Arsenal v Reading: Reading’s recent form, and other past meetings.

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

Having celebrated the record breaking of Mr Wenger and of the club in terms of reaching the most FA Cup semi-finals, and noted that alongside Man U we are the top performers in the Cup (we’ve each won 11 and been runners’ up seven times), I thought I’d move on to this season…

Here first are the journeys to the FA Cup semi-final, and after that a look at how Reading are doing in this league of late.

3rd Round

  • Reading beat Huddersfield of the Championship away 1-0
  • Arsenal beat Hull of the Premier League at home 2-0

4th round:

  • Reading beat Cardiff of the Championship away 2-1
  • Arsenal beat Brighton and Hove Albion of the Championship away 3-2

5th round:

  • Reading beat Derby of the Championship away 2-1
  • Arsenal beat Middlesbrough of the Championship at home 2-0

6th round:

  • Reading beat Bradford City of League One at home 3-0 after a 0-0 draw
  • Arsenal beat Man U of the Premier League away 2-1

The most notable fact from that list of games is that Arsenal are the first Premier League side that Reading have faced in reaching the FA Cup semi-final.  They’ve played three Championship sides and a League One side.

Arsenal have beaten two Premier League sides (last season’s finalists Hull and Man U) and two Championship sides.

We know how Arsenal are doing in the league, and their current run of form, but what about Reading? Here’s the league table…

 
Team P W D L F A GD Pts
Bournemouth 42 23 11 8 89 43 46 80
Norwich 42 23 10 9 81 44 37 79
Watford 42 24 7 11 84 48 36 79
Middlesbrough 42 23 9 10 62 32 30 78
Derby 42 20 12 10 74 46 28 72
Ipswich 42 20 11 11 64 48 16 71
Brentford 42 21 8 13 71 56 15 71
Wolves 42 20 11 11 63 51 12 71
Nottm Forest 42 15 13 14 65 59 6 58
Blackburn 41 15 13 13 54 50 4 58
Charlton 42 13 17 12 51 54 -3 56
Cardiff 42 14 13 15 51 55 -4 55
Sheff Wed 42 13 16 13 38 44 -6 55
Birmingham 41 13 14 14 49 61 -12 53
Leeds 42 14 10 18 47 56 -9 52
Huddersfield 42 13 12 17 52 69 -17 51
Bolton 42 13 10 19 51 60 -9 49
Reading 41 12 11 18 44 63 -19 47
Brighton 42 10 15 17 43 50 -7 45
Fulham 42 12 9 21 54 75 -21 45
Rotherham 42 10 13 19 42 64 -22 43
Wigan 42 8 12 22 37 57 -20 36
Millwall 41 8 12 21 35 67 -32 36
Blackpool 42 4 13 25 34 83 -49 25

Using the measure we’ve used a few times on this site to look at certain teams in the Premier League, Reading are much nearer relegation than promotion.  Their goal scoring is interesting at 44 goals scored,  63 goals against.  This compares with Arsenal’s 63 scored and 32 against – a reversal in fact.

Recent games (in reverse order)

  • 11 April: Reading 0 Blackburn 0
  • 7 April Blackpool 1 Reading 1
  • 4 April: Reading 1 Cardiff 1
  • 21 March: Charlton 3 Reading 2
  • 16 March: Reading 3 Bradford 0 (FA Cup)
  • 14 March: Watford 4 Reading 1.
  • 10 March: Reading 2 Brighton 1
  • 7 March: Bradford City 0 Reading 0 (FA Cup)
  • 3 March: Bolton 1 Reading 1
  • 28 February: Reading 0 Nottingham F 3
  • 24 February: Huddersfield 3 Reading 0
  • 21 February: Ipswich 0 Reading 1
  • 17 February: Reading 0 Wigan 1
  • 14 February: Derby 1 Reading 2 (FA Cup)

What stands out here is just how Reading have turned it on for the FA Cup, most particularly with the away win over Derby who have spent much of the season challenging for promotion.

This suggests we should not take their league table position as a sign of their merit on the day.

14 games are recorded above for Reading in which they have scored 14 goals, and conceded 19.  Arsenal’s last 14 games show 31 goals scored, and 11 conceded.

So some solid marking and playing our normal game out to be enough to see us through.

Incidentally we have lost two of those 14 (which include all competitions, so include the two games against Monaco) but won the other 12.

To finish this meander up, the www.royals.org web site very helpfully contains a list of games between the clubs including some that I haven’t got listed – so thanks to them for all their research.  I’ve made a couple of minor changes where our research differs from theirs.

