By Bulldog Drummond
So it is third against fifth, and we are the club in fifth.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 9 | 16 | 31 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 34 | 10 | 24 | 25 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 27 | 8 | 19 | 23 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 25 | 17 | 8 | 23 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 16 | 15 | 1 | 17 |
| 6 | Sheffield United | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 16 |
Leicester of course won the league in 2015/16 and at this point in their title winning season they were below us. We were runners up that year.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | D | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 26 | 9 | 17 | 25 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 8 | 13 | 25 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 23 | 19 | 4 | 22 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 21 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 19 | 9 | 10 | 20 |
| 6 | West Ham United | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 15 | 7 | 20 |
So Leicester actually have more points than they had in their title-winning season after 11 games, but of course are much further off the top of the table. We are eight points worse off than then. Chelsea and Liverpool of the alleged big six were not in the six.
At home Leicester are doing fractionally better than we are, but have played one game fewer, with four wins and a draw.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 15 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 5 | 14 | 13 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 13 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 12 |
Away has been our Achilles heel in recent years, and I’m going to put in the whole of the away table because it does show something rather interesting…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 16 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 12 | 6 | 15 |
| 3 | Manchester City | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 12 |
| 4 | Leicester City | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| 5 | Sheffield United | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| 6 | Wolverhampton W | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 7 | AFC Bournemouth | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 7 |
| 8 | Southampton | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 7 |
| 9 | Crystal Palace | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 7 |
| 10 | West Ham United | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 11 | Newcastle United | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 14 | -8 | 6 |
| 12 | Arsenal | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 5 |
| 13 | Manchester United | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 5 |
| 14 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 4 |
| 15 | Aston Villa | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 11 | -3 | 3 |
| 16 | Tottenham Hotspur | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 3 |
| 17 | Burnley | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 11 | -5 | 3 |
| 18 | Watford | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 13 | -11 | 2 |
| 19 | Everton | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 9 | -6 | 1 |
| 20 | Norwich City | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 12 | -11 | 1 |
As you will see, Mancheseter United have an indentical away record in terms of goals and points, save that they have played one more game away and lost it. Tottenham are even worse. So while the top of the away table reflects the clubs that are doing well in the league overall, the bottom has a few surprises.
But whichever way we look at it, the decline in the away form that we saw at the end of Mr Wenger’s reign, has not been adequately corrected, and this is going to be a tough game to get things moving away from home.
In 2015/16 we were a good away side (third best in the league) while in 2016/17 although we slipped a little we were still winning more than we were losing away from home. But the dramatic drop in away form began in 2017/18 when we won four, drew four, and lost 11. Having seen that drop I would have hoped for an improvement in 2018/19 and although it was slightly better we still lost more than we won away from home. As the table above shows that is still the trend, and this is the club’s soft spot. Without turning the away form around we are not going to climb the table.
Leicester have a goal difference of plus nine at home, we have a goal difference of minus two away. It is going to be one hell of a turnup if we get anything out of this.
More anon…
Donald Trump puts in bid to buy PGMO
Just a thought , as the manager of Arsenal how do you approach this game ? In recent games we have not created many chances along with getting a draws from a winnable positions .
Whatever tactics/set up UE uses I hope the players buy into it and hopefully get something out of this game which on paper is the most difficult since Liverpool away .
Good title – ‘fixing’ being the operative word.
Winnable positions are hard enough to get when every game starts 2 – 0.
The opponents usually are not playing the ball but blowing the whistle or controlling the screen. When have Arsenal had honest officiating this century? Vardy will get a penalty for a 6.0 dive and Value Added Riley will probably offer a red card to an Arsenal player.
It’s just the way it is.
We can win despite all the wiley Riley shenanigans.
I believe Arsenal will beat Leicester City FC later on in the day in the Premier League match encounter that will be played this evening between the duo club sides at the King Power Stadium.
But why do I Arsenal will beat Leicester today in the PL match? I think so because the Gunners are fully prepared, ready and poised in all aspects of the game to beat Leicester even if Brendan Roggers, the Leicester gaffer happens to throw a grenade into the match as it’s being played, but his grenade throwing won’t hurt any Gunners playing in the match, but hurt his Foxes who will be caught by the exploding grenade to self destruct in the game by scoring an own goal and concede a penalty to Arsenal to give them a 2 goal lead cushion in the game at halftime.
But even if the Foxes managed to not self destruct in the game at half-time to give Arsenal a 2 goal cushion lead advantage in the match at half-time, the Gunners will by themselves destroy the Foxes by putting them to the gun one after the other with shots from their high precision shotguns they took along with them to the King Power Stadium with the intention to ruthlessly deal with the Foxes in the match if they decide to be unruly to them the Gunners in the game.
Therefore, my kindid advice to Brendan Roggers though he didn’t ask me for it, is he should instruct his Foxes not to show any resemblance of unruliness or disregard to the Gunners. But show to them absolute respect and dignify them when they step on the King Power Stadium field of play to begin playing the match, if the Foxes are to avoid heavy punishment by the hands of the Gunners who can summarily put the Foxes punishment in the game and make it mile without looking back should the Foxes make them angry during the playing of the match, the Foxes have no other choice but the choice of showing genuine respect to Arsenal.
It’s 3 and a half hours before the match and the score reads Leicester 1-0 Arsenal. Vardy from the spot.
Getting in the excuses early I see