By Tony Attwood
And so we have it. Week after week after week, the media has been praising Arsenal – ok sometimes with faint praise but still praising them for the attacking prowess, and clever transfer business.. Then we get a draw against the team placed fourth in the Premier League, and what do we find?
Sunderland late show rattles Arsenal and raises questions over title credentials
The best description for that headline has to be “mindless gibberish”. Those of us who follow Arsenal week by week knew (as of course any sensible follower of football knew) that Arsenal could not go on winning every single game for the rest of the campaign.
In fact, in the Unbeaten Season Arsenal lost seven games: the Community Shield match to ManU (on penalties), three Champions League games (to Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev and Chelsea), two League Cup games (to Middlesbrough) and an FA Cup match to Manchester United. Although we might like to note that only one of the defeats was by more than one goal (the home defeat to Inter Milan which was lost 0-3.
But even that Arsenal turned it around by beating Inter 5-1 away on 25 November 2003. A day forever remembered! Although we might also throw in the fact that this season we have a much better defence than in the unbeaten season. And after 11 games this season we are just ONE POINT behind where we were in the unbeaten season after 11 games. Here’s the table…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal 2025 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 26 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2003 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 23 | 9 | 14 | 27 |
And my point is that the away draw with Sunderland (and a reminder here for the sake of any journalists reading this, they are fourth in the league) is not a shameful result, meaning that the whole season is over. It is a draw achieved against the currently fourth-best team in the league, who were playing at home against an Arsenal side with six first-choice players missing. Only four clubs have more men out injured at the moment.
Personally, I would particularly welcome back Havertz to the first team, not just because he can score goals, but because of the distraction that he provides when he doesn’t have the ball.
And all this before we even touch on the fact that Sunderland pulled the unusual trick of moving the advertising hoardings around to disrupt Arsenal’s ability to do long throw-ins. Apparently, that is quite legal, or if it isn’t no one in the rest of the league is going to make a complaint. And so undoubtedly others will copy the idea from here on, each time they play Arsenal on their own ground. I suppose one could say it isn’t quite cricket, but then football never is.
As things stand, Arsenal have won more games than any other club in the league. Also, Arsenal have lost fewer games than any other club in the League. Funny such issues are so rarely mentioned.
Arsenal are also second highest scorers in the league, one goal behind Chelsea, have the best defence in the league (three goals fewer conceded than Manchester City who have the chance to make their position worse through a match today against Liverpool), have a better goal difference than anyone else (although Manchester City do have that game in hand where they can try and make up the three goal difference), and are of course Arsenal are seven points clear at the top of the league.
And all that has been achieved with this torrent of injuries!
If Manchester City beat Liverpool, ManC will be four points behind Arsenal with probably a similar or slightly worse goal difference. If Liverpool beat ManC they will be five points behind Arsenal with a lot worse goal difference.l A draw will of course, leave them both trailing some distance away.
But maybe we should also spend a moment contemplating the Championship where the current top four are Coventry, Middlesbrough, Stoke City and Preston North End, none of which are names that will be striking fear into the current Premier League should then come up at the end of the season. It does look like the gap between the two top tiers is still growing.
However it will be interesting to see what West Ham supporters do if they drop to the lower tier – as it seems they are trying to do.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 26 |
| 18 | West Ham United | 11 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 13 | 23 | -10 | 10 |
| 19 | Nottingham Forest | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 19 | -12 | 6 |
| 20 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 11 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 25 | -18 | 2 |
Some West Ham fans are demanding a move away from the Taxpayers Stadium (so-called because it was us mugs who dutifully pay our taxes who paid for it). Presumably, WHAM won’t move on, and so their “fans” might well be faced with the same ground next season, but with matches against Wrexham, Swansea and the like. I wonder how the number of people going to the stadium for each match will be affected by such a development.
Not our problem of course, but still, I find it an interesting thought, even if no one else does.
