By Tony Attwood
A quick check of the records shows that Arsenal have lost one match in the last 14, but of course data can always be twisted around, and if we only look at Premier League matches it can be said that Arsenal haven’t won in the last three games – with goalless draws against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest and that 2-3 last second deefeat to Manchester United.
According to some critics, this makes Arsenal totally and utterly vulnerable, although one can also suggest that it makes them ever more determined to sort league matters out, starting, of course, today with Leeds United.
The history of matches list doesn’t lie, of course, and because of the extraordinary run from 1959 to 1977 when Arsenal found it virtually impossible to beat Leeds (one Arsenal win in 17 matches in fact), our overall record against Leeds is not as good as you might imagine (unless you’ve already looked it up).
And yet, despite that extraordinary run of Leeds victories in the 1960s and 1970s, Leeds United have still won 13 games fewer against Arsenal than vice versa. But certainly no one who witnessed or heard on the radio the score on 19 March 1958 of Leeds 2 Arsenal 0 would have thought that Arsenal would win only four of the next 34 games between the two sides.
And yet, by 2007/8 Leeds were in League One, the third tier of English football, and overall it took them 13 years to climb back to the top league after their relegation from the top tier. They then had three years in the Premier League before returning to the Championship for a couple of seasons, and after that, coming back up last summer.
But to get back to more recent times, in the last 15 games between the two, it has been 13 wins to Arsenal and two draws, with the goals tally in the last two games totalling nine goals to Arsenal and one to Leeds.
It is of course, true that Leeds have recovered from their run at the end of last year in which they lost six games in seven, but still it is only one league win in the last six (that being a 1-0 over Fulham). They are six points above the top relegation spot, so it is just feasible that a bad run of form in the coming couple of months could send them down, but it seems rather unlikely.
They will, for the most part, be looking to pick up points from other teams in the lower part of the league. The idea must be to change their habit of picking up draws into one of picking up single goal victories, but even so as long as they keep picking up draws it seems unlikely that both West Ham and Forest will overtake them.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 23 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 42 | 17 | 25 | 50 |
| 16 | Leeds United | 23 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 31 | 38 | -7 | 26 |
| 17 | Nottingham Forest | 23 | 7 | 4 | 12 | 23 | 34 | -11 | 25 |
| 18 | West Ham United | 23 | 5 | 5 | 13 | 27 | 45 | -18 | 20 |
As we have mentioned, Tottenham play Manchester City tomorrow, and I can’t imagine the tiny totts doing us any favours, even though a defeat for them will lead to more booing and more protests (these Tottenham fans really do know how to motivate their team, don’t they?) But Arsenal have the best defence in the league and the best away form in the league, so let us hold onto thoughts such as these.
Next up, in our final pre-match piece, it will be the Arsenal team, and after that always we can do is look and hope our guys put on one of their best performances of the season, not just to to gain us the three points, but also to reassure the doubters that we are still on the way to the title, despite the last minute defeat in the last game.
Of course, the media won’t make it easy for either Arsenal players or us Arsenal fans. But as the Guardian says today, “Arsenal will probably win the league from here. They have the points, the squad and the fallible opponents. The only real certainty is that it will be agonisingly intense, the footballing equivalent of a silent scream,” which is not the most encouraging of title predictions that I have read. But it is about par for the course.
