Wolverhampton v Arsenal: Wolves are NOT bottom of the “last six” league.

 

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By Tony Attwood

And so we come on to Wolverhampton v Arsenal, and you might expect talk about Wolverhampton being the worst ever team in the Premier League.  Although if you carry on reading to the very end of this piece, and then read the next article when it is publsihed, you might well be in for a surprise.  Although I can add that the worst team so far in the Premier League ever was Derby County in 2007/8 and we can see just how bad they were in that season, with one win.

 

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Manchester United	38	27	6	5	80	22	58	87
2	Chelsea	38	25	10	3	65	26	39	85
3	Arsenal	38	24	11	3	74	31	43	83
19	Birmingham City	38	8	11	19	46	62	-16	35
20	Derby County	38	1	8	29	20	89	-69	11

 

This can be compared with this season, and the foot of the table, although we might note what Derby had in common with Tottenham Hots and other teams that go down to the lower levels – they changed their manager mid-season.  Always fun when the Hots do that.   Here’s an extract from the table this morning.

 

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	26	17	6	3	50	18	32	57
16	Tottenham Hotspur	26	7	8	11	36	37	-1	29
17	Nottingham Forest	26	7	6	13	25	38	-13	27
18	West Ham United	26	6	6	14	32	49	-17	24
19	Burnley	26	4	6	16	28	51	-23	18
20	Wolverhampton Wanderers	26	1	6	19	16	48	-32	9

 

So Wolverhampton are within two points of the total that Derby got in what the Queen once called the past year (her Annus horribilis), which is not to be confused with… well, I won’t go on since royalty are involved.

So anyway, one more win or three more draws will do it for Wolverhampton and they won’t have the worst-ever record in the Premier League.   And I am sure they will be jolly glad about that.  The kick off is 8pm on Wednesday at it is at Molineux.

Between 18 October and 27 December last year, Wolverhampton played 12 games and lost the lot.   During that run, they scored eight goals.  Their best result was a 3-4 home defeat against Chelsea in the League Cup.  They ended the run by drawing away with Manchester United.

But they have won some games this season, including beating West Ham 3-0 in the League Cup, and Everton, 2-0 also in the League Cup. Then they beat West Ham again in the League (which probably says more about WHAM than about Wolverhampton, and after that Shrewsbury Town and Grimsby Town in the FA Cup.

But it would be unfair not to mention the real upsurge in their performances of late, for they had a goalless draw away to Nottingham Forest on 11 February and then beat Grimsby Town 0-1 away on 15 February.

However, this is not the first upturn they have had because between 30 December and 18 January, they had a run of five games in which they won two and drew three.   Those wins were the victories over West Ham and Shrewsbury and the draws were against ManU, Everton and Newcastle.

So yes, Wolverhampton have picked up a few points and wins and things, and that means we can actually do the regular pre-match home and away analyses

 

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
20	Wolverhampton Wanderers home	13	1	2	10	11	28	-17	5
1	Arsenal away	13	7	4	2	19	10	9	25

 

Spelling it out, because that is what we normally do, there is a surprise, Arsenal have only scored eight more away goals than Wolverhampton Wands have socred home goals.   But then again, Arsenal have conceded 18 goals fewer than the Wands.    So Arsenal’s goal tally difference with Wolverhampton takng into account home form for Wolvers and away form for Arsenal, is 26 in Arsenal’s favour.  The points difference is 20 in Arsenal’s favour.

I don’t want to rub it in too much, but we do at this point also normally include the last six games table, so I think we should….   not least because this is where we get one hell of a surprise.    For Wolverhampton are not bottom, and you never guess who is…

Premier League Form (Last 6)

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
7	Arsenal	6	2	3	1	10	4	+6	9
19	Wolverhampton	6	0	3	3	2	8	-6	3
20	Tottenham Ho	6	0	2	4	8	13	-5	2

 

More, anon….