- After the event, the updates. The ManC case and our managers
- Arsenal abandon plans to expand the Emirates Stadium expansion
Arsenal’s fixture this weekend is of course Leeds at home but with an early kick off to suit the TV controllers.
Leeds were 14th in the league last season with a negative goal difference. Put together the stable suggests that Arsenal should have no trouble in winning this weekend’s game…
But of course, it also means that as Leeds last season averaged fractionally over one goal a game away from home they will play for a goalless draw, and hope against hope Arsenal are drawn forward in exasperation, leaving gaps behind.
Here are last season’s figures…
| Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal home | 19 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 41 | 11 | 30 | 47 |
| Leeds away | 19 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 20 | 35 | -15 | 15 |
Transfermarkt record Leeds as having taken into the club 14 players this summer while having let a similar number of players (excluding those ending their loan spell) leave the club.
Transfermarkt tell us that they spent just under 100m euros on players who have an average age of 25.8 years. As for the departures these brought in 35 million euros and had an average age of 26.9 years. So they have been spending money, but not a massive amount in footballing terms.
And it is worth for a moment pausing to consider the attendances achieved by different clubs last season
- 1 Manchester United 73,975
- 2 West Ham United 62,4553
- 3 Tottenham Hotspur 61,006
- 4 Liverpool 60,389
- 5 Arsenal 60,217
- 6 Manchester City 52,640
- 7 Newcastle United 52,161
- 8 Everton 52,132
- 9 Sunderland 46,828
- 10. Aston Villa 41,977
- 11 Chelsea 39,602
- 12 Leeds United 36,695
We can see at once the enormous difference in the income of different clubs across the league, and among other things we can see why Chelsea are so anxious to do something about their stadium.
Arsenal’s stadium means that for each game Arsenal are getting around 23,000 more fans in the ground at home than Leeds get for matches in their ground. When one adds in the fact that Arsenal’s ground is more expensive to visit than Leeds’ it points out the huge difference between the income of the grounds just at the level of people going in.
And to that we have to add such factors as income from advertising in the ground, before we get to the big issues like ground naming and shirt sponsorship. The income difference between the clubs is huge.
Since the turn of the century Leeds have spent ten seasons in the Premier League and 15 seasons in the Championship, and we can see the sort of difference this makes to the team by looking at their final season in the Championship in which they won promotion and their position last season in the Premier League.
| League | P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS | POS | |
| 2024–25 | Championship | 46 | 29 | 13 | 4 | 95 | 30 | 100 | 1st |
| 2025–26 | Premier Lge | 38 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 49 | 56 | 47 | 14th |
After five games this season Leeds are lying fifth in the league. They have beaten Nottingham Forest away 0-1, have drawn at home 1-1 with Brentford and had a similar score away to Brighton and Hove. Their triumph came on 14 September with a 4-1 victory over Newcastle United, but on 20 September had a goalless home draw with Crystal Palace.
So if we look now at where the league got to before we were so rudely interrupted by a load of silly games which didn’t affect the league at all we find a table that reads…
| Pos | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester City | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 5 | +8 | 15 |
| Arsenal | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 12 |
| Brighton and Hove | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 5 | +11 | 10 |
| Brentford | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 9 |
| Leeds United | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 9 |
Interestingly they have scored one more and conceded one more than Arsenal. So they are indeed showing something of an improvement over last season.
Of course the big issue is how Manchester City will be coping with their change of circumstances. Certainly several very pro-Manc websites are treating their disgrace as criminals sometimes treat their time in custody, boasting of it and laughing at those who have never been so stupid as to be caught out as they have.
It seems rather pathetic to me, but I guess it is the way they like to do things. But it does mean that the players are likely to be getting a lot of extra vocal support in their games as they take a stand against more normal people who believe in democracy and that sort of thng, so we shall see where it gets them.
But for the moment we might also focus on some other teams perhaps… such as Tottenham who are now 10 points behind Arsenal with just five games played. That is certainly a remarkable achievement and one that I sadly was not able to predict. I wonder what odds I could have got on that before the season started!
Anyway, what we do know is that this is a game that Arsenal usually win.
