- When it comes to football where do Arsenal go now?
- Which clubs are getting money from the Euros – and the last 100 games
First I want to congratulate Jeremy Corbyn for being re-elected as the MP for Arsenal’s constituency, Islington North. Standing as an Independent he gained over 24,000 votes, compared to the Labour candidate who won 16,000. Mr Corbyn previously hosted in the House of Commons the launch of one of the books on Arsenal’s history which I co-wrote.
But now moving on… we have the case of Leicester City. They have been fighting the League in terms of their breaches of Profitability and Sustainability Rules, Because they have appealed we don’t know how many points they are having deducted, but that deduction will apply this coming season.
The appeal of Leicester has always (to me if no one else) looked rather weird since the essence of it seemed to be (and here I quote the Telegraph) “the Premier League had no jurisdiction to punish the club as the alleged breach occurred in the 2022/23 season, when they were last competing in the top division.”
In reply the Premier League said: “An independent Commission has dismissed a challenge by Leicester City FC that it has no jurisdiction to consider an alleged breach of Profitability and Sustainability Rules.
“In March, the Premier League referred the club to the Independent Commission for the alleged breach. Leicester City subsequently challenged the Commission’s authority to hear the case. The alleged breach relates to the PSRs for Season 2022/23, when the club was a member of the Premier League.”
Of course, if Leicester won their case and had their points deducted last time they were a Premier League club it would make no odds except the record would show them coming bottom rather than 18th. Here’s the table as it was recorded at the time…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Everton | 38 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 34 | 57 | -23 | 36 |
| 18 | Leicester City | 38 | 9 | 7 | 22 | 51 | 68 | -17 | 34 |
| 19 | Leeds United | 38 | 7 | 10 | 21 | 48 | 78 | -30 | 31 |
| 20 | Southampton | 38 | 6 | 7 | 25 | 36 | 73 | -37 | 25 |
As ever in nonsense appeals like this, there is an independent commission to have a look, and they of course said this was all a load of turnips, and so Leicester appealed against the findings of the appeal. Their actions form a notable contrast with those of Everton and Nottingham Forest who have appealed according to the rule book and then accepted the ruling and simply got on with matters.
Because we don’t know how many points Leicester will be deducted I guess the league tables will leave them with all their points in the new season, until the matter is decided. Possibly in 2025.
The rules clearly state that clubs cannot exceed losses of £105 million over a three-year reporting period. Leicester didn’t just exceed that figure they drove a coach, several horses and quite possibly a couple of tanks through it knocking up losses of £182.20m in just two seasons. That is to say they were 73% over the limit.
Meanwhile in more logical news David Raya has won the Premier League Golden Glove award, and has signed permanently for Arsenal after having spent last season on loan from Brentford (as a way of handling finance restrictions).
Last season Arsenal conceded just 29 goals – the lowest since the Unbeaten Season in which 26 were conceded. Considering that at the end of the last decade Arsenal had consecutive seasons of letting in just on double that number of goals (51 to be exact) this is an incredible development for the club, and one not often mentioned.
And the fact that the clubs in fourth and fifth place (whose names I won’t mention in order to avoid any embarrassment to their supporters) conceded over double the number of goals as Arsenal last season adds to the achievement.
Furthermore this low level of goals against did not come at the cost of having most of the team playing in defence, for the 91 goals scored was the highest Arsenal scoring record since the early 1950s, when not only were defences less organised but the club got to play four extra games.
If Arsenal last season had had four extra games and continued scoring at the same rate, the total number of goals scored would have been 101, something not seen since the 1930s when the whole concept of defending looked very different from now, and clubs generally played with five players in attack.
Miedema signs for City
Ben,
Sadly Arsenal decided months ago not to renew Miedema’s contract so it is no surprise that she has gone to one of the other clubs playing in the Champions League. I have no more idea than you about the thinking behind Arsenal’s decision. All I can do is thank Viv for all her efforts at Arsenal and wish her the best for the future – although not when she wiii play us obviously.
Ournew signing, Mariona Caldente, is not adirect replacement. Mariona can play on either wing or asan attacking midfielder oras a false 9. I would expect her to start either on the left wing or in the No10 role where we really haven’t had anyone consistently nail down the role for some time. Mariona has been a starter for Barcecona for a number of years (and at the club for 10) so she should be able to bring a higher intensity to our play to ourgame, particularly against teams employing a low block or parking the bus as that tactic used to be called.