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By Tony Attwood
So now we can make a little more sense of the Champions League mash-up by seeing a table of the top 12, all of whom have now played five games out of the eight in this phase of the competition. Arsenal’s remaining fixtures are against Monaco, Dinamo Zagreb and Girona (they are each marked in bold in the table below).
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | +11 | 15 |
| 2 | Inter Milan | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 | 13 |
| 3 | Barcelona | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 5 | +13 | 12 |
| 4 | Borussia Dortmund | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 6 | +10 | 12 |
| 5 | Atalanta | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 1 | +10 | 11 |
| 6 | Bayer Leverkusen | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 10 |
| 7 | Arsenal | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 10 |
| 8 | Monaco | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 10 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 10 |
| 10 | Sporting Lisbon | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 10 |
| 11 | Brest | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 10 |
| 12 | Lille | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 10 |
| 23 | Dinamo Zagreb | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 15 | -5 | 7 |
| 30 | Girona | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 3 |
The top eight in the league get seeded draws in the first knockout round after these eight preliminary games, and clubs nine to 16 play an extra knockout round to see who qualifies for the first knockout round proper alongside the top eight – and those clubs are seeded. If you see what I mean! Clubs 17 to 24 go into the knock outs unseeded. Clubs 25 to 36 go home.
It’s really good when the rules of these competitions are so clear and straightforward.
Anyway, the way things are going Arsenal should easily win the games against Dinamo Zagreb and Girona, but the Monaco game which is at home on 11 December is the tougher fixture. Monaco sit second in the French League,
A couple of other interesting positions in the 36 team table are Paris St Germain in 25th, Real Madrid in 24th and Manchester City in 17th. PSG in particular are being really odd. They are six points clear at the top of the French league above Monaco, (as is now quite probably ordained in an amendment to the constitution of the 5th Republic), but they have not had the best of times in Europe.
As the BBC pointed out, PSG “have had more shots on goal than their opponents in each of their games – and 58 in total – but have only three goals to show for it.” Their problem is, as a commentator on Radio 5 put it, “They need 20 chances to score one goal. The other team sneezes and they score.”
So PSG’s new focus on youth and its abandonment of the Galaticos era, is keeping them at the top of the domestic league but not doing the business in Europe.
Thus as things stand it is looking like three of the four English teams will go through – but as for the fourth (ManC) they are starting to give the concept of a “wobble” a more dodgy image. True, they are still second in the Premier League and indeed still three points ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal, but Arsenal, after their horrific set of away fixtures are getting close.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 8 | 16 | 31 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 17 | 5 | 23 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 23 | 14 | 9 | 22 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 22 |
| 5 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 21 | 16 | 5 | 22 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 27 | 13 | 14 | 19 |
One of the interesting things in this table is that Tottenham Ho are top of the league when it comes to goal scoring, and second in the league when it comes to goal difference. But when we look at defences, Manchester City have a defence that is performing at exactly the same level as that of such mighty clubs as Fulham, AFC Bournemouth, Everton and Crystal Palace.
Which is rather interesting since Crystal Palace are 19th in the League (although I am not quite sure that I have heard that commented upon on radio or TV, where the committed Mancunians in the media are finding it hard to get their “professional commentator” descriptions together.)
Arsenal as we have noted of course have slipped back compared with their position in the last two seasons but are above where they were three seasons ago.
What is interesting however is that despite disruptions to the defence the goals conceded total is only one more than 2022 and only two more than last season. Not quite the disaster the media has portrayed.
Anyway, whatever they say, Arsenal’s solidity now seems to be returning…
| Pos | Team/year | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Arsenal 2024 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 22 |
| 3 | Arsenal 2023 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 26 | 10 | 16 | 27 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2022 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 11 | 19 | 31 |
| 5 | Arsenal 2021 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 17 | -4 | 20 |
… and judging by what happened this week in Europe that attack of Arsenal’s is now ready to make up the deficit in goals compared with the last two campaigns – although we are still way ahead of the opening 12 matches in 2021.
