The run of wins and run of defeats against Machester C

By Tony Attwood

From 5 November 2017 to 26 April 2023, Arsenal played Manchester City 16 times. Four of those matches were cup games and 12 were league games. Arsenal won just one of those 16 games! And hence the story arose, quite reasonably given those figures, that Arsenal could not beat ManC.

Of course, this was before there were any enquiries into exactly how ManC were funding their significant purchases of players – something that has been investigated now, but for which no punishment has been accorded.

But then something odd happened. As stories about ManC’s funding spread far and wide, from 6 August 2023 through to 22 March 2026, Arsenal played Manchester City seven times. Arsenal won three, three were draws, and a single League Cup match was won by Manchester City. It was quite a turnaround. Not a reversal of fortunes, but from an AFC perspective, a welcome change.

This latest run has done a little to re-establish what had, before the 16-game run, been the natural order of things between the clubs. For the current overall total of results, now tells us that Arsenal has 101 wins, Manchester City 66, and there have been 48 draws.

Interestingly, however, that run of defeats from 2017 onwards was not the only long-term run of similar results between these two clubs, for there was a run of 14 games in the late 19th century and early 20th century when both clubs were in the second division, and in which ManC won ten, Arsenal won two and two were draws

However, the clubs have not always been able to play each other, for while Arsenal are currently celebrating 100 consecutive seasons in the top division, Manchester City have made occasional visits to the lower levels.

In that 1998/9 season, the top five for the second tier read

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Fulham	46	31	8	7	79	32	47	101
2	Walsall	46	26	9	11	63	47	16	87
3	Manchester City	46	22	16	8	69	33	36	82
4	Gillingham	46	22	14	10	75	44	31	80
5	Preston North End	46	22	13	11	78	50	28	79

Now of course, with fresh capital input, they are used to achieving higher things, and since 2017/18, they have won the top division six times, come second once and third once, as well as winning two FA Cup finals. This contrasts with their first seven seasons back in the top league before they were bought, when they came 9th, 16h, 8th, 15th, 14th, 9th and 10th. Then the money arrived.

As a result of this recent success following the takeover, they are now the fourth most successful team in terms of the top-tier title (whatever name the league was going under at the time). Only 24 different clubs have won the top division in all its forms since the title was first played for in 1889, the clubs with the most titles being Liverpool and Manchester United 20 each, Arsenal 13, and Manchester City 10. Further down the table, we find Everton with nine titles and Aston Villa with seven.

And just in case you are interested in my occasional notes in which I aim to keep up to date with the doings of Tottenham Hotspur, you might also like to know that they have won the league twice, in 1951 and 1961 (that is 65 years ago). They are thus on par, for the number of wins, with Portsmouth, Burnley and Preston North End.

So, to return to the present day, the table now reads as below, and I leave Tottenham in since they have recently been mentioned in this regard. Arsenal are six points ahead with a three-goal better goal difference than ManC.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	32	21	7	4	62	24	38	70
2	Manchester City	31	19	7	5	63	28	35	64

18	Tottenham Hotspur	32	7	9	16	40	51	-11	30

Concerning Tottenham, Arsenal are 40 points ahead, have a 49 better goal difference, including scoring 22 more goals and conceding 27 fewer, and actually having three times as many victories as Tottenham so far this season, while Tottenham have four times as many defeats at Arsenal.

There is one other interesting point about the clubs that have won the league, and how they have accumulated their totals. As we know, in earlier times, professional football was a very different game from that we see today, with far fewer tactics involved and more of a kick and rush approach employed

So if we were to take the number of titles won by clubs since the development of the more modern game in the 1930s, we find Manchester United with 18, Liverpool with 16 titles, Arsenal with 13, Everton with six, and Aston Villa with one. Tottenham of course, keep their two titles having won these in the 1950s and 1960s.

Obviously, this is just a little exploration of how and when titles have been won, and the convention is to include all the titles, even when there was just one division of 12 clubs in 1888. And because I find it fascinating to look at, I’m going to conclude with the first-ever end-of-season table. It’s got nothing to do with this weekend’s games, but I like history.

In this first season, the bottom four had to apply for re-election, and all four were re-elected. The table reveals the first ever unbeaten season – indeed, the only unbeaten season until Arsenal replicated the achievement under somewhat more exacting circumstances.

	Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Preston North End	22	18	4	0	74	15	40
2	Aston Villa	22	12	5	5	61	43	29
3	Wolverhampton Wanderers	22	12	4	6	51	37	28
4	Blackburn Rovers	22	10	6	6	66	45	26
5	Bolton Wanderers	22	10	2	10	63	59	22
6	West Bromwich Albion	22	10	2	10	40	46	22
7	Accrington*	22	6	8	8	48	48	20
8	Everton	22	9	2	11	35	47	20
9	Burnley	22	7	3	12	42	62	17
10	Derby County	22	7	2	13	41	61	16
11	Nots County	22	5	2	15	40	73	12
12	Stoke**	22	4	4	14	26	51	12

*The club added the name “Stanley” in 1921.

**The club became Stoke City in 1925.

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