronger ones (they were no match for Sporting last December). Since then, Taremi has been benched, and Evanilson has become a Laca-kind-of-player, excellent at making others shine, which is exactly what Galeno on the left (he scored another wonderful curler last Friday at Portimonense), Pepê behind him have been doing. But from what I’ve seen so far, the one player who has benefited most from the setup change is their diminutive, left-footed RW … Conceiçao (his coach’s namesake). He’s fast, inspired, creative, relentless, as gifted technically as the very best Portuguese players – which says a lot. He’ll be a hell of a challenge for our left flank, whether it is taken care of by Kiwior, or Zinchenko.
When you see them play at this level, it’s hard not to think that we might have to score three to make it to the next round; if our boys at the back keep a clean sheet so that we need only two, it’ll speak volumes about the level they’ve reached, anyway.
It should be a real CL night, one to remember. I envy all those of you who’ll be right behind the lads inside the stadium, I haven’t felt such excitement before a game in a long, long time (but I’m much more of a “Cup” guy, than a “League” guy tbh).
COYG
“This could easily have been West Ham last season revisited. How many times have we seen this? Arsenal, desperately seeking a goal, becoming increasingly ragged as the Emirates crowd become increasingly furious.,,,”
Really? ‘Desperate’? ‘Increasingly ragged’?
Given the fact we have scored the 2nd most 90th minute plus winners in premier league history suggests desperate and ragged are the last things we are.
Don’t you think Never say die? Ruthless? Composed? would better describe how we end games? But hey, why let a few facts get in the way of a bit of Arsenal bashing.
As for the myopic Mr Banks.
Addressing just one point to show how YOU twist what the media say:
You try to claim ‘universal’ positivity from the media, and suggest Tony, perhaps WE, exaggerate their negativity, and to support this you say:
“Last year Arsenal faded and it is perfectly reasonable to say that they did”.
But the point is they didn’t say we FADED did they? If they did that would of been a reasonable thing to say, but they didn’t. What they in fact did UNIVERSALLY claim was that we ‘BOTTLED’ it. Not only that but ‘LIKE WE USUALLY’ do
Take this article from The Sun
‘BOTTLE FLOPS Arsenal branded ‘bottle job champions of world’ as horror stat shows time spent at top of the league before blowing it.
So ‘Bottling it’ and Blowing it’ in oneheadline.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/22358802/arsenal-stat-time-top-of-league-man-city-liverpool/
The notion put around was that we were at least 10 points clear at one stage, which is rubbish. The furthest we ever lead on level games played was 5 points with a trip to the Etihad to come.
If you wasn’t so deluded you would see that those notions, that we endlessly ‘bottle it’ or ‘blow it’ and will do again this season, have been everywhere.
‘Bottled it’ and ‘Blew it’ last year, is endlessly repeated in the media.
Just google Arsenal ‘Bottle it’ and you can spend all day reading about it if you like.
Yes there are some arguments that we didn’t ‘bottle it’, but that’s not the point, it’s the fact that the main stream medias narrative is that we did.
I will state here and now that if we lose at City ‘Bottle it’ will be all over the main stream media yet again, despite the fact losing at City is a fate that can befall the best of teams.
Anyway, you stick to your idea that the media love Arsenal and I’ll continue to wonder about your sanity.
@Andrew Banks,
I don’t know about universal positive coverage…. pretty much every piece I’ve read had a negative angle or nugget….like the famous one where fans in Fantasy League were furious at Arteta… I mean, how more stupid can you get.
That being said, the US reporting on Arsenal has nothing to do with the crap in the british press. So maybe you are not reading the same so-called press.
The british press at large has never been an Arsenal positive one. Go back to Untold posts over the years and you cannot deny it, examples abound.
And yes, we are top of the league, and why can we not rub it in some after all the negativity.
@Andrew Banks,
just as an example. The Athletic, which is rather ok, but can’t resist a dig at Arsenal, had this piece on this week-end :
Liverpool vs Manchester City : Is this a title decider ?
I mean, yeah…. was published sunday so when Arsenal were on top.
So the whole introduction does not mention Arsenal… WTF !
The guys giving their opinion are much more measured, I’d say each pretty much say no, there is still Arsenal.
But the headline is just totally out of reality.
So is this a ‘criticism’ of Arsenal ? No. Is this a way to manipulate reality and show bias ? Sure is.
A fair title would have been :
No title decider today in PL 3 horse race as City face Liverpool at Anfield.
Andrew Banks
You don’t come here much if you think Tony Attwood is Trumpian. Time for your boot heels to be wanderin’.
Andrew Banks I take the deepest offense at your comparison of a decent man like Tony to that vile character. If i had the time I would look for the web addresses of some Tottenham blogs for you. But I don’t, so I won’t. In the meantime I would suggest you go fly a large kite at the edge of the Grand Canyon.
Reminds me of the time when morons used to come on here and try and take the piss at everything positive about the club , and we would wade in and give them hell !
Now we being older , wiser , and with quite a few cups under our belts , we just only snort , and think , ” What an ars*hole !” And we laugh at them !
Hope we get the job done at home . Am hoping for a clean sheet too !
Up the Gunners !
Actually I have been an Arsenal fan since the 1971 FA Cup final. I live too far away to attend many games but I go when I can. I am sure I am every much a fan as you all are.
I am clearly not as sensitive to criticism as you all seem to be,
The relentless focus on the tiniest criticism from the press is ridiculous. For goodness sake, get over it. It’s embarrassing!