- How are Arsenal finances doing, and how are we seen across Europe?
- Arteta promises Arsenal can reach greater heights
By Tony Attwood
Last season Napoli finished second in the league behind Inter Milan, but above Roma, Como and AC Milan (the later of which, qualified for the Europa League). They were however 11 points behind the title winners and their goal different of +22 was 32 worse than Inter Milan. Napoli scored 58 and conceded 36.
Currently however they are 12th in the league with one win and two defeats, and in their game on 30 Augusts they lost at home 1-2 to Como. So not the best of starts to a new season.
In their pre-season they beat Genoa awa 0-2, and Catanzaro at home 2-1. But in the league they have played three, winning one and losing two, scoring five and conceding five. And so I think that it is far to say they are not really blowing the opposition away.
Now Napoli have been a bit of an up and down team of late In 2004 they started two seasons in the third division in Italy, then in 2006/7 they had one season in the second division, (Serie B) and came second, and then started their current 19 season long run in the top flight.
In the past five seasons they have come third, first, 10th, first and (in 2025/26) second. That season brought them 23 wins, seven draws and eight defeats, scoring 56 and conceding 36.
In the table below I’ve run both clubs results from last season as per the end of the campaign – and it is a comparison that is quite handy in that both clubs rather kindly played the same number of league games.
What we can particularly see is that Arsenal scored 13 more goals and conceded nine fewer, giving double the level of goal difference as well as a nine point lead across the same number of games. Although of course what happens one season doesn’t always directly affect the next campaign. Unfortunately.
| Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | Pos |
| Arsenal | 38 | 26 | 7 | 5 | 71 | 27 | 44 | 85 | 1st |
| Napoli | 38 | 23 | 7 | 8 | 58 | 36 | 22 | 76 | 2nd |
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Meanwhile in Italy as in England, friendlies are played as pre-season warm ups, and I have seen three of these mentioned but I have only found results for two…
- Saturday 8th August: Napoli 1, Celta Vigo 1
- Wednesday 5th August: Napoli 2 , Osasuna 1
As for the games between Arsenal and Napoli I’ve also only noted two of these both in the 2013/14 season in which Arsenal beat Napoli 2-0 and then in the return match in the group stage, Napoli beat Arsenal 2-0.
And so the whole league table for Italy last season ended with Napoli second, 11 points behind Inter. Uefa do have a web site showing a Napoli / Arsenal game here.
Moving back home the injury table has taken a rather curious turn in that the range of injuries for clubs seems to have reached bizarre proportions. Here are a few examples of the number first team players reported out because of injuries as of this morning….
- Arsenal 3
- Brighton and Hove Albion 10
- Hull City 12
- Manchester City 2
- Nottingham Forest 1
- Tottenham Hotspur 4
I don’t think I can remember such a range this early in the season. One can only wonder at what Hull have been up to. They beat Manchester United 2-0, drew with Stoke in the League Cup (winning on penalties), beat Coventry, and had a goalless draw with Aston Villa. And somehow picked up all those knocks!
As for Arsenal injuries the EPL Injury Table has every Premier League club listed and is showing Arsenal with three men out. Everton, Fulham and ManC have two men out, Nottingham Forest has only one.
There is no real news on Salbia save that he is slowly progressing. The latest comment from Arteta is that “The progression has been really positive in the last few weeks, but we need to wait and see.”
Cristhian Mosquera Ibarguen (as it says on the injury chart) has “a muscular issue, and we think it’s not too much. But we need to wait and see the next few days for how it evolves.”
Finally with Jurien Timber the statement from the manager is that, “He is in really good condition at the moment. As I said, he’s been now a few weeks on the pitch, and he’s training with us now. We’ll decide tomorrow after training [if he will make the squad].”
So that is the prime news for the first of the Euro games – the kick off of course is at 8pm. In the UK It is on TNT live with the highlights shown later on the BBC. There is a complete guide of how to see the match on TV in other countries on the Arsenal website.
