- Can banter against Tottenham go too far while it is open season against Arsenal?
- Club chairmen and many fans are utterly bonkers and their actions prove it
By Tony Attwood
So just in case you missed it, but I can’t really believe you did, here is the FA Cup quarter finals draw.
- Southampton vs Arsenal
- Chelsea vs Port Vale
- Man City vs Liverpool
- West Ham or Brentford vs Leeds United
We will obviously come back to this closer to the time, but for now, here is a peek at Southampton’s position in the league compared with Arsenal’s…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal (PL) | 30 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 59 | 22 | 37 | 67 |
| 8 | Southampton (Cham) | 35 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 57 | 46 | 11 | 53 |
But now moving back to closer matters, tomorrow we have Bayer Leverkusen away at 5.45pm in the Champions League. And so returning to where we got to in that competition, we find thatBayer 04 Leverkusen came 16th in the initial round of eight games, winning three, drawing three and losing two. This compares of course, with Arsenal’s eight straight wins.
They have a ground about half the size of Arsenal’s, but nonetheless came second in the league last season, obviously with a much smaller budget than the winners.
Bayer Leverkusen are sixth in the German league at present, their last game being a 3-3 draw against Freiburg. The top scorer for the club is Patrik Schick with 15 goals.
Here are the comparison figures between the two clubs for this season in their respective leagues…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 30 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 59 | 22 | 37 | 67 |
|
Bayer Leverkusen
|
25 | 13 | 5 | 7 | 48 | 32 | 16 | 44 |
To make it easier to compare the two sides this season, in the table below the Leverkusen league matches are repeated in the bottom line but with an estimate for the results if they had played 30 games and achieved the same ratio of wins, draws and defeats as they have achieved thus far. Thus, we can see a more direct comparison with Arsenal…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 30 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 59 | 22 | 37 | 67 |
|
Bayer Leverkusen
|
25 | 13 | 5 | 7 | 48 | 32 | 16 | 44 |
|
Leverkusen estimate at 30
|
30 | 16 | 6 | 8 | 58 | 39 | 19 | 53 |
The estimated line is of course, based on assuming that the Leverkusen results follow the same pattern as they have through their first 25 games. Obviously, results never work out exactly like this, but it does allow us to compare the positions of the two clubs more easily.
And we can see that while Bayer Leverkusen are goal scorers along similar lines to Arsenal, the big difference is with the defence and as a result of this, the table shows Arsenal having double the positive goal difference of Leverkusen.
Obviously nothing ever works out exactly as per predictions, but from this we do get a clue that Arsenal should be able to hold the opposition’s attack at bay.
Moving on, there is an interesting historical link between the two clubs in that while Arsenal have just had three second-place finishes in the league, Leverkusen went one better and had four second-place finishes in a row from 1997 to 2002.
But their experience must have been even more agonising than Arsenal’s for twice the club almost won the league during that period. In 2000, the club needed just a draw to win the league, but then conceded an own goal in the last game and lost 2-0 while Bayern Munich (who seem to be decreed by law to win the league each season in Germany) won their match and hence the title.
And then if that were not enough, in 2002, they were five-points ahead but lost two of their last three games while Borussia Dortmund won all their games and hence the league title.
But they have managed to be the first team ever to ge to the Champions League final without actually ever winning the national league.
One advantage that all German teams have over English teams is that their top division only contains 18 clubs, with two clubs relegated automatically and the third from bottom playing in an end of season play-off. This compares with 20 in the Premier League, meaning that the German teams play 34 games rather than the English league’s 38. Plus of course, the European games for those who qualify.
