By Tony Attwood
- Arsenal injuries ahead of tonight’s game against Brighton
- Brighton v Arsenal tonight: the referee and the problem of home v away games
- Brighton v Arsenal: the games between the two clubs and recent form
For tonight’s game the Standard predict a 2-0 Arsenal victory.and although offering us a headline that says “Team news” don’t actually make or at least don’t publish a prediction for the team. Mind you this data stuff can be rather time consuming and their journalists might have had to knock off for lunch before me.
But mfootball to whom I don’t think we have turned to before for a line up prediction come up with
Raya
Timber Saliba Gabriel Hincappe
Zubemendi Rice
Saka Eze Trossard
Gyokeres
And so we push onto the Metro which comes up with
Raya
Timber Saliba Gabriel Califiori
Rice Zubemendi Eze
Saka Gyokeres Trossard
Many of the familiar names of course but a shuffling around the pitch, quite possibly to make everyone think that these journalist have been doing some real live research rather than making things up. Not that one would ever accuse journalists of making things up.
Sports Mole have done a bit of hunting for unlikely statistics and come up with the notion that a combination of David Raya heroics and the offside flag, Arsenal held out for victory on a day where they equaled the record for the most corner goals in a single Premier League season with 16 – it is seemingly only a matter of time before the unprecedented 17th arrives.”
Sadly we don’t seem to get bonus points for the most goals from a corner, and personally I think this is typical of the bias shown against Arsenal by the Premier League (who don’t give bonus points for this sort of thing) and the media who would protest if they did.
Arsenal’s away form is starting to get the occasional (and it is still just occasional) mention (unbeaten in the last 11 away matches) but there is always a negative to be had and in this regard it is that Arsenal have only ” averaged 1.2 goals per game in Premier League away contests between August and December, compared to 2.3 per match since the turn of the year.”
But it is being noted that Brighton and Hove have not won three Premier League games all season even though they are securely mid-table. But they have only lost at home twice so far in this campaign and that gives the journos a thought that this could be a rocky ride for Arsenal not least because Brighton held Arsenal “to a 1-1 stalemate on home turf a little over a year ago.” Personally I am not that sure that this counts for much but we shall see.
And so after much deliberation Sports Mole come up with
Raya;
Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Havertz, Zubimendi, Lewis-Skelly;
Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli
I find the issue of Martinelli interesting, since to my eyes when he has come on as a sub he has really tormented the opposition and brought Arsenal to life when once or twice they have been wilting.
Now that of course might be the ploy, but I also think Martinelli has a lot to offer from the off and I do like to see him start. But obviously Arteta knows best and has access to much more data than I do. Sports Mole go for a 1-2 win to Arsenal.
Meanwhile it is interesting that the media has decided to lay off criticizing Arsenal’s choice of a centre forward and the number of goals he scores, managing to get through the whole latest anti-Arsenal campaign without actually noticing that Arsenal have spent much of the season as the team most likely to score in any particular match.
As you might have noted here before, Arsenal are the top scoring team in the league, Arsenal have the best defence in the league, and put together than means Arsenal have the best goal difference in the league. But is this mentioned much? No. Is it mentioned at all? Well in some publications, again no.
And just in case you thought I was mucking around with the statistics again, Arsenal have also won the most and lost the least number of games this season, which pretty much seems to sum it all up.
So let us sum it all up with a comparison of where we have been in recent years after 29 games.. The goals are better than last year but not as good as 2023 or 2024. The defence however remains the best across the last four seasons at this stage. The goal difference is better than lasts year and the points total is six better than after 29 games last season, but we have not reached the heights of 2023 – except again we have a better defence.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal 2026 | 29 | 19 | 7 | 3 | 58 | 22 | 36 | 64 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2025 | 29 | 16 | 10 | 3 | 53 | 24 | 29 | 58 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2024 | 29 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 70 | 24 | 46 | 65 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2023 | 29 | 23 | 3 | 3 | 70 | 27 | 43 | 72 |
As we have so often noted – each season plays out in its own way, with different teams, and different numbers of teams, reaching for the top position.
