By Tony Attwood
When it comes to records in the FA Cup there really isn’t much point looking beyond the top two clubs, since they are so far above the rest, no one else could get close for years.
| Club | Wins | Last win | Runners up | Last 2nd | Total finals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 13 | 2017 | 7 | 2001 | 20 |
| Manchester Utd | 12 | 2016 | 8 | 2018 | 20 |
| Chelsea | 8 | 2018 | 5 | 2017 | 13 |
| Tottenham Hot | 8 | 1991 | 1 | 1987 | 9 |
| Liverpool | 7 | 2006 | 7 | 2012 | 14 |
| Aston Villa | 7 | 1957 | 4 | 2015 | 11 |
| Newcastle Utd | 6 | 1955 | 7 | 1999 | 13 |
| Blackburn Rov | 6 | 1928 | 2 | 1960 | 8 |
| Everton | 5 | 1995 | 8 | 2009 | 13 |
| Manchester City | 5 | 2011 | 5 | 2013 | 10 |
| West Brom | 5 | 1968 | 5 | 1935 | 10 |
| Wanderers | 5 | 1878 | 0 | – | 5 |
So it would take five years of successive wins (which has never happened) for Tottenham or Chelsea to catch Arsenal up, and six years of finals for Liverpool to catch us up in terms of final appearances. Arsenal have done three wins in four seasons twice in the Wenger years, but no other club has got close to this since the 1980s, so even with an extraordinary run from another club I think Arsenal and Man U will be way out in front for at least another ten years.
As things stand only four clubs have won the FA Cup more times than Mr Wenger, and one of those is Arsenal.
In terms of Blackpool they have won 15 encounters with us and we have won 44. Their last win was in an FA Cup replay back in the 1970s.
| Date | Game | Res |
Score | Competition |
| 15 Jan 1970 | Blackpool v Arsenal | L | 3-2 | FA Cup |
| 07 Nov 1970 | Blackpool v Arsenal | W | 0-1 | League |
| 20 Mar 1971 | Arsenal v Blackpool | W | 1-0 | League |
| 21 Sep 1976 | Blackpool v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | League Cup |
| 28 Sep 1976 | Arsenal v Blackpool | D | 0-0 | League Cup |
| 05 Oct 1976 | Arsenal v Blackpool | W | 2-0 | League Cup |
| 13 Dec 1999 | Arsenal v Blackpool | W | 3-1 | FA Cup |
| 21 Aug 2010 | Arsenal v Blackpool | W | 6-0 | Premier League |
| 10 Apr 2011 | Blackpool v Arsenal | W | 1-3 | Premier League |
| 31 Oct 2018 | Arsenal v Blackpool | W | 2-1 | League Cup |
But of course we did lose to Nottingham Forest.
Meanwhile the really, really strange rumours continue. Take this one:
Arsenal make £45m offer for 23 year old attacker.
“The Gunners are rumoured to be keeping an eye on a host of young attackers and Lille star Nicolas Pepe is believed to be one of them.”
This comes from Red London.
Now forgive me for boring you with facts, but Arsenal have the 3rd most potent attack in the Premier League at the moment.
- Manchester City: 56 goals
- Liverpool!: 54 goals
- Arsenal and Tottenham: 46 goals.
Yes we are ten goals behind Manchester City, but you might also consider that we have the 10th worse defence in the league, letting in more goals than each of Newcastle, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester, as well as the four clubs above us in the League table, one might think that if something has to be done it has to be done with defence.
Not necessarily a total restructure, but with extra cover because we have had a lot of injuries. Unless one believes that we won’t have more injuries.
Arsenal Mania reckon we are going to get rid of Ramsey and sign a defender – although they are not really telling us who that defender might be.
Of course there are one or two defenders being mentioned: “Nicolas Nkoulou has reportedly emerged as a top defensive target for Arsenal, who are eyeing a £12 million January move for the Torino centre-back” says The Hard Tackle.
The Daily Star however is staying with the old favourite: Ever Benega, and from here on we are back to the same old same old names. But it is strange how most of the men who we are tipped to sign are not defenders at all, although the self-same blogs are telling us it is defenders that we need.
Anyway, to wind things up, yesterday, 3 January, we had Invincibles Day, when once again an upstart team tried to go the whole season unbeaten and fell over. In 2018 we had to wait until 14 January when Manchester City were beaten by Liverpool.
In 2016/17 Manchester City were again the last team hoping, but they only got to October.
So at least the media managed to get a bit more out of the story, but yet again, there is failure. Will anyone ever beat the Arsenal’s record?
I doubt if any club in the PL will ever equal the Arsenal unbeaten to the season record in the PL of 2003/2004 season. For, the more they try to match it, the harder it’ll become for them to equalled it as the record is sacrosant to thus making it unmatchable. If i were the PL clubs that have been unsuccessfully trying to match the record, they should forget about it to focus on other things. Because the unbeaten to the season in the PL record was given only to Arsenal FC do it and will not be given to any other club in the PL to equalled it other than Arsenal FC that has been given who at a future season will match the their unbeaten to the season record again by being unbeaten throughout the season in the PL once again. Waoh! Hmmm.
I think according to the BBC it is not really a record. They had a presentation of stats in which they listed the invincibles merely as having a 38 game unbeaten START to a season. Obviously I missed something there as I thought it might work the other way round. How many games less did those teams lose when said my the media to be attempting the same feat as Arsenal? Move along nothing to see here.