By Bulldog Drummond
Every day on the Arsenal History Society site we run a video of an Arsenal game from the past – there is an index of the most recent videos on that site.
There was a time when Arsenal regularly bossed the north London derby games but it all started to go a bit amiss in the middle of the last decade. As a result out of the last ten derbies we have won just two, drawn four and lost four. Not the sort of thing we were used to in the past.
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 05 Mar 2016 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 06 Nov 2016 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 30 Apr 2017 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 18 Nov 2017 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 10 Feb 2018 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 02 Dec 2018 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | W | 4-2 | Premier League |
| 02 Mar 2019 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 01 Sep 2019 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 12 Jul 2020 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 06 Dec 2020 | Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
One outstanding point is that only once in those ten games has either side scored more than two goals – that being in our 4-2 win in December 2018.
Indeed by my reckoning, the last time Les Tots presque petit won chez nous was in November 2010, over ten years ago. Since then we have had nine games against Tottenham at home, generating five wins and four draws. We have scored 19 and conceded nine.
So although they are above us in the League in this game they’ve not automatically walked it even though all the media seems to suggest they have, taking their lead as ever from Mourinho.
Meanwhile, speaking of Tottenham Hots as we are, George Graham has stated that, “Arsenal have outstanding young players, but they need help. Quality players around them to show them the way. They need to go out and buy two or three players, each costing £75million to £100million.
“Arsenal had waited 18 years before I won my first title in 1989. It’s been 17 years now. The sooner that money is spent, the better.”
‘The ball is in your court, Mr Kroenke’.
So can you imagine Stan K. spending between £225m and £300m next summer?
It is in fact one of those utterly silly pieces in which the pundit (if that is what George Graham is these days) makes a statement of something that he knows perfectly well will never happen, and says that if this doesn’t happen Arsenal won’t win the league. Then if we don’t win the league he says, “I told you so.” If it does happen, he says “there you are, I told you that was what was needed.”
And if the money is spent and we don’t win the league he just says, “You bought the wrong players.” Thus the pundit claims he was right no matter what.
If however we don’t spend the money but do win the league it will be called a fluke.
Meanwhile Arsenal have apparently signed a wonderkid. “Wonderkid” is one of those phrases you get thrown around every now and then just as a couple of the lads using their laptop to make a set of predictions is now described as “running the rest of the season through a supercomputer”. Amani Richards is a wonderkid, although to be fair to the 16 year old, that is not how he describes himself. He just says he has left Chelsea and he’s now with Arsenal.
Up next: the team, with those willing to take a chance at the prediction, for once not having to worry at all about injuries.
The Arsenal video collection: free