DATE VENUE COMPETITION OPPOSITION SCORE
14 Sep 1898 Reading United League Woolwich Arsenal D: 1-1
03 Oct 1898 Plumstead United League Woolwich Arsenal W: 2-0
27 Sep 1899 Reading Southern District Combination Woolwich Arsenal W: 3-0
26 Mar 1900 Plumstead Southern District Combination Woolwich Arsenal D: 1-1
18 Jan 1904 WHL Southern Professional Charity Cup Woolwich Arsenal W: 3-1
30 Apr 1906 Fulham Southern Professional Charity Cup Woolwich Arsenal W: 1-0
23 Sep 1907 Plumstead Southern Professional Charity Cup Woolwich Arsenal L: 0-1
16 Feb 1935 Reading Football Association Cup Arsenal W: 1-0
04 Jan 1941 Reading London War Cup Arsenal L: 0-2
11 Jan 1941 WHL London War Cup Arsenal L: 0-1
29 Nov 1941 WHL London League Arsenal W: 3-1
07 Mar 1942 Reading London League Arsenal W: 4-1
24 Oct 1942 WHL Football League South Arsenal W: 4-1
30 Jan 1943 Reading Football League South Arsenal W: 5-4
04 Mar 1944 WHL League Cup South Arsenal L: 2-3
25 Mar 1944 Reading League Cup South Arsenal L: 1-5
04 Nov 1944 Reading Football League South Arsenal L: 1-3
03 Feb 1945 Reading League Cup South Arsenal W: 1-3
24 Feb 1945 WHL League Cup South Arsenal W: 3-0
31 Mar 1945 WHL Football League South Arsenal L: 0-2
03 Apr 1957 Reading Southern Professional Floodlit Cup Arsenal L: 1-2
11 Oct 1967 Arsenal League Cup Arsenal W: 1-0
05 Feb 1972 Reading Football Association Cup Arsenal W: 2-1
02 Oct 1974 Reading Friendly Arsenal W: 2-0
10 Jan 1987 Reading Football Association Cup Arsenal W: 3-1
29 Nov 2005 Arsenal League Cup Arsenal W: 3-0
22 Oct 2006 Reading FA Premier League Arsenal W: 4-0
03 Mar 2007 Arsenal FA Premier League Arsenal W: 2-1
12 Nov 2007 Reading FA Premier League Arsenal W: 3-1
19 Apr 2008 Arsenal FA Premier League Arsenal W: 2-0
30 Oct 2012 Reading League Cup Arsenal W: 7-5
17 Dec 2012 Reading FA Premier League Arsenal W: 5-2
30 Mar 2013 Arsenal FA Premier League Arsenal W: 4-1

So they last beat us in 1957 – it has been Arsenal all the way ever since.

The Arsenal History Society has separate articles on three first team competitions that Arsenal played in, outside the Football League.

Arsenal’s home matches during the second world war were played at White Hart Lane as Highbury was first an ARP centre, and then it was bombed in 1941.    In my reply to correspondence to the last post I did point out that one has to be fairly cautious with wartime games as quite often sides used guest players to make up the numbers.

The books

 

 

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8 Replies to “Arsenal v Reading: Reading’s recent form, and other past meetings.”

  1. Tony, I think form and anything else can be thrown out the window when it comes to a semi-final at Wembley. The history of the FA Cup shows more than a few upsets. How about Pompey the year they got relegated? I just hope the squad is switched on and doesn’t take a place in the Final as a given. COYG!

  2. Interestingly, Reading are playing their first choice team tonight – guess they are still slightly nervous about relegation. Seem to be giving Bournemouth a decent game though.

  3. Seeing as you are fresh out of this research Tony, I wonder if perhaps you noticed something in passing?

    In the news today, we find the Martin Keown’s son, who plays for Reading (and scored against us yesterday), may be in the game Saturday. Has this happened before with Reading? That we are playing against an ex-Arsenal’s son?

  4. This match is not a semi final, it is a betting coup for the PGMO. There will be some strange decisions & probably some cards & penalties for pseudo fouls to satisfy syndicates in the far east. I hope to see Arsenal transcend the cheating officials and win through to the final. Rock on Gunners – you are an incredible football team (players, coaches, staff & fans).

  5. I bet Chelsea fan and all round anti Arsenal man Henry Winter is sitting in some dark room penning his fantasy article on Arsenal and Wenger losing a semi to Reading

  6. The lads are in a different phase now. Reading may be tricky, but the team and AW will have prepared, just hope all goes to plan and Reading does not spring any nasty surprises. Also that we get no injuries.

  8. Sorry, another OT, but this looks like the least worst place.

    Our youth Emiliano Martinez (Goaltender) is at Rotherham for the remainder of the season. And so far, he is playing 90 minutes every game. They were in a relegation battle when he signed up. And as near as I can tell, he is doing well at Rotherham. But, I did see an article at the BBC, that Rotherham has been charged with fielding an illegal player in a game before Martinez was loaded to Rotherham.

    The issue is not resolved, but I can imagine that a possible result is points reduction.

    Martinez came into this, as hopefully being able to avoid relegation. If the FA docks points for the illegal player, it is entirely possible that Rotherham cannot escape relagation, regardless of how how Martinez performs in goal.

    What I would like to ask, are there good and bad sides to Martinez continuing to be the goaltender for Rotherham?

    To bring a goaltender in on loan (and needed), with the idea of avoiding relegation is one thing. To bring a goaltender in on loan, where relegation is a foregone conclusion is different. And I don’t know that it is best interests of Arsenal, to allow Martinez to fulfil his loan with this illegal player issue unresolved.

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