- Maybe there is something that clubs can do to change football for the better
- Football has been utterly ruined, and it is time to fight back
By Bulldog Drummond
It’s Chelsea away on Sunday at 4.30 pm., and the home and away comparison for the two teams this season makes them appear quite similar. Arsenal have the better defence – but only by two goals, Chelsea have the better attack, by three goals
This season
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Chelsea home | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| 7 | Arsenal away | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
Of course, we are still looking at only five games each, so there is still some justification to look at the whole of last season, and if we do a much more encouraging pattern emerges….
Last season
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Chelsea home | 19 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 20 | 19 | 1 | 25 |
| 1 | Arsenal away | 19 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 35 | 18 | 17 | 39 |
That would give us cause to suggest a clear victory for Arsenal, but sadly this season’s results have to give us pause for a lot more thinking.
And sadly when that thinking takes us to the last six games table of this season we might well end up wishing we hadn’t bothered.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Chelsea | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 11 |
| 10 | Arsenal | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 8 |
Arsenal are only one goal behind in the scoring but again the defence has been leaking goals, and the combined figures really don’t look that good.
Chelsea did go galloping through an unbeaten sequence earlier in the season but when we look at the opposition that really is not quite so impressive as five consecutive wins flanked by two 1-1 draws might appear. True they did beat Bournemouth which Arsenal singly failed to do
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 1 Sep | Chelsea v Crystal Palace | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 14 Sep | AFC Bournemouth v Chelsea | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 21 Sep | West Ham United v Chelsea | W | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 24 Sep | Chelsea v Barrow | W | 5-0 | League Cup |
| 28 Sep | Chelsea v Brighton and Hove | W | 4-2 | Premier League |
| 03 Oct | Chelsea v KAA Gent | W | 4-2 | Conference League |
| 06 Oct | Chelsea v Nottingham Forest | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
I’m not sure how much their subsequent 8-0 victory over Noah’s Ark can be counted – but nevertheless the goals do have to be scored, and not everyone manages such scores even against such modest opposition, so credit must go to them for not giving up, cruel though their ceaseless scoring might appear.
In the league overall Chelsea are one place above Arsenal courtesy of two extra goals. But leaving aside those conference league results what we have got is a run of one win in the last five games – that against Newcastle United, in the League
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06 Oct 2024 | Chelsea v Nottingham Forest | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 20 Oct 2024 | Liverpool v Chelsea | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 27 Oct 2024 | Chelsea v Newcastle United | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 30 Oct 2024 | Newcastle United v Chelsea | L | 2-0 | League Cup |
| 03 Nov 2024 | Manchester United v Chelsea | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
Arsenal’s last five games, again leaving out the European match this week, have been not much better with wins over Shakhtar and Preston, but really we are fiddling the stats to get to that. The fact is Arsenal really do need to improve – and get that improvement going pretty quickly.
The league table comparing now with recent seasons’ reads…
| Pos | Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Arsenal 2024 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 18 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2023 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 23 | 8 | 15 | 24 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2022 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 10 | 14 | 27 |
| 6 | Arsenal 2021 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 13 | -1 | 17 |
So yes we are still above the level of 2021/22, but we have sunk a long way down from the glories of the last two seasons while Chelsea do seem to have been on a dramatic downward curve which is now being reversed – although still not back to the level of two years ago.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Chelsea 2024 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 12 | 8 | 18 |
| 11 | Chelsea 2023 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 12 |
| 4 | Chelsea 2022 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 20 |
| 1 | Chelsea 2021 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 3 | 23 | 25 |
