Arsenal v Bayern: Just what has H Kane been up to this season?

Posted on by Tony Attwood

 

By Bulldog Drummond

Ten wins in 11 games and four goals conceded since 1 January.  It doesn’t get better than that – at least not in the Premier League.   

And in the past that is something we might have written about the German League too, in terms of Bayern Munich who have won the last 11 German League championships in a row (which does make things rather predictable).

Except they are not going to win it this time as the table below clearly shows…

 

German Bundesliga 2023/24
Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Bayer Leverkusen 28 24 4 0 69 19 50 76
2 Bayern Munich 28 19 3 6 80 36 44 60
3 Stuttgart 28 19 3 6 64 34 30 60
4 RB Leipzig 28 16 5 7 64 33 31 53

 

Bayern Leverkusen have never won the Bundesliga but as we can see they are currently 16 points ahead with just six games to go – and are thus far undefeated.

So to get a grip of the depth of the Bayern Munich fall from grace let’s take a look at their last ten games: five defeats, four wins and a draw.

The one odd result in the list below is that 8-1 bashing of FSV Mainz who are third from bottom in the league at the moment – which is the play off place for possible relegation.  Kane got a hat trick in that match.

Now I don’t watch German football so I can’t give you the details – the one report I have seen just treats the game as Bayern Munich overrunning the opposition, but doesn’t really explain how they did that, nor why their results are seemingly so erratic – or at least why this result seemed out of line with others of late….

 

Date Home team Away team Score Res
10 Feb Bayer Leverkusen Bayern Munich 3-0 L
14 Fenb Lazio Bayern Muinich 1-0 L
18 Feb Bochum Bayern Munich 3-2 L
24 Feb Baryern Munich Rasen Ballsport 2-1 W
1 March Freiburg Bayern Munich 2-2 D
5 March Bayern Munich Lazio 3-0 W
9 March Bayern Munich FSV Mainz 8-1 W
16 March Darmstadt Bayern Munich 2-5 W
30 March Bayern Minich Borussia D’und 0-2 L
6 April FC Heidenheim Bayern Munich 3-2 L

But we do have the league table to give a sense of perspective, for looking at this on its own the notion has to be that Bayern have simply become a normal club, rather than a club that wins the league year after year after year after… well you get the idea.

 

Bundesliga 2023/24
Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Bayer Leverkusen 28 24 4 0 69 19 50 76
2 Bayern Munich 28 19 3 6 80 36 44 60
3 Stuttgart 28 19 3 6 64 34 30 60
4 RB Leipzig 28 16 5 7 64 33 31 53

As for their latest game, Sky reported that  Heidenheim stunned “Bayern Munich despite Harry Kane opener; Heidenheim are the first newly promoted club in Bundesliga history to beat Bayern after coming from two down.”

So we might conclude that this is not the Bayern of the past, but equally, they are not a hopeless bunch of turnips, nor any other vegetable in fact, but rather they are quite good but profoundly erratic.

Thus we might compare Bayern and Arsenal in their respective leagues…  The first two rows show the situation now for the two clubs, but to aid comparisons we have added a third row which shows Arsenal’s situation after 28 games, the number of games Bayern Munich have placed thus far.

.

German Bundesliga 2023/24
Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Arsenal 31 22 5 4 75 24 51 71
2 Bayern Munich 28 19 3 6 80 36 44 60
1 Arsenal 28 20 4 4 70 24 46 64

This suggests we might care to be cautious in our optimism.  For after 28 games Arsenal had actually scored fewer goals than Bayern Munich in the German League, although the Arsenal defence was much better than the Bayern defence, giving Arsenal a two goal better GD at that point.

Overall Arsenal, at the 28 game marker had just four more points than Bayern.

And this really makes the main point.  Bayern’s results in the German league this season are nothing like that which they have so easily achieved before, but they are still a force to be reckoned with.

As for goalscoring, Kane is the top scorer in the league with 32 goals.   Last season for Tottenham he scored 30.   It is just that whoever he plays for, they don’t win the league.  Odd that.

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4 Replies to “Arsenal v Bayern: Just what has H Kane been up to this season?”

  1. Its not unheard of for Bayern to lose the league. When Klopp managed Dortmund he won the league twice. What happens then though is Bayern buy your best players, in Dortmund’s case Lewandowski. So they always get back to the top. Kane is doing his job, the rest of Bayern’s squad ? not so much.

  2. Bayern have let it be known that Tuchel will leave this summer – was a few weeks ago. Since then, their play has become more erratic.
    They hired a knew sporting manager or whatever position you’d call the equivalent of Edu I guess.
    The players on the field are all very capable. In fact, saturday against Heidenheim, there were 11 internationals.
    Yet, once Heidenheim got their first goal in, all damns broke lose. Worse then the Pool! almost meltdown yesterday.
    What is being said, and from the games I’ve seen I’d agree, is that they are lacking one or several bosses in the team. The players who can really lead and direct on the field. The ‘characters’ like Effenberg, Schweinsteiger, Matthäus of previous decades.

    So, on a player talent basis, they are dangerous and a force to contend with. On a team basis, they are prone to meltdowns…kind of like Arsena used to and have not been experiencing very often this season.

    In the end I’m rather optimistic about our chances, but each game has to be played. arsenal need to score more then one goal, that is for sure.

  3. I’m pleased you’ve done this because given how things have been going it is very easy to get carried away.

    Yes, we are a very good side and we have been on a phenomenal run, especially since the New Year, but we do have to temper that with the fact that as good as that run has been, arguably we would of expected to of won every game we did, and the one we wouldn’t, we didn’t.

    Okay, we may of beaten Newcastle and Liverpool with a style and comfort a bit beyond what we may of expected, but if we are to be seen as ‘title contenders’ we have to be winning those matches.

    Now the real tests begin. Matches we need to win but would normally take a draw. Spurs and United away being the prime examples.

    But what of Bayern? Well, first and foremost they are, as you say, still a good team, a very good team, and are 2nd in a very tough top European League. Secondly they have Kane. Without question he is still a top top finisher. Over the years he has also been a right pain in our backside. He loves scoring against us. Thirdly they have nothing else left to play for. These couple of matches against us are their season.

    The bottom line is, we take Bayern lightly at our peril.

    Personally, I hope and believe that over the 2 legs we will just prevail, but have no doubts, it will be very tough.

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