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- We already know how the league will look at season’s end
- Fifa accused of wholesale corruption,
- On the Arsenal History site, “as part of our 100 seasons in the top division series,” we have Arsenal’s first cup final; Chapman’s second season
By Tony Attwood
Now that is not a headline (above) you are likely to see elsewhere, because none of the media will ever admit to manufacturing a story. But the reality is that with each round of matches they need something new about each Premier League club. and increasingly there isn’t anything because the clubs are totally fed up with the media twisting and turning everything the club says.
As an example today we have “Your ultimate guide to the football season” from MSN of all people, which is nothing of the kind, but contains the note that
“‘I wouldn’t say they [presumably Arsenal players but it could mean Arsenal management or Arsenal supporters – it isn’t clear] should be feeling too safe or secure because coming off the bench and starting a game are two different things,” Clichy allegedly told BetMGM, and I wonder if his employers know that. He continued,
‘Starting a game when people know you are going to start, they [the opposition] will have analysed your game during the week, looking at your weaknesses and strengths.”
Wow!
Now, of course, Clichy knows a lot more about playing football than I do, not least because of his playing career and the fact that he is currently the assistant manager of the France national under-21 team.
And as we recall, Gael played 187 games for Arsenal, and I suspect most of us will remember him very positively. But it is a fact that all players (not just ex-Arsenal players) who get interviewed once they have stopped playing, feel the need to show that they are not biased in favour of the team they used to play for.
Some, in fact, take this a long way further and are positively negative (if you see what I mean) against their old teams. But the media’s notion that ex-players’ comments about the teams they have left behind are interesting is a bit daft, and most of my fellow supporters seem to agree. Why do the media insist on publishing them?
Last season, Arsenal at home were better than Forest away, but only by six points. However, the goal difference was more substantial (AFC being +16 better off).
.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Arsenal home | 19 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 35 | 17 | 18 | 39 |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest away | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 32 | 30 | 2 | 33 |
.
It is, of course, very early days to do a home and away analysis for this season, but overall, Arsenal are a bit better off in terms of points thus far, but Forest are really struggling with their defence as the table thus far shows…
.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 9 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 10 | Nottingham Forest | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 4 |
Now if we look at the Foresterian results thus far (and I must admit I am not fully sure what the word for “of the forest” actually is, other than “woody”), we find that it is a little shaky at best. How on earth, for example, did Forest lose 0-3 to West Ham? (A case of the hammers chopping down the forest perhaps – Ed)
| Date | March | Res | Score |
| 17 Aug 2025 | Nottingham Forest v Brentford | W | 3-1 |
| 24 Aug 2025 | Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest | D | 1-1 |
| 31 Aug 2025 | Nottingham Forest v West Ham United | L | 0-3 |
What we might particularly note is that the WHAM goals against Forest all came in the last six minutes, and so we might conclude that keeping up the pressure to the end is worthwhile, as can be the use of forwards as substitutes against the treemen.
However two of the three goals were penalties, and that might suggest the referee had a soft spot for West Ham, although under the Laws of football reporting we are not allowed to say that, so we didn’t.
Nuno Espírito Santo was sacked a couple of days later. With the Tree People he had won 28, and lost 25 . Forest, in fact, simply always let in goals (no clean sheets in the last 11 matches,) so we shouldn’t make too much of the WHAM sudden understanding of what “scoring” actually means. (Apparently, it has a different meaning in the East End from the rest of London).
Forest were called “lacklustre” and “underwhelming” by the media, although it would have been more amusing had they been called “Autumnal”. Maybe I’ll save that for our report.
Arsenal have played the tree dwellers 105 times with Arsenal winning 55 of the games (which is 52% or “over half” in old money) while the woodies have won 28%. You may conclude that the rest were draws.
If we just consider league games from the start of the Premier League era (1992) there have been 16 league games between the two clubs, of which Arsenal have won 10, WHAM have won two, and there have been four draws, with both WHAM wins coming at their ground. In fact, the last time they even got a draw on Arsenalian territory was way back in 1995. The Arsenal team was
Seaman
Dixon Adams Bould Keown Winterburn
Merson Parlour Platt
Bergkamp Wright
The fact that the game was drawn shows the futility of playing five at the back against these lesser teams. The manager was Bruce Rioch.
